Especially since I am teaching Digital Rhetoric and pedagogies this semester, it is time to look back at my experience creating an e-portfolio in Computer-Mediated Writing (ENG 728) and how, if at all, that writing/creating process acted as a development space for my digital identity construction. Of course I can do that, mostly because the 728 e-portfolio really was central to what turned out to be a continued overt expression of identity in multiple digital spaces.

When I began 728, I began it with some experiences in and affinity for digital spaces, some of which have been detailed here such as my history with Active Worlds and my long-term commitment to blogging. Formalizing what I already knew and combining it with experimentation with new digital tools allowed me to broadly embrace a new identity as one unafraid to experiment with new interfaces and tools, so much so that I deepened that experience by choosing to do a series of HTML, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, and other classes to replace the usual grad-school foreign language requirement. Sure, I knew that some software would become obsolete (like Publisher did), but I also knew, using spoken foreign language as a parallel, that it too grows and changes, making continued expression a requirement for continued fluency.

I saw the 728 e-portfolio project as a way to express my grad-school self using dimensional space while also being aware there would be a real audience through the web. Those who didn’t believe in the audience’s reality would soon, as that first batch of portfolios were individually linked to the Rhetoric Program site, where they were accessed by future program applicants. In addition to that audience, as each of us entered our job search years, future potential employers also checked  the e-portfolios, something I found out during campus visits. Unlike pre-packaged portfolio systems which use templates and ask for specific chunks of text, drafting an e-portfolio from the ground up gave students the freedom to choose categories, media, amount of information given, layout, and all other appearance/content details for the site. Rather than putting on an identity suit as in pre-packaged e-portfolio templates, this allowed the process itself to shape a much more nuanced identity through a repeated cycle: choices, added experience with software tools, and reflection. This cycle allowed each student to begin the project with their current abilities and knowledge while also, through the drafting process, increasing skills with many tools an in many directions.

Since that first e-portfolio, I have tried out several constructs. I made a new e-portfolio using Dreamweaver during my first year on the job, intending it to be linked to the faculty page. I currently have a highlights page there that links to Techsophist, my blog. In the newest version of Techsophist, I have tabs for blog (main page), research, teaching, service, and a photos and links page where I also house a blogroll of other rhet/comp bloggers. There is also a Twitter widget on the main page that gives my last few posts and a link to my Twitter page. I had hopes that this space could be developed into a portfolio for my tenure application, but my college within the university sees paper as the standard--efficient and portable, two points that make sense unless you are a scholar who does a fair amount of writing and editing on the web. So, paper it is, but I will take a lesson from 728 and include a CD that allows my work as an editor and writer on the web  to be visible in the medium it was created in.