The Blog as Living PortfolioThomas J. CastilloDepartment of Theatre and Filmtjcasti@bgsu.edu

OverviewLess a specific activity than an organizing principle, this approach to the blog-assisted classroom uses blogs as living portfolio spaces. Here, blogs are used as the student's “homebase” for the majority of their coursework, providing a space where material can be posted, presented, evaluated, and revised where needed. In addition to streamlining certain aspects of course administration for both teacher and student, the use of blogs also integrates the development of basic Web 2.0 skills in an organic fashion rather than as a distinct module or assignment.

Teaching and Learning Objectives-Streamline submission and evaluation of classroom activities and creative work. -Extend the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom.-Promote basic Web 2.0 literacy.-Enhance student ownership of and engagement in course assignments and activities. -Encourage written reflection and articulation in a production environment.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills Addressed-Analysis-Evaluation-Creation

DescriptionThis method of course organization has been implemented in THFM 1710: Applied Aesthetics, a foundational cinema/media production course. The course primarily utilizes BGSU Blogs, a free Wordpress-powered blogging system for the BGSU community. Anyone with a valid school username and password can log into this system and activate a blog. Many institutions include some sort of school-administered blogging platform, though any number of free commercial tools can also be utilized or adapted to course needs.

The course has a number of components, all of which are integrated into a blog structure for presentation, evaluation, and revision. Some of the course components are written assignments. Some are technical in nature. Some are based on imagery, either found or created, and some are creative works in video format. All of the course components leverage the multimedia capabilities of blogs. Blogging platforms are very supportive of multimedia and can easily leverage free media hosting services such as Flickr (images), Vimeo (video), Slideshare (Powerpoint-style presentations) or Soundcloud (audio). In all of these ways, the blogging platform is very consistent with and supportive of broader course goals, such as building competency with technical aspects of digital filmmaking and developing an awareness of design and presentation.

While the blogging platform is very supportive of multimedia, it also presents a space where writing is valued and can be easily integrated into production assignments. The multimedia capabilities offer a way to either integrate students' original works, or provide clear visual examples, such as in the film analysis assignment show here.

Here, a studentprovides valuablecontext for each imagein an easily formattedmanner. From aclassroomadministrationstandpoint, this is is avery easy way ofsubmittingmultimedia-intensiveactivities. In addition,these activities can beeasily presented in classby simply calling up awebpage.

Spelling issues aside, the blogging platform here allows a student to both present a found image and describe why it fulfills certain visual parameters. Here, a blog is used for evaluation and analysis in addition to providing a basic presentation format.

Here, the blog isused todemonstrate thestudent's workwith Photoshopimage editingsoftware, as well asprovide a reflectivenarrative thatprovides contextfor the meaning ofthe image and howthe studentapproached theproject from acreative andtechnicalstandpoint.

In this examples, the blog is used asportfolio space where work can becollected and presented.

Here, a student creates a written reflection that accompanies the presentation of his work.

In this example, a studentembeds a Vimeo video playerto present a music videoproject.

One of the downsides of the blogging platform. After a period of roughly a year, video embeds disappear. This appears to be unique to BGSU's blogging system, and should not be a problem with outside services. In the cases of creative projects, students submit a “digital hard copy” to the instructor for archiving.

Reflection and ChallengesOverall, this approach has been very successful in addressing some key challenges of the 21st-Century learning environment. For one, the proliferation of digital tools means more ways to approach the learning environment and expanding out-of-classroom learning possibilities, but it often also more things to forget. Here, those digital tools are presented in a more curated fashion via the blogging platform. All assignments are funneled toward the blog, which makes course administration very simple for both student and teacher.

The blogging platform encourages students to write for an audience, even if it is just the teacher. Assignments and activities, both big and small, start to exist within a design and presentation paradigm that is the responsibility of the student rather than a checksheet or gradebook paradigm that reduces smaller activities and orientations to busywork that never sees the light of day. In addition, it is a “living” space where student creative or applied work can easily be revised and reposted. That said, the audience for these blogs is very limited. Students rarely engage with each other's blogs, and the classroom environment remains crucial to building community and providing students the venue to share their work with one another.

Finally, blogs provide an environment where words, images and video can live together fairly seamlessly and literacy can be approached from numerous angles, from the authoring and design of the blog itself, to the use of images and video to embody ideas and concepts, and from the written word to provide context and reflection.

Technology and security are always significant issues, and the BGSU blogs system specifically limits the design options available to students. Still, it provides an easily integrated blogging platform with security options that can limit the audience to those in the BGSU community.

Additional ReadingHsien Tang Lin, Tsai-Hsing Kuo ., and Shyan-Ming Yuan . "A Web-Based Learning Portfolio Framework Built on

Blog Services." Information Technology Journal 6.6 (2007): 858-64.

Sascha Zuger. "How it's done: Yes, Blogs Allowed." Tech & Learning 30.9 (2010): 18.