As I discussed in my video post “Becoming a Digital Leader,” being a leader does not have to mean being an administrator. I am a classroom teacher; I love being a classroom teacher; and I do not seek to leave the classroom to become a curriculum director, principal, or technology coach, or to pursue any other jobs that may be considered “leadership” positions. Kudos to those who seek these opportunities, but I am happy where I am!

How can I be a leader if I do not hold an official “leadership” position within my building or school district?

My first goal is to lead my students to see learning in a new way. I will expose them to a variety of digital tools so that they can choose how to show evidence of their learning and develop their own voices. By implementing authentic learning opportunities and encouraging the use of ePortfolios, I will help my students to see tangible evidence of what they have learned, to reflect upon what they have learned, and to make meaningful connections.

As I find success with CSLE+COVA within my own classroom, I will share what I have learned and done within my classroom both in person with my building and district colleagues and with the public through the use of my ePortfolio blog posts. My goal is that other teachers will reflect upon my efforts to move beyond traditional instruction and assessment and will be inspired to begin to make changes within their own learning environments. I want to encourage conversations about how to improve teaching and learning, and I want to be part of those conversations. In my opinion, that in itself is leadership.

As I have stated in earlier posts, my online presence was almost nonexistent prior to beginning the DLL program at Lamar University. Consequently, I knew very little about website design or even the options available to me for creating my ePortfolio. I first looked at Google Sites. I was familiar with Google Apps, and I thought that I would find it the easiest to use. Weebly and Wix were possibilities. All three platforms had features that I liked. In the end I chose WordPress because it was recommended by professors and some of my colleagues. In the beginning, I struggled because using the tools that WordPress offers seemed counter-intuitive. There was definitely a learning curve involved, and I still have much to learn. However, now that I have been working with WordPress for a few months, I believed that it was the correct choice for my ePortfolio platform.

The idea of creating my own ePortfolio was daunting when I first began the DLL program at Lamar University. I had never had an online identity, and I was nervous about establishing one. I am fiercely protective of my privacy. Even now I experience a little anxiety when I receive notification that someone has be looking at my site. Although I have put quite a bit of work into making my site look professional and being sure that all of my links work, I have been concerned that other, more experienced individuals, would find my efforts somehow lacking. My fixed mindset makes itself known yet again!

I have recently spent some time looking at the websites of other DLL students as well as at those of professors and professional educators who are not affiliated with Lamar University. Some sites have a simple structure; others are more complex. What I have discovered is that designing one’s website is akin to having one’s own sense of fashion. Just because others have chosen a style that is appropriate for them does not mean that it will work for me. I have to find my own way of expressing myself – it is choice, ownership, and voice in action. I have been inspired to improve my own website based upon some of the features that others included in theirs, but in the end, my work has to reflect who I am. It has to be evidence of the meaningful connections that I have made in my efforts to become a digital leader.

The idea of portfolios has been around for many years, and with the advent of one-on-one technology resources within many schools, a growing number of assignments never see a sheet of paper.  Ideas are conceived, topics are researched, and final products are submitted completely online.  It seems like a logical next step to ask students to collect evidence of their learning and the meaningful connections that they have made in an ePortfolio.  In my opinion, the opportunity to reflect on one’s work is sometimes overlooked as we jump to the next topic in an effort to address curricular requirements and standards.  What a wonderful opportunity for self-reflection, ownership, and voice e-Portfolios could offer to students!

Dr. Harapnuik’s post “EPortfolio – The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios” resonated particularly strongly with me.  An ePortfolio’s purpose is not necessarily to impress others.  Its focus should be establishing “meaningful connections” and fostering “deeper learning”.  Consequently, Dr. Harapnuik encourages ePortfolio users to limit the use of educational terminology.  Education should be accessible to everyone, and so should the conversation about how educators are improving their learning environments. Consequently, I will try to remember to “keep it simple” as I continue to share my reflections.

Reference

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). Eportfolio [Blog post]. Retrieved from It’s about Learning website: http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=5973

“…learning is the responsibility of the learner…”

Harapnuik, Thibodeaux, & Cummings, 2018, p. 43

Indeed, it is the student’s responsibility to learn! However, as Harapnuik, Thibodeaux, and Cummings also point out in Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning, it is the educator’s job to create a learning environment that encourages learning (Harapnuik, Thibodeaux, & Cummings, 2018, p. 43).

As I reflect upon the C.S.L.E+C.O.V.A. approach, I am challenged to find a way of incorporating it into my own high school classes. As a French teacher, I am aware of the real-world applications for my content area. Students may find that they can use their language skills in the business, pharmaceutical, engineering, or diplomacy fields, just to mention a few. How do I create significant learning environments to help my students see the potential for what they are learning? In French IV and AP French Language and Culture, it is relatively easy to make C.S.L.E.+C.O.V.A. a daily part of coursework. However, it has been a difficult to create a significant learning environment and give students choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning experiences in my beginning level courses. I have been successful incorporating C.O.V.A into cultural projects, but I have felt somewhat limited in the choice, ownership, and voice opportunities that I can provide where language skills are concerned. Who is going to choose to learn the agreement of past participles? How do I make it authentic? I hope that my world language colleagues and I will develop ideas to address this challenge as we continue to collaborate on improve learner experience.

