Linsey Cushing
December 11, 2007
E-Portfolio Cover Letter
Throughout this semester as I completed the weekly assignments for Computer Networking in CD (better known as CD 315), I created a portfolio of my work by posting the assignments on my personal blog. At the beginning of the semester, I was close to illiterate when it came to computer technology and the digital areas that come with it. However, I had high hopes for the class, stating, “As I strive to become more information-literate, I will positively impact my future career as a speech-language pathologist. The skills acquired by being information-literate will help me to problem-solve when I am unsure of a diagnosis, research many resources when I know little about a particular disorder, and develop creative treatment methods tailored to individual clients” (Week 1). As the weeks wore on, I found myself being more comfortable with blogging, Google Docs, online classrooms, Flickr, Movie Maker, and wikis. Although this language seemed foreign to me at first, through this class, I became literate in the world of technology. I now feel confident that I am competent enough to navigate my way through these applications and communicate with other users in order to be an efficacious, yet still ever-learning, student.
Without objectives, a course would have no structure or meaning. This course had many objectives for me, as the learner, to achieve through my classwork. Although these objectives looked quite daunting at first, looking back, I realize that I did, in fact, achieve them. This gives me a great sense of accomplishment knowing that I actually achieved and learned so much through this course and it is all sitting right in front of me on my blog. I think this is what makes portfolios such great examples of learning because it gives the learner a tangible object to look back and realize how much she has done. In the following paragraphs, I will present the different objectives for the course and provide evidence from my portfolio to prove that I achieved each objective. The objectives are divided into conceptual objectives and technical objectives, proving that this class involved both critical thinking and application.
“The learner will acquire knowledge of the various conceptions of literacy in the 21st century.”
As I reflect on the semester, this objective is particularly humorous. I will never forget our first class meeting of the semester (a live meeting) in which Mrs. McComas told us to do a free write on what we thought literacy was for ten minutes or so. We all just stared at each other, having no clue what literacy was. After sharing our thoughts, we came up with the assumption that literacy included reading and writing, books and papers. However, this class sure proved us wrong. As stated in Week 1, “Our society, which is based on the assumption that education is synonymous with learning to read and write properly, needs to embrace the upcoming movement of the multimedia. This movement incorporates the language of the screen with modern technology, provides all the expression and intelligence that text does, and has even greater advantages. Many people associate being educated with being well-versed in knowledge obtained from texts. However, in order to be considered educated in the future, people will have to learn the multimedia language of the screen.” Literacy is so much more than reading and writing. Today, almost every area has its own type of literacy. In one discussion, we talked about how people who are considered “illiterate” to society may be extremely literate in an area such as electric work. The main focus for this class was, of course, digital literacy.
“The learner will acquire knowledge of what constitutes acceptable sources and resources within a profession and in the 21st century.”
This class really opened my eyes to what is considered to be a politically correct and acceptable source. Before, I had no idea why Wikipedia was not considered to be a reliable source by many teachers. However, as I discovered in Week 4, “Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is open for anyone to access and edit. It allows the users to control the topics and how much information is included about each topic. Wikipedia gives students the opportunity to take part in a collaborative learning environment that involves participants from around the world.” I now understood that anything could appear on Wikipedia, and not all of it is reliable. However, the idea of Wikipedia is amazing and has fostered a huge community of users who are passionate about maintaining the validity of the site. This objective also touches on our focus on false web sites. In Week 7, we conducted a web evaluation for a site called Better Dog Food. The site turned out to be a very well-designed hoax, which I discovered quite quickly when I actually looked at the information. As you can see from this link, I thought the web site was of no value to me as the reader ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/a71-web-evaluation-i/ ). However, looking back, I realize it was quite important because it taught me to actually pay attention to all aspects of a web site before taking it as a reliable source when researching. Finally, we discussed a lot of information regarding copyright and the importance of abiding to these rules. This is particularly important when using other’s sources in research.
The learner will acquire knowledge of the professional issues relating to literacy within the ASHA Scope of Practice.
At the beginning of the semester, we reviewed the all-so-familiar ASHA Code of Ethics. However, I now realize the importance of looking at the Code for this class because one of the major aspects of this document pertains to research. We, as future speech-language pathologists, are required to utilize all resources available to provide the best service possible. Without the knowledge I’ve obtained about searching for this information, I would not be able to provide the optimal services. For example, I did not realize that Google does not give the searcher every web site that goes with that search. Instead, each server has a pool of information to search from. If I want to find the best information, I should search from several search tools. I also need to ensure that these documents are reliable sources.
The learner will acquire knowledge of the forms of inquiry associated with evidence based practice.
This objective coincides with the prior objective because it deals with the research aspect that is expected of us as professionals. Evidence based practice is formulated by the clinician’s expertise, the client’s preferences, and the latest research. The only way that we, as speech-language pathologists, can provide the best advice to the client is by keeping up on the current research for that particular part of the field.
The learner will prepare for and participate in class discussions and activities.
Although this class was mainly based on individual work, several opportunities for class discussion arose throughout the semester. We had several live meetings to introduce information or discuss what we discovered in the previous weeks. I also had the opportunity to take part in an online classroom on TappedIn ( http://tappedin.org/tappedin/ ). Our first online meeting was with the whole class. This proved to be very entertaining and quite chaotic. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this, as you can see from my response in Week 7: “I actually had a lot of fun ‘going’ to class this way because I learned a lot but also got to joke around with my classmates. Also, I like how it is not a typical lecture-style classroom. With this type of virtual classroom, the students are the speakers while the professor is more of a passive observer, providing advice or answers only when needed. Overall, I thought this was a great learning experience because I learned about information pertaining to speech-language pathology while also learning some technology tricks.” The following week, I participated in a group meeting with three other classmates and discussed the importance of copyright and how it pertained to us, both as students and future speech-language pathologists. In order to prepare for all of these discussions, I was required to read information and have questions ready to spark conversation with my peers.
