Another Round of Topics Tuesday

In case you haven't paid attention to your calendar, today is Tuesday.* In case you haven't paid attention to the Coe College Writing Center blog, today is also Topics Tuesday. And in case you haven't paid attention to your heart, Topics Tuesday is the best day of the week. (Ok, so even I know that might be a stretch... but suspend your disbelief to the end of the post).

*Disclaimer: It's 12:45 AM on Wednesday, but c'mon, I'm on college student time.

In case you missed last week's post, you can get up to speed here.

This week, my Topics group spent a significant amount of time on ePortfolios.

CWC ePortfolio (C-W-C e-port-fol-i-o) noun: A personalized Google website created by every Coe Writing Center Centaur, used to showcase his/her work over the course of college. Includes academic, personal, and writing center work integrated with reflection.

There are mixed feelings about these ePortfolios within the writing center staff. Some Centaurs brave the winds of new technology, finding ways to use the newest Google gadgets and incorporating pictures wherever possible. Other Centaurs are paralyzed by this strange sorcery, sighing in relief when they successfully add a hyperlink. Regardless of affection, we are all creating them.

I am personally quite fond of the ePortfolio. It allows me to organize my work in a way that is accessible to others but personal to me. Whereas only one person can look at a physical portfolio at a time, anyone can look at an ePortfolio at anytime. I hope that I can develop it enough to use it in certain job scenarios because the accessibility would be very helpful. I also appreciate that I can personalize it. I get to pick the template, pick the organization, and pick the content. There are so many options. Most of all, I like that I am multi-tasking: I am learning to showcase and reflect on my work and how to build a website-of-sorts. Those will both be useful skills in the future.

Plus, I think it will be enjoyable to laugh at my papers from my first year of college when I am a senior... and to think how far I have come.

For those of you looking for an example, I have good news! Soon, the CWC plans to publish the links to several centaurs' ePortfolios for the sake of better acquainting our better audience with our staff and with writing practices at Coe College. Keep an eye out -- they should be pretty cool.

-Angela