My Sandbox for Professional Growth

Throughout these past few months I been working within the realm of building my own digital portfolio. In hindsight, it has been much more of a reflective process than I once thought. When I began building my portfolio I saw each of my tasks as mere assignments along the way, not as opportunities. Probably much how a student would view an assignment in my class at times. But it was also within this process that I began to grow. I saw the continual outreach to colleagues and peers for help along the way  beginning to expand through the sharing of my digital portfolio. New ideas and thoughts were beginning to form through emails, screencasts, tweeting, and blogging. I saw praise from those I’ve worked with in the past and helpful feedback from peers. I’ve been able to help others assess their work and have learned through their ideas, as well as share my own and receive much-appreciated feedback.

Then the lightbulb went on!

It has been assessment, in its finest and most natural sense, being brought to light by sharing works with the understanding that feedback was all part of the process. And in understanding this, and being ready for the commentary, it seemed the opportunities for endless learning and connectivity grew by leaps and bounds (Much as it should when we are looking to use digital contexts as an assessment piece.)

In short, it was a complete circle of learning.

And now, as I truly look at it all, with these same practices inserted into my final project, I see my own digital portfolio as a place for true growth. I will no doubt come back to the lessons I’ve learned. And why? Because I can. Through creating my own digital portfolio, I now have all of the creations I have made housed in such a manner that I can continue to refine and reflect upon them, much like I would ask of my own students.

But it’s more than just reflections on assessment and how they have helped shape me as an educator, it’s how I’ve grown and found a whole new world of others seeking out the same knowledge path. Through the connections I’ve made with other educators, on platforms such as Twitter and Google+,  I have begun to build my own network of peers that weren’t available to me had I not been required to take those first steps into the brave new world we call technology and digital portfolios.