Early in my career as an instructional designer, I studied Dick and Cary’s “Systematic Design of Instruction.” I still rely on its simple procedural framework to define for the uninitiated which steps should be tackled first. As a new designer working in a corporate consulting firm where rapid meant better, I learned Michael Allen’s “Guide to e-Learning.” I still rely on rapid prototyping, which highlighted a small flaw in the common ADDIE model. Currently, I rely on “Understanding by Design” by Wiggins and Mctighe to discuss the enduring knowledge a faculty member wants to see as outcomes in their students.
In 2009 I entered the world of ePortfolios. After a few years of collaborative efforts, my institution was highlighted in Penny-Light, Chen, and Ittelson’s recent book, “Documenting Learning with ePortfolios.” Growing our adoption of eportfolios organically required instructional partners like me to stay current with trends in the eportfolio world. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, I attended the AAC&U’s ePortfolio Summit. I studied with Helen Barret, Melissa Peet, and Helen Chen. I use Peet’s Integrative 
Knowledge Portfolio Process to provide answers to faculty interested in adopting eportfolios with their students.
Fitting perfectly into an eportfolio is a digital story. In 2010, I began my formal training through the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). I’ve participated in two of their standard workshops and have been a co-facilitator for a third standard workshop run by Joe Lambert, the CDS’s executive director and author of “Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community.”
Instructional design, eportfolios, and digital stories are three topics that continually draw me into reading and conversation. But with over 15 years of experience in education, I’m also conversant in student response systems, open courseware and open educational resources, interactive whiteboards, and web 2.0 tools. In my free time I’ve spent several years practicing the art of improvisation. I see this training as a critical skill when facilitating a learning community or a storytelling workshop.
Photo Credits:
Socks Kaleidoscope, CC by Tobyotter http://www.flickr.com/photos/78428166@N00/11428588635/
Iceberg Montage, CC and created by Uwe Kils (iceberg) and Bodo Wiske (sky). http://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Iceberg.jpg
Tags: digital-stoytelling, eportfolio, Experience, knowledge