ABSTRACT:

Undergraduate students at Eastern Connecticut State University produce electronic portfolios to support their trip preparations and follow-up reflections upon global field experiences in Jamaican schools. This presentation will discuss the benefits and challenges of encouraging university students to document these high impact experiences in a readily accessible wordpress website.

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Global Field Courses at Eastern Connecticut State University

“More than 250 students and 25 Eastern faculty have participated in these programs, which range in length from 1-5 weeks, and have focused on countries or regions on five continents.  The GFC programs serve a growing population of students--those not able to spend an entire semester or academic year abroad. Such international experiences serve to reinforce a global and liberal arts focus to a student's professional preparation.”

http://www.easternct.edu/ce/GlobalFieldCourses-home.htm

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Why wordpress?Celebrating its 10th anniversary, with over 60

million usersBasic functionality is FREEBlog and webpage development Flexibility of design Recommended for users of Microsoft OutlookEastern Connecticut State University is

moving to use wordpress for its web presence

Google documents is a strong alternative also.

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Establishing a wordpress.com presencehttp://interconescu.wordpress.com

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Embedding music http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=zaGUr6wzyT8

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A 5-phase developmental model Phase I – IntroductionPhase II – ResearchPhase III – Capacity building – methodsPhase IV – Results of the experiencePhase V – Preparation for further study and

experience

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Phase I - IntroductionsPre-travel self-assessments

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Phase II – Research General studies into the statistics of Jamaica

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Phase III – Capacity BuildingStudies into ethnography and project

planning

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Phase IV – Results of the Experience Three forms of reflection:

Image collections, preliminary reactionsDescription of change in othersDescription of change in self

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Phase IV A – Travel ePortfolioImages, preliminary observations

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Phase IV B – People Description of Change in Others

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Phase IV C – Changes in selfSelf-assessments, critical incidents

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Phase V – Next Steps Planning global field course to study schools

and social agencies in San Juan, Puerto Rico in January 2014 and back to northern Jamaica in March 2014

Moving to formalize the community-engaged learning of these global field courses

Continuing to make use of electronic portfolios in other courses

Studying the role of electronic portfolios in pre-collegiate education and blended learning

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Webliography Eastern Connecticut State University (2013). Global Field Courses.

Retrieved from http://www.easternct.edu/ce/GlobalFieldCourses-home.htm.

Stoloff, D.L. (2013). International Connections in Education. Retrieved from http://interconescu.wordpress.com/.

WordPress.com (2013). Get Started. Retrieved from http://wordpress.com/.

WordPress.org (2013). Getting Started with WordPress. Retrieved from http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress.

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