Introduction
This portfolio allows you to reflect on, analyze and learn from the work you have completed in this learning community.  Unlike a final exam., where you are tested on what you can remember, the portfolio process encourages you investigate the scale and context of your own learning and present your conclusions to an audience (in this case, us).   Although it is mostly an original creation, it should be drawn from your reflection and analysis over the past semester.  The process of creating a portfolio allows you to reflect on the knowledge and skills you have gained over the past semester and to present this reflection, along with supporting evidence.

Remember to use evidence from texts we have covered in class and your previous reflections and learning community writings to support your answers. You may also integrate any artifacts (papers, in-class writings, assignments, images, audio, video, etc.) you have created as supporting material. The word count requirement for each question assumes that you will use some of the work you’ve already done for the semester, but will also require significant original reflection.

Part 1: Public Dimensions
The learning community has had an important hands-on component, exemplified by our meetings in the learning lab. on Thursdays.  You have also experimented with various kinds of information processing and social networking tools, through which you have both benefited from, and contributed to, the value created in the public sphere. You have therefore been active in the kinds of changes we’ve discussed throughout the semester which allow for some shift in your role from consumers to users and producers of information in the digital age.

How complete has this shift been for you?  In other words, now that you have experienced some of the activities and used some of the technologies referred to as representing this shift, how would you characterize it?  Has the rise of new kinds of networking sites and tools created a “Web 2.0” where the public sphere is enlarged and the products of value created there are more representative of you and your collective democratic efforts?  Or is it basically just a new set of tools to do some of the same stuff, changing little fundamentally about your relationships with others or with the systems through which you interact? 

In either case, what are the practices, tools, and institutions that have enabled this use?  How fundamentally secure are they—in other words, what would have to be done in order to change them or keep them the same?  You have already reflected on these activities throughout the semester, but this composition is an opportunity to provide a summary of what the collective experience of the semester — both the hands-on use of these technologies and the theoretical discussions we’ve had about them — has led you to believe. (750-1000 words)

Part 2: Theoretical Dimensions
Return to the “Glossary” of important theoretical terminology and historical movements/ideologies which you have created on your blog throughout the semester. Which have you found most useful in understanding your own reactions to “information in the digital age” and why? Relate this to in-class activities, class discussions, group facilitation presentations. How does the history and theory of information technology and communication help you to appreciate the activities we’ve undertaken this semester? How does this history and theory of information technology help you to understand its impact (and embeddedness) in the larger society? Be sure to refer to at least 6 theoretical terms in your response. (600-750 words)

Part 3: collaborative dimensions
Reflect on your group process and the presentations it produced this semester. Drawing on the materials you contributed to your group projects, and your notes from group meetings (and any other records of your process you have), analyze your group process. What strategies proved productive for your group and which did not? How would you assess (honestly, please) the reception and success of your presentations? How successfully did your group incorporate pedagogical knowledge and what difference did (or could have) those pedagogical strategies make to your final presentation? More generally, what, of anything, would you do differently? Remember, as always, to integrate theories, concepts and knowledge drawn from our learning community texts.

Part 4:  Creative Dimensions
You have acquired new skills in the course of the semester, some of which you probably like using more than others.  Take the ones you enjoy using the most and make us something amazing.  (It can be something like a photoshopped image, an audio or video mashup, a flash animation, or even a unique database.  You decide.)

Part 5: Professional Dimensions
Relate this learning community to your personal and/or career goals. How will you incorporate the ideas raised this semester into your future objectives? What have you learned about yourself that you will draw upon in future endeavors? (250-500 words)