Assessment portfolio

The deadline for the assessed work for 3002 is quickly heading our way. It would be good if you had started draft copies of what you are planning to hand-in.

The portfolio of work that is asked for is like a summary or overview of the learning you have experienced this module. Everyone is learning things all the time, so some learning has happened!!! It is just you might not recognise the full scope of it or the value or it might not feel it is within the context of the course.

This assignment is about you reflecting on what has been happening and what you have been doing. To do this you need all the skills and ideas in the three sections of the module. The tools and web-based ideas because this is how we have been exchanging ideas and a lot of the initial learning experience was about understanding the range and uses of web-based technology.

To think back over the module you use the reflection tools and ideas (hopefully you have also left yourself a breadcrumb trail in the form of a reflective diary – if not start one you will find it very, very helpful through the lifetime of the course, and beyond we hope).

Lastly you need to contextualise the information and learning into your own professional practise. In other words it is no use learning something you will never use or rather I should say something you an never understand using or see the value of in your life. The last part of the module helps you to look more closely at your Professional Practice what resources you have, how you are connected so that you can give a context to the new ideas and learning you have experienced so far.

We have also looked at how the learning might have happened for you when we looked at research that explores different way to understand the process of learning like Kolb’s cycle or Gardner’s intelligences.  

Part 1

I think you need to find something to hang your portfolio on. This is like a clothes hanger to hang your ideas and experience on. This is like the ‘hook’ of a song or the theme movements of a piece of choreography. Find something to give your portfolio structure. Common structures are:

A timeline – starting at the beginning (September) and working to the end. This gives your work a story like feel. It can become very narrative. There maybe danger of getting lost in the story and ignore the meet and bones of the learning also remember you do not have a lot of words.

Theme based  - finding two or three key ideas and gathering the learning and experience that happened around them.

Concrete evidence based – giving concrete examples of things and elaborating on the ideas and learning that manifested them.

A representational object – making something that sums up the learning both in its content and in its own form. This might be useful if you need to make something to understand what you think. That is for people who do not think in words. Like myself. I make or do things to understand what I think and then explain it back in words once I know what I think! This is something that I have found takes quite sometime to master because at first you can make something you and other people who think that way can understand but that everyone else finds “too abstract”. So it is important you support your work by using the written summary to explain your process and what it means to you.

Either way ~I think it will be really important to get started and then you will have time to get feedback.

Part 2

Supports and gives example of the learning and ideas drawing from things you have done over the course. It is way to show how you have come to where you are. It also allows you to show you didn’t just make something up overnight. You can show is the pathway that has got you to the clearing where you are now.

What if you don’t feel you are in a clearing!!!! Maybe you don’t feel you are a point where you can summarise. This is the hardest thing because of course learning is on-going. I always feel I am almost there!!! And is not always on schedule that I get an ‘Ahh  moment’.  But this does not have to be the end point just let us know where you are at. By trying to summarise and talking it through with people you will find you start to consolidate ideas and experiences.

What do you think?