Witnesses to their Own Progress: Reflective Learning and Preparing for the Workplace with ePortfolios Bronx Community College Bronx Community College is using two models of ePortfolio: course-based reflective learning and program-based professional preparation. Both models share student-centered pedagogies that encourage active creation and structuring of course content and responsibility for its organization and presentation. The resulting sense of student ownership encourages use of the ePortfolios for internships, employment, and transfers to four-year programs. • Howard Wach , Director of Instructional Technology • Jordi Getman-Eraso, Professor, Department of History; Co-Director, Honors Program • Jeanine Kelley-Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Music • Lisa Amowitz, Professor, Department of Art and Music

1. Reflective Critiques Using reflective learning to develop the ability to self-critique in the Arts

2. Intro Digital Arts is a 2 year program that promotes the development of the student as an artist and designer. The ability to self-critique is a fundamental skill that needs to be obtained. One way the skill is developed is through class critiques. ePortfolio is used to: A place for students to articulate their concepts and solutions. Incorporate and articulate the information they received in group critiques. Reflect on the tenets, principles of design learned in class.

3. Assignment: Type as Form

4. Assignment: Type as Form Reflection: The problem was to create an asymmetrical picture from type. I found that doing an asymmetrical picture was hard but a picture made with type was even harder and I was at a loss of ideas. The way im used to doing pictures would be more symmetrical because I like uniform ideas on the page. creating the uneven balance on the page that make the ideas show in a clear way was very difficult. I started to place the text on the page in different ways that can help me form an idea to of what i can make and the way i started it off was placing the letters on top of each other using positive and negative space and also using transparency. it was very uneven but edgy. through the three piece project, the way i made the pictures began looking more like the style of Jackson Pollock being more unconventional and more in your face with lights and darks. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/a_laroc/Welcome/published Aaron LaRoc

5. Assignment: Type as Form Reflection: Prof. Williams wanted us to create Asymmetrical pictures using 3 letters, each of which was a different font. Being asymmetrical, if split in half, neither side could resemble the other. It was a tough project because one had to figure out a way to create a unique form without repetition & without it being simplistic. After about an hour of thinking, I decided on using a tumbling/falling down effect as the theme of my work. I had to figure out a way to smartly place the characters in order to make it seem like they were falling downwards, and this was the first result. It displays the falling down effect. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/pedrof09/Course_1/published Pedro Ferreira

6. Assignment: Type as Form Reflection: When I was doing this I was really bored... I was putting letters on top of the others and trying to make it look like something square, something that I didn't know what would it be, but I knew that I want it to look like something square. I saw how different I made this with the same letter. One side looks totally different than the other... Then (k)newthat I was doing something asymmetrical. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/IBELCA/art_79/published Ibelca Ecarnacion Gonzalez

7. Assignment: Type as Form Reflection: I like how i scattered letters every where and how i used bright colors for lettering's here too, the purple tones and pink tone. However this time i used white other than the black lettering, which makes it stands out more because it gives you a nice contrast. And this notice here why the lettering's are not a reflection because it's asymmetrical an uneven collage. It's the opposite of the other which is symmetrical. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/BARBIE/Course_1/published Priscilla Cooke

8. Assignment: Expressive Type Reflection: This project had to be my personal favorite. It gave me a lot of room to just be playful and have fun and be creative. The problem was to take six words and illustrate them just using the type. it was fairly difficult because of the words but the challenge was great and it was a great learning experience. We were suppose to do pairs of words but three of the words i did by themselves. -Elastic, mimic and magnetic were the three words and they were the most prominent words to illustrate so i kept those separate. I extruded the word elastic to make it look rubbery like elastic is. -Magnetic was the first piece i worked on because i like that word and had a plan on executing it. i made it as if the "C" at the end of magnetic was a magnet pulling the other letters. -Mimic was the easiest and i made it with a little twist at the end wit the "C". -The other words were inside, invisible, sunrise and float. i used a series of transparencies for invisible and put inside, inside invisible. i simply colored sunrise to look like a sunrise and on the bottom of sunrise was float floating up to sunrise. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/a_laroc/Welcome/publishedAaron LaRoc

9. Assignment: Expressive Type Reflection: I am more interested in this project because I like how you can use a word and write out the opposite of that word for an example, love and hate. Also how you can express the meaning of those words though FONTS (The shapes of different types of fonts), COLOR and TEXTURE!!. When you look at it really good you see deep expression for each word. Notice how you see the fonts, color and texture, it fits for the exact word!!! http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/BARBIE/Course_1/published Priscilla Cooke

10. Assignment: Typographic Book Cover Reflection: This book cover project sounded fairly easy and i believe i could have done the entire thing differently because i had several ways of laying out this title. The title of the book is a real book title and it was even made into a movie. The problem i had was trying to make the style of the type explain the text as much as possible. When the project was given to us i already had this thought in my head about the title but all i had to do was execute it. When i went to execute it, i found that it was a big problem and i had the visuals of the man and the child and the way i wanted to illustrate it but i found myself stumbling on the part of making the text. With a little help along the way from the professor with getting my ideas about making the children part playful like children and the part about men more sophisticated on the paper and then making minor tweaks i finished and feel confident in this piece. http://bcc-cuny.digication.com/a_laroc/Welcome/publishedAaron LaRoc