Reference

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning.

There are different facets of ownership when it comes to an ePortfolio.  First, there is the question of who owns the work – the instructor or the student.  As Dr. Harapnuik discusses in his post “Who Owns the ePortfolio?”, it is not enough for instructors to give students assignments that they merely store online.  Students are still seeking to give the instructor what they want, and the ePortfolio becomes just a newer, perhaps sleeker, version of the old-fashioned hanging folders in a bin.  They essentially become the “$1000 pencil” that Alan November discusses.  Harapnuik quotes Andrew Rikard, “Promoting digital ownership is different than assigning work in publicly accessible spaces.”  Students have to own every aspect of the ePortfolio from the choice of tools to the formatting to the connections made.  They have to be solving real-world problems.  It is only through choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning experiences that students truly make meaningful connections.

A second area of ownership with regard to an ePortfolio is the digital space in which it is housed.  According to “The Web We Need to Give Students,” the question of who owns the digital space where the ePortfolio is housed is being addressed by several forward-thinking universities.  They are providing students with a domain that they are able to take with them when the leave their respective institutions of higher learning.  They are learning technical skills and building a product that they will be able to use later in their careers because they own it.  It will take some time for this practice to become commonplace in secondary education , however, so in the meantime teachers will have to be innovative.

References

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). Who owns the ePortfolio? [Blog post]. Retrieved from It’s about Learning website: http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6050

Madda, M. J. (2016, August 15). Alan November on the ‘$1000 Pencil’ and why edtech companies aren’t pushing the envelope. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-08-15-alan-november-on-the-1000-pencil-and-why-edtech-companies-aren-t-pushing-the-envelope

Watters, A. (2015, July 15). The web we need to give students [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713

I am in the process of reading Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning Opportunities by Harapnuik, Thibodeaux, and Cummings. They define learning as “coming to know by making meaningful connections” (2018, p. 17).  This quote makes me think about the teenagers I teach. They thirst to make connections, and the connections they seek the most often are social connections.  They learn from each other; they learn from the Internet; they learn from complete strangers.  Additionally, they are more willing to work hard and seek solutions if there is a social element to the learning process.  With few exceptions, this generation of students works best when they work collaboratively, and many of them already have an Internet presence and voice.  They publish videos that they make and poems or short stories that they write.

As I reflect upon my readings about CSLE+COVA, I am beginning to change my mindset about when and how students learn. Instead of lecturing students that they need to put their phones away or close their Chromebooks, why not encourage them to use their devices in a positive way that promotes true learning?  As Harapnuik says in his post “Why Use an ePortfolio?” grades do not reflect a learner’s true skills and abilities.  A number shows how much of something a student knew on a particular day.  By harnessing the power of ePortfolios, learners are able to show no only what they have know, but what they are able to do.  They are able to reflect upon their learning and how to improve.  EPortfolios also allow for easier collaboration student-to-student and teacher-to-student.  We, as educators, should take advantage of students’ drive to make connections and help them to make meaningful connections so that they learn  more deeply. The ePortfolio is a tool that can assist us in that goal.

Reference

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning.

I just finished watching a TED Talk by Margaret Heffernan entitled Why It’s Time To Forget about Pecking Order at Work. She is an engaging speaker who shares her thoughts in a concrete and logical way. At one point she stated, “Bringing out the best in others is how they found the best in themselves.” Doesn’t that statement encapsulate what teaching is at its core? Although Heffernan was speaking about the business world, her words are equally applicable to the field of teaching and learning. Regardless of whether we are pre-K teachers or college professors, each and every educator should seek to help their students become their best selves, and in doing so, we become better teachers and, I believe, better people. A few years ago I received an award for teaching. As nice as it was to receive that award, my enthusiasm over that etched piece of glass that gathers dust on my shelf pales in comparison to the moments that I recall where my students were truly successful. Helping my students to find success, especially in an area where they thought they were incapable, is why I love what I do. I am humbled to have been allowed to do what I love for so many years.

Reference

TED Talks. (2015, June 16). Why it’s time to forget about pecking order at work [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Vyn_xLrtZaY

As I reflect upon the idea of deep learning tasks, I am confronted with the challenge of offering such opportunities to my first and second year French students.  How do I make these task truly authentic?  Are guided conversations deep learning tasks?  How about elementary level e-mail responses?  How do students “discover” grammar structure and correct pronunciation without direct instruction if they are not in an immersive environment throughout their day?