1. ABSTRACT: Undergraduate students at Eastern Connecticut State University produce electronic portfolios to support their trip preparations and follow-up reflections upon global field experiences in Jamaican schools. This presentation will discuss the benefits and challenges of encouraging university students to document these high impact experiences in a readily accessible wordpress website. 1

2. Global Field Courses at Eastern Connecticut State University “More than 250 students and 25 Eastern faculty have participated in these programs, which range in length from 1-5 weeks, and have focused on countries or regions on five continents. The GFC programs serve a growing population of students--those not able to spend an entire semester or academic year abroad. Such international experiences serve to reinforce a global and liberal arts focus to a student's professional preparation.” http://www.easternct.edu/ce/GlobalFieldCourses- home.htm 2

3. Why wordpress? Celebrating its 10 th anniversary, with over 60 million users Basic functionality is FREE Blog and webpage development Flexibility of design Recommended for users of Microsoft Outlook Eastern Connecticut State University is moving to use wordpress for its web presence Google documents is a strong alternative also. 3

4. Establishing a wordpress.com presence http://interconescu.wordpress.com 4

5. Embedding music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaGUr6wzyT8 5

6. A 5-phase developmental model Phase I – Introduction Phase II – Research Phase III – Capacity building – methods Phase IV – Results of the experience Phase V – Preparation for further study and experience 6

7. Phase I - Introductions Pre-travel self-assessments 7

8. Phase II – Research General studies into the statistics of Jamaica 8

9. Phase III – Capacity Building Studies into ethnography and project planning 9

10. Phase IV – Results of the Experience Three forms of reflection: Image collections, preliminary reactions Description of change in others Description of change in self 10

11. Phase IV A – Travel ePortfolio Images, preliminary observations 11

12. Phase IV B – People Description of Change in Others 12

13. Phase IV C – Changes in self Self-assessments, critical incidents 13

14. Phase V – Next Steps Planning global field course to study schools and social agencies in San Juan, Puerto Rico in January 2014 and back to northern Jamaica in March 2014 Moving to formalize the community-engaged learning of these global field courses Continuing to make use of electronic portfolios in other courses Studying the role of electronic portfolios in pre- collegiate education and blended learning 14

15. Webliography Eastern Connecticut State University (2013). Global Field Courses. Retrieved from http://www.easternct.edu/ce/GlobalFieldCourses-home.htm.http://www.easternct.edu/ce/GlobalFieldCourses-home.htm Stoloff, D.L. (2013). International Connections in Education. Retrieved from http://interconescu.wordpress.com/. http://interconescu.wordpress.com/ WordPress.com (2013). Get Started. Retrieved from http://wordpress.com/.http://wordpress.com/ WordPress.org (2013). Getting Started with WordPress. Retrieved from http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress. http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress 15