Friday, February 18

Bill Hart-DavidsonDànielle Nicole DeVoss

Martine RifeDoug Eyman

QUICK REVIEW• resumes and cover letters workshop: www.msu.edu/~wrac/pw/resumes

• covered:

1. understanding the goals and types of resumes

2. brainstorming resume contents

3. designing the resume

4. reviewing example resumes

5. exploring resources for maintaining and further developing resume

6. understanding the goals of cover letters

7. reviewing example cover letters

8. exploring resources for writing cover letters

• resume is core/anchor document in portfolio

THINKING ABOUT PORTFOLIOS• What do you think you’d want to include in yours? Why? For

what audiences/purposes?

• resume• contact info• works/projects completed relevant projects to profession;

unrelated (not not irrelevant) projects– screenshots of web sites and other digital and/or dynamic media– explanation/preface material (e.g., your role in project, your

specific products, when you worked on the project)– grade/comments (?) include as reference material (?)– don’t include projects/work you got a bad grade on

• references available on request (choose reference-providing people who can speak to your different skills)

TODAY’S WORKSHOP WEB PAGEhttp://www.msu.edu/~wrac/pw/portfolios/

(SOME) USES OF THE PORTFOLIO

• to organize your work throughout your degree program and across your classes

• to have a handy, useful record of your work

• to use during your job search process

• to use during your job interviewing process

YOUR PORTFOLIO

• should be a tool for self-reflection, degree program and career planning, and goal setting

• is an important asset in getting a job, especially if you claim digital writing as a specialty area

• should demonstrate your success in “key performances” throughout your career—those moments recognized by the field as important

• should serve as a platform for creating several flexible “displays” of your abilities and interests… for several different publics

artifacts

descriptions

1

n

Evaluation criteria

1

n

Descriptions reference evaluation criteria

artifacts exemplify “key performances”

Artifacts have descriptions

STRUCTURE

Take a moment to jot down some likely audiences and corresponding purposes your portfolio must be prepared to support.

Audience Purposes

Faculty Advisor

Intern Recruiter – Games company

Review degree progress; plan upcoming courses, recommend capstone project

Compare credentials against hiring needs, other candidates; place candidate on specific project team

LIST AUDIENCES & PURPOSES

The question you face as you organize your portfolio is how to make it as customized for each audience as you can…

…while still keeping it flexible so that you can present it to another audience and get similar results!

COMPETING DESIGN GOALS

ADVANTAGES OF THE WEB

• effective linking allows the key performances in your portfolio to be presented and re-presented in different categories

• each page has the potential to act as a user interface, organizing the information a user will need to see and providing easy to access the information

• items stored in your portfolio can be made visible or obvious for some groups and hidden for others

One of the reasons we are working on electronic portfolios is to take advantage of the ability to create flexible, customized information structures on the web

ORGANIZATION OPTIONS

• Chronological

• Functional

• Thematic

• Specialized

With a hard-copy portfolio, you often must choose which organizational method to go with. Or, use a ring-binder to create flexibility.

On the web, you can use all four methods to your advantage!

SIDE BY SIDE: CHRONO/FUNCT

The early years

-freshman seminar paper

-IED concept report

Professionalization

-project from internship before junior year

-URP, Spring of junior year

Designing: individual and team projects

-IED concept report

-project from internship before junior year

Research

-freshman seminar paper

-URP, junior year

College Life

SIDE BY SIDE: FUNCT/THEMATIC

Designing: individual and team projects

-IED concept report

-project from internship before junior year

Research

-freshman seminar paper

-URP, junior year

College Life

Awakenings:

-freshman seminar paper

-project from internship before junior year

Advancements

-URP, junior year

-IED Concept report

Becoming an Engineer

DON’T CHOOSE JUST ONE!

While it is helpful to decide which of the four main organization schemes will most likely be the “default” path through your portfolio, you shouldn’t choose one exclusively!

Instead, think about where you can build in an “interface” for each one that will help users navigate your epf!

• A reflective introduction, providing a “functional or “thematic” path

• A graphic or link to a “timeline” view

Bill Hart-Davidson

This is my reflective introduction. Here I have a brief narrative which would orient my audience(s) to this portfolio, provide them with some background details, and even offer them a few links to helpful sections. This should be a brief statement, but you want it to show off your personality as well as your qualifications.

