Transcript PREPARING DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS

Friday, February 18
Bill Hart-Davidson
Dànielle Nicole DeVoss
Martine Rife
Doug Eyman
QUICK REVIEW
•
resumes and cover letters workshop: www.msu.edu/~wrac/pw/resumes
•
covered:
1. understanding the goals and types of resumes
2. brainstorming resume contents
3. designing the resume
4. reviewing example resumes
5. exploring resources for maintaining and further developing resume
6. understanding the goals of cover letters
7. reviewing example cover letters
8. exploring resources for writing cover letters
•
resume is core/anchor document in portfolio
THINKING ABOUT PORTFOLIOS
• What do you think you’d want to include in yours? Why? For
what audiences/purposes?
• resume
• contact info
• works/projects completed  relevant projects to profession;
unrelated (not not irrelevant) projects
– screenshots of web sites and other digital and/or dynamic media
– explanation/preface material (e.g., your role in project, your
specific products, when you worked on the project)
– grade/comments (?)  include as reference material (?)
– don’t include projects/work you got a bad grade on
• references available on request (choose reference-providing people
who can speak to your different skills)
TODAY’S WORKSHOP WEB PAGE
http://www.msu.edu/~wrac/pw/portfolios/
(SOME) USES OF THE PORTFOLIO
• to organize your work throughout your degree
program and across your classes
• to have a handy, useful record of your work
• to use during your job search process
• to use during your job interviewing process
YOUR PORTFOLIO
• should be a tool for self-reflection, degree program and career
planning, and goal setting
• is an important asset in getting a job, especially if you claim digital
writing as a specialty area
• should demonstrate your success in “key performances” throughout
your career—those moments recognized by the field as important
• should serve as a platform for creating several flexible “displays” of
your abilities and interests… for several different publics
STRUCTURE
artifacts
1
artifacts exemplify “key
performances”
n
Artifacts
have
descriptions
1
Evaluation criteria
n
descriptions
Descriptions reference
evaluation criteria
LIST AUDIENCES & PURPOSES
Take a moment to jot down some likely audiences and
corresponding purposes your portfolio must be prepared
to support.
Audience
Faculty
Advisor
Intern
Recruiter –
Games
company
Purposes
Review degree progress; plan
upcoming courses, recommend
capstone project
Compare credentials against hiring
needs, other candidates; place
candidate on specific project team
COMPETING DESIGN GOALS
The question you face
as you organize your
portfolio is how to make
it as customized for
each audience as you
can…
…while still keeping it flexible so
that you can present it to another
audience and get similar results!
ADVANTAGES OF THE WEB
One of the reasons
we are working on
electronic portfolios is
to take advantage of
the ability to create
flexible, customized
information
structures on the
web
•
effective linking allows the key performances
in your portfolio to be presented and represented in different categories
•
each page has the potential to act as a user
interface, organizing the information a user
will need to see and providing easy to access
the information
•
items stored in your portfolio can be made
visible or obvious for some groups and hidden
for others
ORGANIZATION OPTIONS
• Chronological
• Functional
• Thematic
• Specialized
With a hard-copy portfolio,
you often must choose which
organizational method to go
with. Or, use a ring-binder to
create flexibility.
On the web, you can use all
four methods to your
advantage!
SIDE BY SIDE: CHRONO/FUNCT
The early years
-freshman seminar
paper
College Life
Designing: individual and
team projects
-IED concept report
Professionalization
-project from internship
before junior year
-URP, Spring of junior
year
-IED concept report
-project from internship
before junior year
Research
-freshman seminar
paper
-URP, junior year
SIDE BY SIDE: FUNCT/THEMATIC
College Life
Designing: individual and
team projects
Becoming an Engineer
Awakenings:
-IED concept report
-freshman seminar
paper
-project from internship
before junior year
-project from internship
before junior year
Research
-freshman seminar
paper
-URP, junior year
Advancements
-URP, junior year
-IED Concept report
DON’T CHOOSE JUST ONE!
While it is helpful to decide which of the four main organization
schemes will most likely be the “default” path through your portfolio,
you shouldn’t choose one exclusively!
Instead, think about
where you can build in
an “interface” for each
one that will help users
navigate your epf!
• A reflective introduction, providing a
“functional or “thematic” path
• A graphic or link to a “timeline” view
Bill Hart-Davidson
chrono function
Dates, for a
Chrono
organization:
Categories, for
a functional
organization:
•Year 1
•Research
•Year 2
•Teaching
•Year 3
•Consulting
This is my reflective introduction. Here I have a brief narrative
which would orient my audience(s) to this portfolio, provide
them with some background details, and even offer them a few
links to helpful sections. This should be a brief statement, but
you want it to show off your personality as well as your
qualifications.
