CEdO555 - Post 2 - Mission and Vision

This week we continued our investigation of ePortfolios.  One of the key ingredients of an ePortfolio is the Mission and Vision statements.  I admit that I have always struggled with the difference between these terms.  When I start to write one, I often end up bringing in elements from the other.  I think the definition that was given in class is one of the best explanations that I have heard.  A Vision is where you want to end up, and a Mission is how you will get there.  This really helped clarify the difference for me.  The Vision should just be about the end result or goal.  It should describe the ultimate purpose of your career or life, or what the world would look like if you complete your Mission.  The Mission on the other hand is what you will do to get to that place.  What actions are you taking now that will make your Vision into reality?  Is there a sequence of events that would get you there?

I think there is one characteristic of these statements that is often overlooked.  They need to be "real".  I have helped create Vision and Mission statements for companies and departments, but these often did not include language that could be translated into the real world.  To make the statements sound important, they use long words that will confuse more people than they will guide.  The phenomenon is so bad that Dilbert even created a "Mission Statement Generator".  While this tool is no longer available on the internet, here are some examples of its output:

"We have committed to synergistically fashion high-quality products so that we may collaboratively provide access to inexpensive leadership skills in order to solve business problems"

"It is our job to continually foster world-class infrastructures as well as to quickly create principle-centered sources to meet our customer's needs"

"Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance based infrastructures"

My mission (for this assignment) is to create "Real" Vision and Mission statements, that simply and plainly explain my values in language that everyone can understand.

CEdO555 - Post 2 - Mission and Vision

This week we continued our investigation of ePortfolios.  One of the key ingredients of an ePortfolio is the Mission and Vision statements.  I admit that I have always struggled with the difference between these terms.  I think the definition that was given in class is one of the best explanations that I have heard.  A Vision is where you want to end up, and a Mission is how you will get there.

CEdO555 - Using ePortfolios

The CEdO 555 class is all about ePortfolios, and as part of this program we be creating our own portfolio to showcase our work.  I do not currently work at a school, and in my IT job there has not been a lot of need or applications for an online portfolio.   However as I am looking to expand my career into the realm of eLearning, I can see many applications for an ePortfolio.

The first and most obvious is as a place to showcase the work that I have done in the field of online learning.  This is especially critical since I am transitioning from a career in IT to one that is more focused on education.  I have done a lot of technology training over the years, but I do not have one central place to store and showcase all of the artifacts from that work.  I can send potential employers to the ePortfolio so they can see that even though I have not officially been employed as a teacher, I do have an extensive collection of training materials, and thus experience, that I have developed over the years.

Another great use for an ePortfolio is a way for students to show off their work.  Because they can easily publish to the internet, this work can be shared with family and friends.  It will give the students a great sense of pride to know that many others are looking at their creations.  It will also make the teacher's job easier as it provides a central place to find a student's work.

In my company's business, ePorfolios could also serve a similar purpose by allowing individuals to create documents and help files relating to their job, or to new technology that might change the way they work.  These individual ePortfolios would then be searchable, so that if someone else in the company has a similar problem, they can search for the answer and find document or lesson that another employee created.  Anyone in the company can function as a teacher.

I am sure there are many other applicaitons for ePortfolios that I have not thought of yet.  As we go through the course I hope to come up with more examples.