Categories, for a functional organization:

•Research

•Teaching

•Consulting

Dates, for a Chrono organization:

•Year 1

•Year 2

•Year 3

chrono function

A CONVERSATION…

• with Martine Rife and Doug Eyman, portfolio designers, who will:– show and share their portfolios– talk a bit about their creation processes– reflect on how they’ve used their portfolios and plan to

use their portfolios, and – share some advice with us

LOOKING AT PORTFOLIOS

• examples linked from workshop web page

show broad range of ways to represent your personal and professional interests

reveal diverse types of document organization

provide great sources of inspiration and ideas for portfolio construction

SOME TECHNICAL SPECIFICS

1. making and saving PDFs

2. saving to your AFS space

3. naming web files

4. buying a domain name and hosting your files elsewhere

1. MAKING PDFs

• PDF = portable document format

• a PDF is typically a locked document—readers can view the document and/or print the document, but they cannot alter it

• a PDF is a convenient way to digitize, save, and post text while retaining the formatting features of the document

WHY PDFs?

• because PDF files have become a general standard for distributing/sharing files

• because PDFs allow you to retain formatting

• because PDFs are (almost always) universally accessible

• as Adobe puts it: “A standard adopted by governments and enterprises worldwide, Adobe PDF is a reliable format for electronic document exchange that preserves document integrity so files can be viewed and printed on a variety of platforms.”

HOW SOFTWARE

• you need Adobe Acrobat; this software is different from the software you use to view PDFs ($450 commercial, $131 educational)

• Adobe Acrobat is installed on the campus computer network, and is also installed on the PC faculty workstation in the main office

HOW specifically

• download and open test doc from web page DeVoss_webbing_cyberfem_ms.rtf

• PRINT to PDF (not save)

2. SAVING TO YOUR AFS SPACE• MSU is our ISP and our web-hosting service

• all MSUnet users have access to AFS space

• every MSUnet user gets 52 megs of AFS space

• within every users’ AFS space is a “web” folder

• the “web” folder is where you store any/all files you want to be available publicly and published on the web

• when you log on to a PC in 317 (or any of MSU’s labs), your AFS space is automatically mounted your “homes” or P drive

• to mount your AFS space on a Mac in 317, click on the green trefoil knot icon on the bottom of the screen

• to access your AFS space from elsewhere (e.g., from a wireless connection in Beaner’s, from home), you’ll need to use an FTP program see the FTP_instructions.pdf handout

3. NAMING WEB FILES

• file-saving and file-naming conventions are crucial to web publishing

• 99% of your web files will end with .html, .jpg, .gif, or .pdf

• some general rules:

– index.html this is your default “main” or “splash” page

– do not use strange characters

• NO: danielle’s*GreatVita.html

• YES: vita.html

– do not use spaces in file names; indicate spaces with an underscore

• NO: danielle’s vita.html

• YES: danielle_vita.html

– do NOT save files with long names

• NO: danielleshouldgetsupertenure.html

• YES: tenure_doc.html

– do NOT mix cases; use ALL lowercase

• NO: MyAnnualReviewDoc2005.pdf

• YES: annual_review_2005.pdf

4. BUYING A DOMAIN NAME & HOSTING SPACE

• you may not want to be www.msu.edu/~user forever

• use a service site like www.godaddy.com to search for available domain names– can register for 1-, 2-, 3+ years– can secure email addresses and file hosting– can redirect from your www.msu.edu/~user URL

MAKING A BASIC PORTFOLIO PAGE

• consider a two-column layout flexible and common

• present portfolio contents,brief descriptions, links to artifacts, and reflective statements

PORTFOLIO RESOURCES

• (linked from workshop web page)

NEXT STEPS…

• work with the template files work on the skeleton of your portfolio

• develop a file-management strategy (for/on your own computers)

• If you want feedback on your portfolio, email:

– Bill (hartdav2@msu.edu)

– Dànielle (devossda@msu.edu)

– Jeff (grabill@msu.edu)

PW Workshop 3: Preparing for Job InterviewsFriday, February 25, 9–11am, 317 Bessey(students MUST attend this workshop to sign up for a practice interview; contact Jeff (grabill@msu.edu to sign up for a practice interview)

Environmental and Natural Resources Career FairWednesday, March 2, 20056pm to 9pmKellogg Center, Big Ten B & C

Teacher and Administrator Recruitment FairTuesday, April 12, 2005 9:009am to 4pmLansing Center