Capstone Portfolio Journey Journal - Module Five Reflections:
"You don't have to live like everyone else. In fact, you'll probably be happier if you don't."
- Joshua Becker
"You don't have to live like everyone else. In fact, you'll probably be happier if you don't."
- Joshua Becker
Sunday, February 14th, 2021:
Module Five was yet another module that really resonated with me and aligned with a goal that I have had for a very, very long time: get my resumés organized and divided up so that they each deal with a specific role in my life. Once again I have this overwhelming feeling that each of these assignments is providing me with the opportunity to complete a task that I have had on my radar, but just never got around to completing. As a youth sport coach, a network engineer, and an adjunct faculty instructor at three different universities, it never really made sense to keep all of the information for these three roles on the same resume - let alone try relate them to a specific job for which I was applying. Sure, there is some overlap between the network engineer and adjunct role - especially since my adjunct role is teaching about how to be a Cisco network engineer - but it never made much sense to keep it all on a single document. Module Five provided me with the affordance of hypermedia and the ability to finally sit down, reflect back on my experiences, and get to work on organizing my resumés so that I had one for my coaching work, one for my "day job" as a network engineer, and one that focused solely on my role as an educator. I had all three resumés already, each in need of updating, and now I just needed to figure out how to integrate them all into my Capstone Portfolio course project.
With those thoughts in mind, I began to sketch out some notes and plot some ideas as to how I would like those pages to look and the affordances and features I would take advantage of to really make each page appear as its own individual, mutually exclusive, story of my work experience in the world. Here were my thoughts during the week of Module Five and some of the guiding ideas that led to the production of my resumé pages:
Module Five was yet another module that really resonated with me and aligned with a goal that I have had for a very, very long time: get my resumés organized and divided up so that they each deal with a specific role in my life. Once again I have this overwhelming feeling that each of these assignments is providing me with the opportunity to complete a task that I have had on my radar, but just never got around to completing. As a youth sport coach, a network engineer, and an adjunct faculty instructor at three different universities, it never really made sense to keep all of the information for these three roles on the same resume - let alone try relate them to a specific job for which I was applying. Sure, there is some overlap between the network engineer and adjunct role - especially since my adjunct role is teaching about how to be a Cisco network engineer - but it never made much sense to keep it all on a single document. Module Five provided me with the affordance of hypermedia and the ability to finally sit down, reflect back on my experiences, and get to work on organizing my resumés so that I had one for my coaching work, one for my "day job" as a network engineer, and one that focused solely on my role as an educator. I had all three resumés already, each in need of updating, and now I just needed to figure out how to integrate them all into my Capstone Portfolio course project.
With those thoughts in mind, I began to sketch out some notes and plot some ideas as to how I would like those pages to look and the affordances and features I would take advantage of to really make each page appear as its own individual, mutually exclusive, story of my work experience in the world. Here were my thoughts during the week of Module Five and some of the guiding ideas that led to the production of my resumé pages:
The feedback I received was once again invaluable as an aid to my creative process for Module Five. My biggest fear in doing what I did - breaking up each resumé as its own individual page, was that it might not work or might not turn out as well as the idea in my mind was telling me it would. As you can see above, Juan Garcia provided me with feedback along with Jennifer S. and I was really grateful to hear from each of them. Also, this was the first set of feedback, interestingly, where each of the individuals disagreed on whether or not I should combine all three resumés into a single document of keep them separate like I have them. Juan G. was all in favor of it, but Jennifer S. thought it might add some confusion and she felt that combining them into a single document might be better.
I really wanted to separate each of them so that they would be standalone documents, but ironically, after reflecting on the feedback from Jennifer S., who said I should combine them all together, it occurred to me that what I could have done is leverage the affordance of the hypermedia online format and combine them all into a single web page, but then offer three buttons (possibly?) to enable visitors to download each resumé individually by role. That might actually be a 'happy medium' so to speak. I am still a little concerned about the length that the web page would produce with all three of these documents presented as a single pane of glass of my work history. In the end, I decided to keep each of them separate from the other and the instructor feedback made me feel a little better about having chosen to follow that path.
I integrated all of the above feedback, thoughts, and ideas and was ready to present my Module Five FlipGrid video review:
I really wanted to separate each of them so that they would be standalone documents, but ironically, after reflecting on the feedback from Jennifer S., who said I should combine them all together, it occurred to me that what I could have done is leverage the affordance of the hypermedia online format and combine them all into a single web page, but then offer three buttons (possibly?) to enable visitors to download each resumé individually by role. That might actually be a 'happy medium' so to speak. I am still a little concerned about the length that the web page would produce with all three of these documents presented as a single pane of glass of my work history. In the end, I decided to keep each of them separate from the other and the instructor feedback made me feel a little better about having chosen to follow that path.
I integrated all of the above feedback, thoughts, and ideas and was ready to present my Module Five FlipGrid video review:
Module Five also had us reflect back on the first five modules by filling out the Module 1-5 self-assessment document. It was when I was filling this document out that I also began to have this feeling of guilt start to creep in (in a sense). I was feeling a bit guilty because for the past two weeks I posted my FlipGrid video review first and did not have to leave feedback for other learners. The same learners who were leaving me such valuable feedback that I was using to shape the quality of the project and product that I am producing. It was at that point I realized that, irrespective of whether or not I get the bonus (read: post my FlipGrid video review first/second out of the class) for Module Six, I will be leaving feedback for at least two learners each week going forward. I feel it only fair that if my work is being enhanced and benefiting from the feedback of other learners that I should also be making an effort to help them with their work.
It is now time to depart the Module Five waypoint and start my journey to the waypoint of Module Six where I know I will have my work cut out for me producing my graduate work Showcase page!
Cheers,
Travis
It is now time to depart the Module Five waypoint and start my journey to the waypoint of Module Six where I know I will have my work cut out for me producing my graduate work Showcase page!
Cheers,
Travis
Header image downloaded from unsplash.com