Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. -Margaret J. Wheatley

The blog post below reminded me to honor both process and product when approaching a new task. The work on my eportfolio has been both tedious and gratifying. Tedious, because of the work involved in composing and compiling the data, and gratifying because I do see its many benefits.  It is an exercise in self-discovery, forcing me to reflect on my past, present and future. When complete, the eportfolio will be a compendium of knowledge, skills, education and community life I have built over time. Moreover, it will reflect professional growth showcasing my penchant for life-long learning. Prospective employers, colleagues, funders, and students alike will likely find this personal learning tool helpful in identifying my strengths and interests. My eportfolio will forever be a work in progress.

Read 41 Benefits of an eportfolio here.

The eportfolio is another mechanism to promote your personal brand. The TEDx talk below about building your personal brand highlights the importance of using similar elements across your website/blog, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Information from your eportfolio will likely be used across all of these sites in one form or another.

An eportfolio can be used in K-12 classrooms by individual students or as a classroom project to track student learning and reflections over the course of a year. If the use of eportfolios became a district-wide practice, students would be able to update their portfolio throughout grade-levels, creating a picture of their development over time. Best case scenario, they develop a habit and begin to update their eportfolios independently. Teachers can not only use the tool to track their students’ progress, thereby using it as a way to inform instruction, but also to track their own personal and professional development from year to year.  The eportfolio may help to identify weaknesses and strengths to inform decisions about future professional development opportunities and the use of effective teaching strategies.