Wednesday January 18, 2012.
To the CTEP Team,
We, the undersigned, are writing this letter to suggest that the e-Portfolio be eliminated as a program requirement. This activity is not in our best interest since it is repetitive of what we are required to do for other assignments and is thus unnecessarily time-consuming.
Being full-time students and teacher candidates, our schedules are exceptionally busy as is with our course load, field placements, and our internship. Moreover, most of us work part-time to pay for the raised tuition fees and are trying to complete extra-curricular activities to become well-rounded teachers. Adding more work and deadlines on top of this heavy load will only add to our stress, and possibly make us associate this negativity to teaching.
It is easy to say that we could find time to complete the e-Portfolio if it was truly important. However, even if this was the case, the actual learning benefits of the e-Portfolio are minimal. It requires us to post artefacts and to reflect upon them. We already complete many reflections in our program in regards to our placements and internship. In addition, for some reflections, we are required to submit a hard copy to the professor that will be marked and a soft copy to the e-Portfolio which will not be marked. If we are submitting a hard copy to begin with, there is barely any benefit to gain from submitting the same assignment to the e-Portfolio. All in all, the e-Portfolio seems repetitive, and does not provide us with any new information or meaningful experiences. In the future, teacher candidates will not be hired simply based on whether we have a Career (e-)Portfolio or not. Rather, it is our knowledge of our subject matter and teaching expertise that will be the determining factors in landing us a career.
We certainly do not want this letter to come across as a complaint about how difficult university life is. We simply wish for you to understand that the e-Portfolio is not necessarily the best way to enhance our learning. However, as we can appreciate its possible importance in the future, we suggest that it be made optional, like the language portfolio for CTEP-French students. Thus, students who feel that it would be beneficial to their specific needs could still complete it. Please thoroughly consider our suggestion. We thank you for your understanding.
