ePortfolio Proposal

My MET Hike

Kathryn Williams
ETEC 590 Section 65A
Dr. Francis Feng

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 10th February 2019

1. The audience and purpose for your ePortfolio

The initial audience for my ePortfolio (eP) will be my ETEC 590 instructor and second
reader. Following this, I am hoping that my Master of Educational Technology (MET) peers,
past and present, will access this project. Further, I would love if a prospective MET student
was motivated by my eP to begin their own journey, as this is something I undertook when I
was completing research on the program and deciding if it was right for me. I also aim to
share this work with my professional colleagues and will hopefully get the opportunity to
show it to future employers.

The purpose of my eP is greater than meeting course or professional standing requirements.

The initial purpose is to create a public space to showcase my learning that has developed
through the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) MET program. I believe that this project
will be an opportunity for me to reflect on my MET journey; I will be critically analyzing my
learning, making connections that are only possible when looking at the program as a whole,
and consolidating my learning. Additionally, my eP will qualify as a capstone project which
fulfills requirements for both graduation from the MET program and achieving Category 6
Certification through the Teacher Qualification Service (TQS) in British Columbia. This
project will be supported by appropriate evidence in the forms of artifacts and reflections.

2. A list of at least three well written goals that you had (or developer)
for completion of the MET program.

1. To explore and analyze current educational technologies to be able to integrate them in

a more meaningful and embedded way into my everyday classroom practice in a fashion
that will benefit my students.
2. To develop myself professionally in order to share current educational technology best
practice with my colleagues, as well as to open up future career opportunities.
3. To delve deeper into educational and technological pedagogy and theory and to reflect
on how these affect my own teaching practices and personal educational philosophy.

3. A statement explaining why these goals are important to you and your
career.

My MET learning goals are important to me as they demonstrate areas where I personally
want to enhance my own development and growth as an educator. Our current world is a
technological one, and I feel that some responsibility falls on the classroom teacher to keep
their teaching and learning practices in line with current technological and pedagogical
theories, as well as being reflective of meaningful pedagogies.

It is my intention that once I have achieved these goals, I will be able to advance my career
in the elementary school setting, particularly as I am looking to move from the United
Kingdom back to Canada. I am unsure exactly of what job opportunities will be available
when I make this move, but I am hoping that successfully meeting my MET goals will go a
long way to enhancing my suitability for a broader pool of opportunities.

4. A sample of some artifacts that may be used to demonstrate how your

goals have been achieved.

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Goal 1: To explore and analyze current educational technologies to be able to integrate
them in a more meaningful and embedded way into my everyday classroom practice in ways
that will benefit my students.
 ETEC 510 - Design of Technology Supported Learning Environments
o An ESL World Adventure
 ETEC 524 - Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application
o Genius Hour OneNote Unit (link currently not working)
 ETEC 540 - Text Technologies: The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing
o The Invention of the Penny Press

Goal 2: To develop myself professionally in order to share current educational technology

best practice with my colleagues as well as to open up future career opportunities for me.
 ETEC 512 – Applications of Learning Theory to Instruction
o Constructivism
 ETEC 533 Technology in the Maths and Sciences Classroom
o Robotics and Coding and Curriculum

Goal 3: To delve deeper into educational and technological pedagogy and theory and to
reflect on how these affect my own teaching practices. To take my experience and learning
and reconsider my personal educational philosophy.
 ETEC 500 – Research Methodologies in Education
o Collaborative Google Doc for Assignment 1 (still waiting to ask permission
from my group members before I post the link here as it isn’t a final project)
 ETEC 512 – Applications of Learning Theory to Instruction
o PDF of Learning Scenario Analysis

5. A note of any key references, theories or resources you plan to use.

Constructivism is the theory that I keep returning to within each course taken in the MET
program and therefore this is the theory on which I will base my eP. I have an initial
bibliography stored in RefWorks but it is too early to know which exact sources I will be
using.

I will be using the TPACK learning model as I believe this brings a balanced approach to
thinking about pedagogical, content and technological knowledge. This was another concept
that I revisited several times over different courses, and my understanding of this concept
became clearer and deeper each time.

My artifacts demonstrate a wide range of resources used such as Weebly, VideoScribe,

Google Docs, OneNote and more. I will use my eP as an opportunity to reflect on and
analyze my experiences with the different technologies.

6. The metaphor you intend to use to structure your ePortfolio and

demonstrate how you achieved your goals and how it fits into your own
learning.

Although I was hesitant to use a metaphor that follows a trip or a journey, as I feel it has
been done several times before, I keep coming back to it and ultimately I believe that
something along these lines is best to represent my learning. The metaphor that I eventually
decided upon on, and the one that I feel best represents my MET learning journey, is a
hiking trip. Since childhood, I have always enjoyed challenging, multi-day hiking trips in a

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variety of climates. I love these trips because although you try to prepare, you can’t prepare
for everything that will come your way. Hiking trips and the MET have both been
adventurous endeavours for me, and when thought about carefully, contain many
comparable attributes. I have outlined a few categories that I will be using to illustrate this
metaphor below.

