Lesson 9

Lesson 9-Students Live in the Present not the Past

Students are not like you and I. They do not hold onto files for years and years to come, just in case they may need them again. They live for the moment, complete tasks for a purpose, then seek out the next new learning experience. Consequently once they have finished a task and emailed it to you, they delete their work - well before you've seen it, checked it and given them feedback. (sounds like a good lost homework excuse to me). Sometimes they don't even check you've received it.

Which is why you need to remind them
i) not to delete work until it's been checked/revised and printed out (if they need a paper copy).

ii) to make their work public and hyperlink it or embed it into Elgg (if they are working in the web environment).

or iii) even better still, get them to work directly on Elgg (if appropriate)and save their work regularly.

I'm a great believer in completing tasks for a need and understand exactly where the students are coming from. However because I hate the fact that often the only audience for your work in an e-porrtfoli is the e-portfolio itself, I didn't put a big enough emphasis on students saving their work last year (especially a copy of their final draft/production). However, it made me realise we need to this year, because if we don't remind them the students just won't do it and it's such a shame not to have a record of their work.

So remind them quick before they delete their work at the end of the term. Next term will be too late it will already be gone.

Next - Lesson 10 - The Hardest Lesson to Learn is...