Ernest Hemingway’s wife once left a satchel of his rough drafts on a train in Paris. Try as she might, she was never able to retrieve them. I would imagine he was furious at having lost them. But as a writer and a learner, I have discovered that most of the ideas I have are still inside of me, as evidenced when I am forced to re-create them. He may have lost his satchel, but I don’t believe he lost his words.
I have been asked to consider who owns this eportfolio. Is ownership the same thing as “having” something? Ownership can be an abstract concept. When I earn my master’s degree, I will own it, even if I don’t have the paper it is printed on.
I have ideas.
I have hope.
I have dignity. I have words that I string together like pearls to create a story. If I put that story on paper, you could take the paper. But the words are mine.
In this learning environment towards earning the master’s degree, even if the creation of my eportfolio is used as assessment (or *for* assessment), the act of creating the eportfolio is an act that forces me to acquire knowledge. Learning is happening as I think and write, even at this moment about what I am learning while typing.
So in the question of who owns this eportfolio, it isn’t important what happens to the domain or who owns the site. What matters is that it functions as a tool, as a catalyst. It is a space that demands thought. It draws out the words that I have. Those words and thoughts and abstracts will remain mine. I own them now. So take the domain, you might own it, but I have what’s inside.
