Developing an e-Portfolio lets you record and display your ability to learn from past experiences. An e-Portfolio gives you a chance to add descriptions and analysis from your own unique perspective.

A well-done reflective piece will tell the story of your learning; it gives you a platform "for explaining what [you] did and did not learn, for assessing [your] own strengths and weaknesses as learners, for evaluating [your] products and performances, for showing how that learning connects with other kinds of learning (in the classroom and without), and for using the review of the past to think about paths for future learning." (Yancey, 2001) This is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

You should be an active participant in not only what it is you are learning, but also HOW you learn and WHY!

How do you do this? It takes commitment.

1. Establish Goals for yourself,
2. Monitor your progress on these goals,
3. Question things as they happen,
4. Assess whether or not what you are doing is working and then rework your goals if necessary.

Powerful statements can also be built around consideration of your educational goals. What are your academic goals? Do you have personal goals? What you are planning to do when you graduate? What is your intended major? Why have you set these goals? How are they important to you?

SIDEBAR: Issues of Privacy

When writing reflective pieces, remember that you are designing an e-portfolio for a very public Internet. In general, assume that anything you put in your PSU Personal Web Space is searchable and accessible by anyone on the internet, (unless you have taken specific steps to assign permission to view your files otherwise).

Who is your audience? Read your work carefully. Make sure that anything you publish in your e-portfolio puts your best foot forward in an honest and open manner.

If you are uncomfortable with others being able to read your work, take steps to ensure that the privacy of your work is maintained. Learn what is accessible to others and how to create private areas to save your work.

Yancy, Kathleen Blake. (2001) General Patterns and the Future. In Barbara Cambridge and others (Eds), Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning . Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education, 83-87.