At that time we were always used to putting whatever we wanted on the internet. Whether it be on our Facebook’s, Snapchats, and even on Twitter, we were always blindly conscious of what we were posting. In a way, I would say with social media students would have no filter with their posts. When we use our e-portfolios and have been seen using them only in the educational setting, we needed to collect and sort through all of the documents that we believed weren’t good enough to put on to our e-Portfolio.
That, in my opinion, is what we were trained to know e-Portfolio for. But now, after years of having my learning experience on it, I can say that it isn’t just for showcasing your schoolwork. You can use it to Showcase your artwork, type out how you feel when you can’t say what you are thinking, and even use it for creating other websites.
Despite having so much information on e-portfolio right now, there was a time where I, as I have seen in most other students, had weaned away from regularly using my e-portfolio. Some people had seen its portfolio as only a tool to use for the classes that require a portfolio. This is how my mindset also was, so I stopped using it when I didn’t have to. During those times where I thought that I only needed to do what I needed to do for my classes, I was also going through a very hard personal experience. But, I pushed through it and I am where I am today because of these experiences. If you want to read more into what I had happened I wrote a blog, The Dog Blog, about me obtaining a service dog, who has helped me through my challenging times.
Stepping away from my experiences, I start to look forward. Looking forward to me means that I need to do, what is best for myself. Which started with me changing my major into what I really wanted to become. With this came the time for me to change how I was acting at school. So much so, that I dove back into my e-Portfolio and re-vamped it into a sleek new design that fully showcased my transformation.
I have leaned my e-portfolio into how I wanted it to be, not how my professors had theirs. The product that you are looking at right now with the layout, the font, the color scheme, menu, header imagery, and even my site identification photo are all aspects that I personally chose out to better show how I feel and be able to reflect that on to my portfolio. With my major involving the ocean, what a better theme than that itself?
Aside from my major I have even taken on the part of becoming a Digital Space Consultant. With this, I get to show the students at UNE the in’s and out’s of e-Portfolio. Not only do we specialize in just WordPress, but, other things like iMovie, Audacity, Garage band, Windows movie maker, the list can go on! If you need help with it we are the people to go to for anything technological. This comes with the ability to have a Multimodal Literacy badge. Although my job does not have this as a requirement, it is a strong reflection by both UNE professional staff and students to know that they are the ones to go to if you need help.
