Professional+Portfolio

**Planting your digital footprint and cultivating your online professional identity: The Professional E-Folio**
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** //1. Introduction: "Self-Branding" Educators in the 21st Century// **
Some might say that the clothes you wear or the music you listen to are expressions of your identity; the same can be said about the look of your online portfolio, which is really your virtual home or extension of yourself. For this assignment you will be creating the framework for cultivating your present and future professional teaching identity.

This online portfolio, will be a clearing house of "all things you" on the web: all things that you want colleagues, students, parents, future employees, etc. to see. All thing //not// you should be removed from the internet: self-curation is a very important part of developing and maintaining a digital footprint. Were you to have students do a similar assignment (to develop, throughout the year, a digital footprint, which some theorists say we should now be doing throughout 21st-century students' entire school careers), this would be a great way to talk about "digital citizenship," too. See my post on self-curation from earlier this semester for some helpful tips along these lines.

In the business world, this curation of one's digital persona is often called called "self-branding." Here are some very helpful articles on self-branding from business that you would be wise to take a look at (the first few on to come up on my Google search). I think that educators who, as Angela Maiers implies need a social media presence in order to have any real relevance today, stand to learn a lot from this business concept:
 * The Brand Called You
 * Self Branding 101

And here are seven self-avowed "kick-ass" examples of self-branding on the web, that include some education and technology types, too.

Self-branding is an authentic way for us to think about audience/purpose/tone, a concept near and dear to us English teachers. And in this economy and school climate, it makes sense not just to worry about what's out there about you on the internet (as I say above, curating is part of the package in the read/write professional world), but to actually take charge of that identity and shape it to best represent who you are -- that is your digital footprint and online professional identity.

Here are some educators' sites that I think are worth looking at; I've chosen folks not just with "blogs" but who are cultivating a multi-platform and multi-modal presentation (or "portfolio," if you will):
 * Chris McLeod
 * Bud the Teacher
 * Alan Levine (cogdog)
 * Angela Maiers
 * Jim Groom
 * Jim Burke
 * Julie Linsday
 * Vicki Davis (coolcatteacher)
 * Kim Cofino (great "regular" teacher example)
 * Honor Moorman
 * Bernajean Porter
 * Shelly Terrell (shellterrell) (see also her "Online Portfolio" on LiveBinders which is linked at the bottom of her "flavors.me" page linked here).
 * Mr. Robbo - The P. E. Geek
 * Will Richardson (a great example if you compare his first blog to his new and improved blog and see the ways in which he has cultivated more of a self-brand in the latter)
 * //Click here to see other Edublog Award Winners//
 * Here are some examples from last year's undergraduates that were composed for a very different assignment (no emphasis on self-branding or integrating of digital footprint)

** //2. Producing your own e-folio// **
Your e-folio serves at least two purposes (as far as the AEN program is concerned):
 * 1) It is a final, capstone project through which you demonstrate your fulfillment of SUNY Cortland's 13 Learning Objectives for Teacher Candidates. As such, it is the quintessence of reflective teaching. See the assignment (including Learning Outcomes list) that you will be given some version of when you enroll in AED 578/678 for details about the capstone project.
 * 2) It will be an authentic, living document that you will use in your job search and hopefully beyond as you continue to develop professionally and work toward new goals such as tenure and (I hope) National Board Certification.

The best portfolios, therefore, will create **//two different portals//**or interfaces: one for AEN program that responds to the 13 learning outcomes (see Dave Kerwin's and Stacia Derdzinski's efolios on the AED 578/678 assignment page linked above); and one for your job search and career beyond that. Jim Groom's site (listed above) is a great example of how to negotiate these different audiences.

Here is the link to the Portfolio assignment that you will need to complete by the end of your student teaching semester. For this semester, all we are doing is creating a "shell" of this efolio, though I encourage you to get started on fleshing out the sections on the 13 Learning Outcomes as soon as you can (though none of this is required this semester, you will be so busy as a student teacher that you will bless me for encouraging you to get started early on this).
 * //Audience//**

There are lots of free websites out there, and, as you can see from the examples above, your home page does not have to be a webpage. You will need to use a website, however, for hosting the portfolio. I am going to go for quantity over quality, as usualy, so I suggest choosing from among these sites/programs for building your website:
 * //Platform//**
 * Google sites
 * Edublogs (functions as a website, too, since it allows you to create pages/tabs)
 * Weebly
 * iWeb (on Macs) -- needs to be hosted on a server (such as SUNY Cortland's or Bluehost -- where I host my blog site)

1) Design a "home page" that uses graphics, layout, and visuals to a) reflect your identity; and b) appeal to both audiences described above; 2) Design this so that you can have two separate portals (pages or "ways in") to the portfolio for your two different audiences, as I mention above (applies only to teacher candidates in ENG 506). 3) Link/Integrate your Twitter stream, blog, online communities, etc. 4) Include a visible navigation bar/menu for both audiences. See the principles of web design here, in order to see samples of the different ways of doing this. 5) In a Word document, reflect upon your use of principles of multimodal design and they ways message your readers. Upload this alongside the portfolio (see below).
 * //Requirements for ENG 506//**

__ **Required Pages** __  **Welcome page** On this page, provide a picture of you with a friendly but professional "welcome" message (see mine [|here]) that includes an orientation to your website, a navigation menu, and a quotation about education that reflects (or is excerpted from your own) teaching philosophy.  **Resume page** On this page, you will include an up-to-date resume (not a .pdf thereof). When I open the page, I should open right onto your resume. That said, you might find it handy to include a link to a downloadable .pdf file for your readers, too, so they could print out a copy for their future reference.

 **Table of Contents page** On this page, provide a clear, well-organized, and useful list that includes live links to everything that is on your e-folio. This can be replaced by a very elaborate sub-tabbed navigation menu that should be accessible from every page. Or you could have both of these. Remember to organize your folio (and name your pages) for your target audience (not me).

 **A "SUNY Cortland Learning Outcomes" page**
 * On this page (or pop-out menu -- see Dave Kerwin's example above), you will list and annotate the 13 SUNY Cortland Learning outcomes (copy and paste from the first page of [|this document], if you like); and
 * Provide a link back to the [|SUNY Cortland Teacher Education webpage] where the College's link to these can be found.
 * Each of the thirteen items in this list should be linked (from this main, SUNY Cortland Learning Outcomes page) to another page that is devoted explicitly to describing your knowledge, experience, and achievements in this one particular area/Learning Outcome.
 *  [|13 Learning outcomes (.docx)]

//**3. Publishing your E-folio**//
Please link your efolio here.

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