The learner will develop strategies for effectively planning and completing independent work (meeting both the letter and spirit of the work, not just the letter of the work) in a timely manner.
As I learned very quickly, this type of class requires you to participate fully and with all your ability. I had to use my time management skills more than ever this semester as I juggled this class work with other homework and studying, going to class, teaching dance, and trying to still have some time for myself. I learned that the best way to get everything done for this class (without doing it all in one day) was to space it out from the beginning of the week. If I got an assignment or two done each day, I could have the weekend free! Although this did not happen every week, I am pleased with myself as I look back because I see that almost every week, I reached this goal. In fact, my Aims and Objectives for every single week included something along the lines of “My personal goal for this week’s assignments was to finish everything before Saturday…” (Week 3). As far as meeting the spirit of the work, my reflections that conclude each week’s worth of assignments are proof that I dedicated myself to this class ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/memos/ ). The Conditional Knowledge section, which reflected upon how I was affected as a student, future SLP, and a citizen by that week’s work, showed that I learned from each assignment and how much this class has impacted my life.
The learner will use practical thinking (solve problems and make decisions), critical thinking (analysis and evaluation), and creative thinking (imagining and creating) to complete an inquiry project focused on a disciplinary issue relating to literacy.
This objective is, in my opinion, the main objective for the entire semester. Our semester-long assignment, on top of weekly assignments, was to write an I-Search Paper concerning some aspect of speech-language pathology and literacy. We started out by creating an essential question and foundation questions to base our research on, which we posted to a wiki that could be changed whenever we pleased ( http://cd315.pbwiki.com/Linsey+Cushing+ ). I then gathered resources through two library searches on weeks 5 and 7 ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/resources/ ). After selecting the resources that I found most relevant to my project, I wrote an I-Search Paper concerning “How does age of implantation have an effect on reading ability in cochlear implanted children?” ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/category/i-search-paper/ ) that connected my resources and portrayed my recently gained knowledge about the subject in a first-person paper. The final step to the project was to create a movie on Movie Maker that published the results of our research ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/video/ ). This step was by far my favorite part of the research process because I was very pleased with my end result. Although it was very rewarding, each step of this process took a lot of hard work and time, making it that much more worth it in the end.
The learner will demonstrate enhanced communication skills and strategies, using the discourse of the discipline, in both oral and written formats.
This class made me realize that there is not just one way to communicate, but rather, many. Because the Internet is now considered essential in today’s society, the means of communicating through the Internet are expanding rapidly. One major method of communication for this class was via the class e-mail list ( http://listserv.wvnet.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=MU-CD315-L ). Any time I had a question, I could e-mail this list and it would send the question to the entire class, including the teacher. This way, I could receive insight from both my classmates and my instructor. Another method of communication was by commenting on my classmates’ blogs. Each time you post on a blog, you have an option at the bottom for people to respond to the blog. Throughout the semester, I received posts from my instructor, a newly graduated speech-language pathologist, and classmates to provide encouragement or advice. I learned a lot about netiquette, or Web etiquette, on Week 2: “I need to be more aware of the technical aspects, such as adding a signature to my emails. I also need to remember that my emails are not as private as I think so I shouldn’t send something ‘I wouldn’t mind seeing on the evening news.’ I plan to use some of the grammatical suggestions in future emails to make myself more clear to the recipient.” Orally, I had to work on my communication skills when working on narrating my Movie Maker project to ensure that I spoke clearly and also portrayed the information in a manner that was easily understood.
The learner will participate and collaborate, synchronously and asynchronously, in online professional communities.
As you can see from the previous objectives, I participated in many types of online professional communities this semester: blogs, online classrooms, wikis, and e-mail lists, to name a few. In order to take part in communities such as these, I had to constantly remind myself that I was writing something that could be seen not only by my classmates, but by the public. I enjoyed taking part in each of these communities because they each provided me with different aspects and procedures that I learned not only to appreciate, but understand. It was great to be able to discuss and post information with my classmates without ever stepping foot in a classroom.
The learner will demonstrate self-confident interdependence in multiple digital spaces and with multiple forms of media.
Wow. This objective pretty much sums up my experiences with this class. What started out as an unsure, not-so-computer-savvy student evolved into a student who is confident about using multiple digital spaces and using these effortlessly. Although I still have questions, which I always will as things change and I take on new projects, I feel that I know so much more about the Internet and its applications. I now have my own blog, and it represents a complete class portfolio ( http://lcushing.wordpress.com/ ). As provided above, I also have my own space on a class wiki. I created a movie on Movie Maker that represents a semester’s worth of effort and research that I am very proud of. As you can see, I have definitely learned from this class. However, I have not just learned about digital literacy, but also about communicating and the field of speech-pathology. The skills I obtained this semester will follow me throughout my life, aiding me wherever I go. As I stated early in this semester, “There is a lot more to digital literacy than simply being able to work a computer. I can personally testify that even when I’ve figured out how to work something like a blog, wiki, RSS, or social bookmarking, that does not mean that I can successfully produce information on it. You have to have both the procedural knowledge and the cognitive ability to possess digital literacy.” As I write the final words for this class, I now believe that I have the skills and the knowledge to call myself computer literate.
