Discarding Artifacts
Imagine you’re digging in your backyard when you find an ancient artifact. You have no clue what it is and toss it in the yard debris bin along with all the other stuff you shouldn’t be tossing in there (like dirt). You make this mistake because you have no context, nothing that tells you why the relic is important. The artifacts in an e-Portfolio might be similarly discarded if the designer hasn’t used standards in their curation of those artifacts.
In e-Portfolios, designers should use standards and should align their artifacts to those standards. Otherwise, portfolio designers may add artifacts randomly without any thought to the overall message they are trying to convey to their audience. Standards add structure and purpose, especially when the artifacts align. It fosters consistency and proves that the designers understand how to apply and follow the standards.
In my portfolio, I will use the ISTE Standards for teachers. These standards help educators create cutting-edge learning experiences, continue their professional growth, and inspire scholarship, creativity, and professional growth in others. I am using the ISTE Standards because it is a requirement of my portfolio exit option, but also because they will help me achieve my goals as an instructional designer.
One of those goals is to use technology effectively to teach concepts to my students. ISTE articulates a standard for this goal: Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. My learning experiences definitely adhere to this standard. For example, I created the following video lecture for my college reading course:
This artifact definitely aligns with the ISTE standard above. I have used a mixture of video editing and presentation tools along with material from the Creative Commons to create a digital-age learning experience. Ensuring that my artifacts align with the ISTE standards will give my e-Portfolio structure, purpose, and articulation, so they don't end up in the yard debris bin along with all the other relics no one knows what to do with.
