I was playing around with different ways in which students could visually display their work that could be used for a variety of purposes including moderation, courses, employment opportunities etc. I'd looked into Google sites previously, but hadn't quite grasped how that might look like as far as visually displaying their work, but in a way that the development and ongoing maintenance of the digital resource wasn't going to be too taxing on the students. So I started putting together what would essentially become an ePortfolio Google site template that students could use.
Before getting to the point of developing the ePortfolio template, I was sketching notes around the various 'Share' options that I was already using in my subject. These included Google+ Communities and Blog Communities, as well as Student Blogs. Each having a different focus or purpose for the student. As I started (literally) throwing down notes into my visual diary about the ePortfolios, I started to unravel backwards where the students would access the evidence from to embed into their ePortfolios. This essentially linked directly to the 'Create' aspects of the students' learning; whether that be in the form of presentations, drawings, videos, documents, images etc. So then I had a clear idea of what I wanted the students to include and embed into their ePortfolio sites. However, I was trying to envisage the point in the learning process by which students would know when to update their ePortfolio, as well as what that might look like. This connected directly into the 'Learn' aspect of the equation, and essentially, sketches and notes around different 'learn' components.
When I saw a lot of my sketched notes down on paper, I had I guess what can only be referred to as a LIGHT BULB moment ... an epiphany as such. With an end focus in mind eg. Subject and Year Level ePortfolios, and the unravelling and repackaging of the learning and creativity that would come together to form the ePortfolio, this essentially became the early ideas around an eLearning Framework.
Exciting ... but also a task and a half to extract the 'BIG Picture' out of my braincells and into a form that would not only be understood by others, but also be able to be implemented by others. Nonetheless, the IDEA was formed!
