Reflections on Kathleen Yancey Day

Kathleen Yancey delivered both an excellent lecture and an informative workshop as part of our Teaching & Learning with Technology Series on March 29th. She brings a lot of passion to her work and our Community of Practice was very inspired by the day! She focused on the process of reflection and folio thinking rather than on the end product. A very refreshing and simple approach.

Here are some reflections on Kathleen Yancey’s talk & workshop from our community members…

From Marion Porath, ECPS:

I was particularly impressed with Kathleen’s integration of e-portfolio strategies with literature on learning and research on the effects of digital learning. The things that “go with” e-portfolios – integrative thinking, reflection, thinking in context, thinking in community, self-assessment, and peer review – all contribute to making them a learning tool with great potential.
Some phrases/questions I loved and that I think capture the essence of the digital learning experience are:
Genre of portfolio
What makes it digital?
A new site or space for learning
Creating portfolios (rather than technology) that both take off and take hold.

From Valeria Veripot, Enrolment Services:

I have a few thoughts I would like to share:
Kathleen’s passion for e-Portfolio is highly communicative. It was a wonderful experience to have someone that passionate as a speaker.
She highlighted the different styles of e-Portfolios she has encountered and helped me realise there is not one ideal portfolio…but each one is unique.
During the workshop, going through the different portfolios and the evaluations has given me an idea of what are the key elements of a good e-Portfolio. Kathleen has also helped me go through the major hurdle of creating an e-Portfolio and has shown me how easy it is once you are given proper direction. I enjoyed her approach very much.

From Bob Bruce, Education:

One point she made which I found interesting Kele was when she talked about combining co-operative, peer education with making learning visible. The practice of using a web based tool to have several peers critique one’s writing and then the author choosing which edits to apply and annotating the changes and why they were made, seems a very powerful way of creating reflection and community among learners.