I teach this lesson about one-third of the way into a course where my students are creating electronic portfolios. Students are already familiar with LaGuardia's ePortfolio, the possibilities of ePortfolio, and some examples of ePortfolios. As a class, we have done extensive work on the ePortfolios, thinking about the different models that exist both at LaGuardia and at other schools. Students have been primed to think about the kinds of material they would like to share in their own ePortfolios. Additionally, we have also done work thinking about the kind of presentation they would like to make to a public audience.
In this lesson, students explore the role and importance of sharing private information in a public setting through a guided exploration of student ePortfolios, digital stories and personal web pages. We begin by looking at different student ePortfolios (and in some cases revisiting ePortfolios we have already seen). Evaluating the kinds of material we discover, we begin a conversation around "public" and "private" writing. The lesson ends with a case study on poet Demetria Martínez whose 1989 publication of a poem entitled "Nativity: For Two Salvadoran Women, 1986-1987" resulted in a federal indictment for smuggling two refugee women into the United States. The evidence used by the prosecutor was the text of the poem which Martínez published in a magazine. In a 1997 essay in Breathing Between the Lines, Martínez writes "It was a poet's nightmare, in which words, so full of liberating possibilities, were twisted and used against me and a movement dedicated to saving the lives of refugees." I use Martínez to demonstrate the complicated nature of sharing private information through writing and publishing.
This lesson works well in a series of lessons about ePortfolio and public writing. I take the stand in all of my writing courses - from ENG 099 to Creative Writing - that students are engaging in public writing by virtue of being in the class. If there is writing they feel uncomfortable sharing, they don't have to. That material belongs in a journal or another kind of private writing space. At the same time, I also understand the intense power of narrative and the ways in which the digital medium can enhance narrative. I am interested in engaging students in informed inquiries around content and guiding them toward making responsible decisions they are comfortable with. Students enjoy this lesson as they explore the question of the public nature of writing from many different angles.
This lesson combines many of my areas of interest: political literature, personal writing, and Latina poets. Your own interests may vary considerably. What I think is useful about this activity is engaging students in an exploration of public writing available on the web. When students are confronted with the personal nature of other students' photographs and confessions they begin to unwrap the complicated nature of creative non-fiction and autobiographical writing. I think it's useful to design activities that help our students think of the public presentation of themselves in conjunction with their academic, professional and personal goals.
The web offers a unique opportunity for viewing ePortfolios by students from various schools. Blackboard enables me to give students easy access to the sites we'll use. If the class is large, I also pre-assign small groups in Blackboard so each student participates in an online discussion of our topics.
Activity Overview
Prior to class, I load the first five websites listed below on the Discussion Board. (I save the Clark and Martínez sites for a later, large group discussion.) I create three or four small group discussion threads, depending on the size of the class. I assign small groups ahead of time, noting student names in the discussion thread. I prepare guiding questions for the inquiry including: What do you think an ePortfolio should "do"? What did the ePortfolios and digital stories you looked at today "do"? What did you learn about the authors of these sites? What kind of professional perception did you gain from looking at their work? If you were an employer, would you be interested in hiring this person? Why or why not? If you were an admissions counselor for a four-year school, would you be interested in admitting this person? Why or why not? If you were a family member or friend, what would interest you about this site? What are the differences between the ePortfolios and the digital stories? Which do you think is more effective? Do you think digital stories and ePortfolios could be combined? What kinds of information on these sites "disturbed" you? What kind of information interested you? What kind of information impressed you? You do not need to answer all of these questions, but use them as a guiding focus for your small group discussion of "public" vs. "private." In addition to the Discussion Board preparation, I give students printed copies of Martínez's poem. This activity takes a two-hour class period. Students meet in small groups for the first 45 minutes of class. They are instructed to view the sites together, answering some of the guiding questions listed above. They are asked to view a total of three of the five sites, spending 45 minutes looking at the sites and discussing them. They are asked to spend 15 minutes posting their reflections on the Discussion Board.
In a large group discussion (15 minutes), I divide the board into "public" and "private" and we make lists of the kinds of information students saw on the sites and the ways in which they would categorize them. I then ask students to consider the consequences of this information. Their responses range from evaluating the fact that many students from more rural environments put their addresses and phone numbers on their sites to discussions of personal revelations and the use of photographs.
Next, using the LCD projector, I spend 15 minutes showing students the Writing portion of my faculty website and discussing the kinds of personal information in my poems and the consequences/possibilities/ political activism of sharing this information. The class ends with a reading of the Martínez poem and a discussion of Martínez's trial (30 minutes).
For homework, students are asked to write a one-page free write on "My Boundaries: What Kinds of Information I Want to Share in My ePortfolio and Why." I begin the next class session with their free writes followed by a discussion of the kinds of materials they want to share in their ePortfolios. The next homework assignment is an ePortfolio planning sheet where students plan and explain their decisions.
Materials and Resources
Penn State ePortfolio Gallery http://eportfolio.psu.edu/gallery/index.shtml
Maricopa Community College ePortfolio http://eport.cgc.maricopa.edu/samples.html
Kalamazoo College "Outstanding Portfolios" http://www.kzoo.edu/pfolio/outstanding.html
The Dostal Project http://homepage.mac.com/williamszone/dostal/dostal.html
J. Elizabeth Clark Faculty Web Page http://faculty.lagcc.cuny.edu/eclark
Demetria Martínez's Home Page http://demetriamartinez.tripod.com
Martínez, Demetria. "Nativity: For Two Salvadoran Women, 1986-1987" in Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry. Alicia Gaspar de Alba, María Herrera-Sobek and Demetria Martínez. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Review Press, 1989.