A CONVERSATION…
• with Martine Rife and Doug Eyman, portfolio designers,
who will:
– show and share their portfolios
– talk a bit about their creation processes
– reflect on how they’ve used their portfolios and plan to
use their portfolios, and
– share some advice with us
LOOKING AT PORTFOLIOS
• examples linked from workshop web page
 show broad range of ways to represent your personal
and professional interests
 reveal diverse types of document organization
 provide great sources of inspiration and ideas for
portfolio construction
SOME TECHNICAL SPECIFICS
1. making and saving PDFs
2. saving to your AFS space
3. naming web files
4. buying a domain name and hosting your files elsewhere
1. MAKING PDFs
• PDF = portable document format
• a PDF is typically a locked document—readers can view
the document and/or print the document, but they cannot
alter it
• a PDF is a convenient way to digitize, save, and post
text while retaining the formatting features of the
document
WHY PDFs?
• because PDF files have become a general standard for
distributing/sharing files
• because PDFs allow you to retain formatting
• because PDFs are (almost always) universally accessible
• as Adobe puts it: “A standard adopted by governments and
enterprises worldwide, Adobe PDF is a reliable format for electronic
document exchange that preserves document integrity so files can
be viewed and printed on a variety of platforms.”
HOW  SOFTWARE
• you need Adobe Acrobat; this software is different from
the software you use to view PDFs ($450 commercial,
$131 educational)
• Adobe Acrobat is installed on the campus computer
network, and is also installed on the PC faculty
workstation in the main office
HOW  specifically
• download and open test doc from web page 
DeVoss_webbing_cyberfem_ms.rtf
• PRINT to PDF (not save)
2. SAVING TO YOUR AFS SPACE
• MSU is our ISP and our web-hosting service
• all MSUnet users have access to AFS space
• every MSUnet user gets 52 megs of AFS space
• within every users’ AFS space is a “web” folder
• the “web” folder is where you store any/all files you want
to be available publicly and published on the web
• when you log on to a PC in 317 (or any of MSU’s labs),
your AFS space is automatically mounted  your
“homes” or P drive
• to mount your AFS space on a Mac in 317, click on the
green trefoil knot icon on the bottom of the screen
• to access your AFS space from elsewhere (e.g., from a
wireless connection in Beaner’s, from home), you’ll need
to use an FTP program  see the
FTP_instructions.pdf handout
3. NAMING WEB FILES
•
file-saving and file-naming conventions are crucial to web publishing
•
99% of your web files will end with .html, .jpg, .gif, or .pdf
•
some general rules:
– index.html  this is your default “main” or “splash” page
– do not use strange characters
• NO: danielle’s*GreatVita.html
• YES: vita.html
– do not use spaces in file names; indicate spaces with an underscore
• NO: danielle’s vita.html
• YES: danielle_vita.html
– do NOT save files with long names
• NO: danielleshouldgetsupertenure.html
• YES: tenure_doc.html
– do NOT mix cases; use ALL lowercase
• NO: MyAnnualReviewDoc2005.pdf
• YES: annual_review_2005.pdf
4. BUYING A DOMAIN NAME &
HOSTING SPACE
• you may not want to be www.msu.edu/~user forever
• use a service site like www.godaddy.com to search for
available domain names
– can register for 1-, 2-, 3+ years
– can secure email addresses and file hosting
– can redirect from your www.msu.edu/~user URL
MAKING A BASIC PORTFOLIO PAGE
• consider a two-column layout  flexible and common
• present portfolio contents,brief descriptions, links to
artifacts, and reflective statements
PORTFOLIO RESOURCES
• (linked from workshop web page)
NEXT STEPS…
• work with the template files  work on the skeleton of your portfolio
• develop a file-management strategy (for/on your own computers)
• If you want feedback on your portfolio, email:
– Bill ([email protected])
– Dànielle ([email protected])
– Jeff ([email protected])
PW Workshop 3: Preparing for Job Interviews
Friday, February 25, 9–11am, 317 Bessey
(students MUST attend this workshop to sign up for a practice interview; contact
Jeff ([email protected] to sign up for a practice interview)
Environmental and Natural Resources Career Fair
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
6pm to 9pm
Kellogg Center, Big Ten B & C
Teacher and Administrator Recruitment Fair
Tuesday, April 12, 2005 9:00
9am to 4pm
Lansing Center