YOU own your eportfolio because YOU own your learning

Having an eportfolio scares me! Not the physical act of creating one, but rather the simple notion that it is mine! This is mine, all of my own! No one is telling me what is right nor what is wrong. There is no template. It is all mine! Now, I blame this fear on the educational system as a whole. I have been conditioned, for what seems like my whole life, to be the robot that exports what was input. So you want a 500 word essay about mitosis? You got it! Give me two weeks and I will have you what you want. I learned nothing from that. I couldn't even tell you what mitosis is. I've heard about it. I've read about it. I've probably had a lengthy discussion in biology class about it, but none of that fostered a love for learning. It did foster a love for giving my professor what they wanted. I was able to pass the class and get the A that I craved. So in that sense, I felt like we both got what we wanted.

But when I think about that today though, I feel like a failure. I got my A, and now what? I couldn't even tell you a single fact about it. I'm hoping it actually is a topic in biology. I'm sadden that it is going to take awhile to recondition myself that it is actually okay to be a proponent of my own learning. I think that's really sad. Why am I running away from this freedom? Why is there a fear of it? I do not want to project this type of learning into my own classroom. I want to rephrase what is being asked of my kiddos and create the type of environment that I'm just now learning about at an older age.

The biggest takeaway I got from the importance of the process of creating an eportfolio is that the students need to see where and why this is important and how it can be relevant to every day life. Building something from the ground up takes time, but the pride and accomplishment, along with the product that you get in return, is irreplaceable.