Gardner Campbell’s article “A Personal Cyberinfrastructure” discusses the possibility of students utilizing the internet, more specifically webhosting capabilities, to create a personal identity and supplement their college education. This idea is in sharp contrast to current academia, which mostly facilitates learning through teacher lectures and written, graded assignments.

As a graduating senior in the class of 2012, I am forced to look back on my college career as I prepare to apply for a job. What do I have to represent the value of my education? A diploma? A GPA? The knowledge that I’ve acquired, or at least that I’ve retained? I feel as though my four years of hard work have resulted in one thing, an addition to my resume.

In a presentation at the 2009 Open Education Conference, Gardner Campbell explained that he would “like students to believe they’ve began their life’s work when they come to school.” What if I taken his advice, and created a website right when I enrolled in the University of Mary Washington? What if I had managed that website throughout my entire college experience? By now there  would be thousands of posts relating to the classes I’ve taken, the lessons I’ve learned, the internships I’ve worked at. I’d have not only a representation of my education bust also of how I’ve changed over the past four years. Wouldn’t that be something to show a potential employer.