Technology and Learning at Macaulay

Have you had a comment on your eportfolio yet? Or left one on somebody else’s?  The best way to get comments is to give comments, and it’s one of the real strengths of our system that you can comment on just about anything you read (of course, the eportfolio owner can decide not to allow comments, or to delete them after you post them, or to respond in comennts of her own).

It’s a great thrill to know that someone else is reading what you write, looking over what you post, helping you to reflect on your work and experiences.  My own first “outsider” comment on my personal blog is from April, 2004 (a month after I started the blog).  It was just a simple comment on a post about conflicting anti-virus software, but it was terrific to think that something I wrote helped someone else.  Some of my other “much-commented” posts were about being Jewish at Christmas-time, about digital poetry projects and online learning, even (go figure!) about custom wiring iPhone earbuds.  You never know what will strike a chord with someone else–and often those comments give me ideas that I never would have before, and they let me know I’m in a larger conversation.

Of course, being open to comments means that you will get some “spam” comments.  Watch for those–they sometimes say something like “I liked your post” (with a name that links to some kind of spammy website), but sometimes they’re actively commercial, or even actively offensive.  We do what we can to prevent them on the level of our eportfolio system.  Some will slip through, though, so you can just mark them as spam in your dashboard and delete them.

So go out there and comment on someone’s eportfolio or blog! And look forward to some real comments on yours!  If you have questions or ideas about commenting, or about eportfolios more generally, you can always talk to your friendly neighborhood ITF.  Or even leave…a comment…right here!