Connecting Dots v Collecting Dots

This idea of collecting vs connecting dots is very powerful and can act as my north star as a teacher. As a student, almost all of my history classes were about collecting dots, aka memorizing facts. As a student in a higher level history class in college, I struggled to connect the dots in the way I was expected to, but instead continued to memorize and collect dots. This method always served me well on multiple choice exams, but I would slightly miss the mark on my essays. After receiving guidance and effective feedback from my professor, I realized how to connect the ideas, people and events that we were studying in world history, and learning suddenly took on a whole new meaning. I was able to create a deeper understanding of how to study history, and I would never have learned this skill without my professors guidance.

The idea of using an ePortfolio is very new to me, and I realize I am still at the “collecting the dots” level. I am currently using it to showcase individual assignments for grad school, but after reading through multiple articles, I understand that the power of the ePortfolio is in the creations and connections. I think back to that moment in college when I realized how to do more than collect dots, and I feel the power that an ePortfolio can and should have for my students.

I read the feedback about ePortfolios from students, and I can see how important it is for students to have full ownership as well as being able to see examples from people who have invested time and energy into creating and using an ePortfolio. If an ePortfolio is about making connections and showing growth, it is essential that I make my own ePortfolio more than a storage for assignments. I am not quite sure how to accomplish that at this moment, but I have high hopes that each class, reading and video in this program will provide me with more insight about how to expand my ePortfolio.