PAPER
Designing a professional portfolio has been wonderful and valuable experience. The first thing I did was dig into my file cabinet and pull out the portfolio I had used to get my current teaching job. It was created in a presentation binder on paper and was not very up-to-date. Advanced Hypermedia has given me the opportunity to keep up with my own accolades and accomplishments in regards to my education and the teaching profession. Next, I took your advice and looked for professional portfolios on the internet. I could not believe the abundance of them that I found and examined. Also, the links provided from my fellow classmates just added to wealth of portfolios that I had originally found. With these resources and the textbook readings I was able to bring everything together. That is when the pieces started to fall into place.
The textbook taught me some important things that I applied to the creation of my portfolio as well as my teaching career. Multimedia pertains to computer based applications that allow the user to see and hear different types of information via one screen with audio support. Hypermedia pertains to computer based applications for consulting multimedia information resources. Hypermedia gives a better idea of how to use multimedia resources and how to access information. It is non-linear and the user decides in which direction they want to go. Hypertext is a new way of linking texts and the user interface to deal with vast resources of text. By using hypertext the teacher becomes the facilitator. In the classroom, hypertext could be linked to topical bulletin boards, stock markets, data on geography, economy, and libraries. Student control enhances the power of human learners by eliciting prior knowledge during the learning process.
Developing my portfolio was a slow process. I knew what I wanted to do, but would modify that according to what I was learning in the textbook. The purpose of my portfolio was to demonstrate my teaching style, share work that I have done with my colleagues, and provide important educational information. Many of the book's design elements were applied to my portfolio. As mentioned in the book, I wanted to orient my readers and help them to read my portfolio with pleasure. I wanted to inform the reader where links would lead them to make navigation between pages easier. Page transitions were modified so that forward jumps used an �open iris� and would give an impression of diving deeper into the portfolio, and the �closed iris� for return jumps would give the inverse impression of pulling back. Large information was broken into chunks so it could all be seen on one screen. Fields were labeled so readers would understand the purpose of the fields.
When developing the background, I decided to keep them all consistent with each other. I really liked the apple background because I feel it fit with my educational theme. Regarding the links, they were grouped together and had a common style. Links change color once they have been used so they stand out. I created my portfolio according to the design element the �two-click rule� so you could get to any page within the portfolio in no more than two clicks of the mouse. I also always included a way to get back home and restart the program.
Some other important design qualities incorporated into my portfolio were visibility and recognizability. For example the clarity of images, crispness of the type, foreground, and background contrasts. I believe the toughest design element to follow was to keep screens simple and avoid too many buttons, text fields, or graphic objects. To remind users of where they were in the portfolio, I provided extensive verbal and textual support. For example, placing a heading at the top of each page to keep users aware of where they were at all times.
Looking back at this course I really feel like I learned things that will greatly help me in both my personal and professional life. I feel that the design elements I followed helped to shape both my digital portfolio and group project in a positive way.