End of Term

Hand-delivered and handwritten.

One of my favourite things about May is the messages that we often receive from graduating students.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of receiving a handwritten and hand-deliverednote from Alicia Neptune, a graduating Communications student. Last Spring, Alicia was in my Electronic Literature course. She then went on to serve as one of our portfolio peer mentors this past academic year supporting fellow Capilano students with the building out and organization of their portfolio sites. She was lively and passionate advocate for the value of student portfolios, and I look forward to following her future projects.

The reflections she shared with me were wonderfully affirming and, in turn, she has reminded me of the importance of slowing down and reflecting on my own year. As Alicia sets out on her post-Capilano journey excited to explore what it might be to harness ePortfolios, reflection, and digital technologies for storytelling and educational journeys, I too am excited to actively consider how I might harness my own interests in these areas to shape my career going forward.

I think this morning’s CTE Teaching & Learning Symposium presentation on “StoryMachines” with my colleagues from across campus, including my co-presenters (Tania Alekson, Sean Ashley, Christina Lee Kim Koon, Sylvia Kind, Kathleen Kummen, and Judy Snaydon), might be the perfect leaping off point for my own May reflections.

Thank you, Alicia, for the inspiration.

CIRCLe 2018

Yesterday I attended CIRCLe 2018, a one-day symposium on ePortfolios hosted by the Faculty of Arts at UBC in collaboration with the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. In addition to having the pleasure of giving the lunch address with Christina Schulz, Liberal Studies 2018 and one of our outgoing peer mentors, we heard from Tracy Penny Light (TRU and AAEEBL Board Chair),  Thomas Lewis (Microsoft), and many inspiring UBC students and faculty.

I left with a sense that we are on the right track with our ePortfolio initiative here at Capilano University. We are striving to navigate the terrain between learning and career portfolios with care. We are foregrounding the importance of reflection and process in portfolio development. And we are setting out to cultivate a student-centred portfolio culture.

I left with new ideas for ways of moving forward. And I am excited by the possibilities for cross-campus collaborations that could emerge as ever more campuses explore the potential for portfolios to bridge academic learning and professional identities.

A warm thank you to Heidi May (Faculty of Arts, Office of the Dean & Arts ISIT) and Julie Walchi (Arts Co-op) for the invitation to join you yesterday.