Initial Preparations:
Planning, researching and organizing. When I’m thinking about taking a hiking trip, I always
complete thorough research beforehand as to which hike will best fit my skill level, time
allowance, interests and budget. I also did this before I began a master’s program. I
researched several before deciding on UBC’s MET program. At the end of the planning
phase, I submitted my application and letter of intent, and, once accepted, had that exciting
feeling of starting something new!

Packing and training: Making sure you have appropriate equipment, that you’ve packed
enough but not too much, and breaking in those new boots as to not get blisters all fall within
this stage. You are laying the groundwork for future success. This links well to the four core
courses - ETEC 500, 510, 511 and 512 - as they help to create a strong foundation on which
to develop later learning.

Hard work: There is something immensely satisfying about putting in a hard day’s work of
trekking, particularly when you reach the end of the day. A similar feeling of accomplishment
comes after working very hard on an assignment or course and pressing that submit button
on something of which you are very proud. This section will link to ETEC 533 as I found this
course to be very demanding of my time but I also benefited from the hard work I put in as I
was able to create a professional development session and accompanying resources to
share with my colleagues.

Unforeseen challenges: Examples include forgetting a tent, being hit in the head with a
branch or raccoons eating your food (all these things have actually happened to me!);
unexpected challenges always have a way of popping up on a hike. This portion of the
metaphor links to assignments or courses that I found unexpectedly challenging throughout
this program. In this section I will reflect on ETEC 524 as this course stretched me out of my
comfort zone as designing courses is not a concept I work with in my everyday role. This is
where I will also place ETEC 540 as I found the core text to be difficult to get through.

Unforgettable memories: Memories such as completing the West Coast Trail with my Dad
or crying due to blisters while on the Cuidad Perdida hike when on my honeymoon in
Colombia (I can laugh about it now, I promise!) are memories that can never be replicated.
Similarly, I’ve had extremely positive experiences throughout the MET program that I don’t
think I will have again. For example, ETEC 521 was a course I took in my first semester and
found it to be the most inclusive and welcoming learning experience, with everyone working
collaboratively to achieve the same goal. I will always look positively on this experience.

Bittersweet feeling of finishing: The end of a hike gives you that euphoric feeling; the
thought of having a hot shower and a cold beer is amazing! Combined with this, you also
feel a little bit of sadness that it’s over. This bittersweet feeling is one that I’ve already
experienced during ETEC 590, while looking back at completed assignments and seeing just
how far I’ve come! Although I’ll be happy to have completed the MET journey, I will look
back at it with fondness.

Along with ETEC 590, I am also currently taking ETEC 532 and still finding out where within
my metaphor this course will fit.

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 7. The platform you expect to use to build your ePortfolio.

I have decided to use Weebly as the platform for my eP. I have used this platform before
and therefore I’m comfortable with its capabilities. Further, I know that there are apps and
widgets that will allow me to embed multimedia content in meaningful ways, making my eP
interactive and engaging. The negatives of this platform are that it has a slightly less
professional feel than Wix, which I am not comfortable enough with at this point to use. I also
think making it compatible for viewing on a mobile device can be a challenge.

8. A time plan for completion

Week 5  Complete peer review

 Respond and make changes to feedback based on peer review

Week 6  Choose template and create shell for Weebly page

 Ensure format correctly encapsulates metaphor and MET learning goals

Week 7  Upload and embed artifacts to confirm their functionality / are able to be
interactive
 Start planning guided video tour

Week 8  Draft reflections for artifacts

 Draft reflections for courses
 Work on guided video tour

Week 9  Complete guided video tour

 Finalize draft eP

Week  Peer feedback process with group

10  Amend and alter eP in response to group feedback
 Check finishing touches (all links work; formatting correct; final edit)

Week  Publish my eP on Weebly and share with MET colleagues

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9. The expected outcomes of your ePortfolio project.

Through the completion of the eP project I plan to have met both the graduation
requirements for the UBC MET program and the capstone project requirements for the TQS.
Further, this reflective experience will enable me to review my growth and development as
an educator, as well as allowing me to plan for future career growth and development
through the creation of further goals.

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 10. A draft assessment rubric that you would like to propose as appropriate for
your ePortfolio.

I have created a Google Form for my draft assessment tool. I have chosen to list criteria set
by both UBC ETEC 590 as well as the TQS and put simple tick boxes for ‘Meets
Requirements’ and ‘Not Yet Meeting Requirements’. I have also left a comment box at the
end for people to leave feedback.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1foft_mfeX7qmRPha2y0kLec44TWzuq40-Ci9r8lxnY0/edit