That Blog About the Blog
It’s been three years since I began this website, and more specifically this blog, which in itself began as an afterthought. I had agreed to assist with merging eportfolio strategies into the composition classroom three years ago, and so, naturally, I wanted firsthand knowledge of what they were, how they worked, and, of course, if they worked. I signed up for an eportfolio workshop arranged by our Miller Writing Center where I heard about the rationale behind eportfolios in the classroom, but on that occasion I was disappointed that our introduction was largely theoretical with little hands-on experience. In an indignant rush, I took the next opportunity I had to go online and try it for myself. I chose Wix as my online platform, as it had been recommended as user-friendly and this user could use all the friendliness he could get. And, fortunately, the online tutorial guidance I got from the Wix editor was more helpful than I expected.
I had decided in that first workshop that my experimental eportfolio would be about my active learning encounters, about which I could create a narrative and include artifacts such as videos, links, and pdfs. As I got more accustomed to the web editor that first day and over the ones to follow, the experience changed quickly from exasperation to delight. It was fun, but then, of course, the only stakes I had in the experiment were my own and so the stress levels were low. Playing around with the features I could add in that first week, I saw that I could add a blog to the site, and though I wasn’t thinking of requiring a blog as a part of a student eportfolio assignment, it did give me an excellent chance to engage in the sort of reflective writing that I would be requiring of those future students.
As it turns out, of all the aspects of the eportfolio that I tried in those early days, the blog, for me, has been the most instructive and productive. I was aware of the concept, though I had not paid attention to the phenomenon. I was skeptical about the promises of both blogs and reflective writing. But what I have found through the direct experience of the last three years is that the metacognition that they claim to enhance is tangible and, consequently, it has helped me to think more deeply and systematically about what I do. It has given me a platform to think through ideas and possibilities. It has given me a broader perspective, allowed me to track the progress of my own development, made it easier to see how the parts of what I do work together (or don’t), and it has given me a vehicle by which to share these experiences.
While one could argue that I and others do these things anyway, but perhaps less consciously, and I would not disagree with that, I would, nevertheless, argue that making the process conscious and recording it for review, by myself and others, heightens my ability to plan, to design, to evaluate, and to disseminate. Frankly, I just think having the blog has made me more productive and made the product better.
The takeaway from this would suggest that I find a way to create a blog-like experience for my students, which, of course, many educators have already started doing. However, I say blog-like because I don’t want to have my students share too much of their private thought about their work with the innumerable internet audience; however, as many of their writing assignments are already reflective, if there was a way to set up a restricted blog, ideally through the learning management system we already use, whose entries would be limited to the student and I, or perhaps to just their fellow classmates, then that might be worth consideration. Alternatively, it might also be set up as a way to gain additional points to assist their final grades or as a substitute for another assignment or a set of small assignments.
