Page 40 - Campus Technology, July 2017

C-Level View
learning? And ideally, they could do so in a way that the university begins to be able to have a layer of reflection built into every aspect of its relationship with the learner and their instructors.
Notably, the learner moving through the curriculum is in a uniquely interesting position that faculty, for the most part, are not: The student is usually taking four or five courses at a time, and especially in the early going, the courses
are usually not in the same discipline. So tapping into ways for students to share their learning experience can inform the institution and the faculty on opportunities for richly interdisciplinary experiences. The “digital opportunity” could make the student experience across a particular set of courses much more richly integrative and reflective, if we just ask students to make those connections in visible, public ways.
CT: Would this be done with an e-portfolio?
Campbell: Yes and no. The e-portfolio I have in mind is a kind of “connection hub” students would make and share on the open web. Such a connection hub — say, a WordPress site — can make visible the links and connections the students themselves make as they go through the experience. Courses would need to scaffold opportunities for students to create those hubs and record their connections, but those opportunities could easily be considered another aspect of class participation. That is, one mode of class participation would always be to think creatively and diligently about connections between one course and another, and to do that in a space where those connections can themselves be connected to. The lowly hyperlink, which many of my students do not understand how to create (hard to believe, but true), can become an artful and important part of weaving a richer tapestry
40
CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | July 2017
Need a subscription?
Sign up today
— it’s free!
campustechnology.com/subscribe