Once upon a time…
This website is part of a lifelong learning project. I’m a retired craftsman who, after studying the art and science of glass, worked 20 years as a scientific glassblower in Silicon Valley making gas LASERs, X-ray tubes and the high intensity short-arc lamps used to manufacture computer chips. I often traveled in North America visiting museums, galleries and universities, attended glass conferences, and worked part time as a bookseller, all to continue learning. Now I’m traveling to Digital Humanities, Sociological, and Educational Technology conferences to keep learning about our new digital world. I recently completed Associate’s degrees in Liberal Arts and Sociology (with highest honors!) and am designing my Bachelor’s degree in the College of Individualized Studies at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN, through their distance learning degree program. In I was selected as a HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) Scholar for the 2017-19 cohort. An “innovative student-driven community”, HASTAC is the “world’s first and oldest academic social network.” “We are building a community of students working at the intersection of technology and the arts, humanities and sciences.”
I’m currently working with a favorite social science teacher doing an investigation of commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS) as we answer the question; “Is learning possible through digital technology?” I’ve created a position as the Learning Technologist at the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR) in Berkeley to apply this learning, before matriculating as a Master’s student to use Action Research to complete a degree in Social Justice Through Education at WISR. I’ve participated in #ds106, #western106, #DHSI (the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, BA), #DigPedLab (the Digital Pedagogies Lab at the University of Mary Washington, Virginia), #netnarr (Networked Narratives), #openlearning17 and many other digital opportunities to learn the new skills needed to create this Digital Learning (e)Portfolio. I’m documenting my lifetime of learning experiences and preparing for, what I heard former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Dr. Margaret Hamburg describe as, “My Portfolio Life.”
- The learning portfolio is a flexible, evidence-based process that combines reflection and documentation. It engages students in ongoing, reflective, and collaborative analysis of learning. It focuses on purposeful, selective outcomes for both improving and assessing learning. – John Zubizaretta
- StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling), founder of the global Digital Storytelling movement, is a nonprofit organization that uses a combination of Storywork and innovative, participatory media methods to support people in sharing personal narratives rooted in their own life experiences. – Joe Lambert
- Storytelling can empower students while boosting their learning. It’s a way for students to explore their voice and sense of self. It’s a way to reflect on and synthesize subject materials. – Bryan Alexander
- Integrative learning has two different styles, which correspond with two different types of self, the network and symphonic. The network self suggests ways for e-portfolios to promote employability, while representing the symphonic in e-portfolios creates space for a broader conception of what is important in life that pushes back against an entirely economic conception of citizenship. e-portfolio projects have made progress cultivating both kinds of selves… These selves need to be woven together, layering the networked and symphonic, to create e-portfolios that promote employability while asserting the value of their authors as whole human beings. – Darren Cambridge
Image from Museum of Victorian Science
Glaisdale, Whitby, North Yorkshire UK
www.museumofvictorianscience.co.uk