Who owns ePortfolios?

Through research the answer to this question is students/learners are the individuals that own the ePortfolio (Harapnuik, n.d).

I did have a question: does this statement also apply to professionals?

What I mean by professionals, I mean as teachers, leaders in companies, and others are working in the day- to -day.

Do we still qualify as learners?

In a growth mindset, I feel the answer would be yes. I am not just a teacher but a learner every day.  I own my ideas and learning in my grad courses and as well as in my professional life.

I want my students to also feel like they are developing their own thoughts and opinions in their learning, but I am having a lot of difficulties in doing that for them. 

In my class, we give students free choice in what they read.

This past week, we used what they read as a way to develop a letter to us about their choice novel.

We went through the letter formatting styles, talked about my expectations of what I wanted to see and also taught them how to post in our LMS. 

I even took the opportunity to sit at my laptop and open a Google Doc to allow my students to see me typing my letter to them.  I wanted them to see that I was taking this walk with them and model what thoughts I had about my choice of reading as well.

As I read through my class readings,  one of the ideas posed was that learners needed to own ideas and own their learning (Harapnuik,n.d). I think this summed up our lesson for the week, we wanted them to take ownership of their choice novel, and we wanted them to tell us about their books in their letters.

I even told my students that I didn't want the ideas and summary from Suzanne from Dallas who wrote a review on Amazon, I wanted their opinions and their connections to the novel. 

 I had students even tell me they didn't like their books, I refocused their thoughts to tell me about why didn't you like the book.  I wanted them to still make meaningful connections to their independent novels, if they didn't like their books then that would increase their dislike for reading.

After reading through some of their letters (these were all digitally submitted), I was able to ask them questions, if they didn't like their book, why did they keep reading?

Why not put it back on the shelf or go back to the library to get a new book?  This opportunity of free choice in reading was to enable my students with the freedom to own what they read.

In my reflection of my assignment this weekend.

I understand that I am creating an environment that posting an assignment online doesn't quite empower my students in ownership.  I also feel like I am not using the structure of an ePortfolio, which  I am not even sure that helps develop authentic learning for them. 

As stated in my previous post, the LMS this week was difficult, we are having major technology issues right now in the district.

I still have questions.

How can we do this without all the hiccups and issues that were brought on by using our LMS?

Easy, have students develop a blog/domain. 

Well, that's easier said than done, our district has strict policies that do not enable us to give students that opportunity.

So how do I promote digital ownership if I can't allow my students to own any form of a domain?

Am I creating an ePortfolio for them with developing a running Google Doc?

Also for those of you who have had the opportunity to create ePortfolios/domains for your students, what grade levels are you work with? Does high school level promote more freedom? 

Reference

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). Who owns ePortfolios? Retrieved September 16, 2018, from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6050

Rikard, A. ( 2015). Do I own my domain if you grade it? Retrieved Sept 16 2018, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-08-10-do-i-own-my-domain-if-you-grade-it

Watters, A. (2015). The web we need to give students. Retrieved Sept 16 2018, from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713713