[Under construction]

Where do the artifacts go?

The system here is similar to that of email and attachments. Say you are off on your vacation, and, from Internet Cafés, you send a series of emails to your friends and on each one you attach one or more pictures of you sunning yourself, enjoying the Bodlean, etc. The pictures are, in a sense, artifacts, and the emails to some degree are reflections on those pictures (and the events they depict). And, perhaps you would like records of this for yourself to see later and to show to others whose addresses you have forgotten, so you send copies to yourself at home.

Then, on return, someone asks you 'where do the pictures go?', 'how do you manage the pictures?, 'can you forward to me some of the emails and their associated pictures?' 'Can you send me the pictures of you on the big dipper?'.

Well, you start looking through your copies of the sent mail, and you find the relevant email(s). Fortunately the pictures of interest, are for the most part attached to the emails where they belong. So far so good. But then Aunt Thelma asks you to send all the holiday photos of the baby but no photo that has Homer in it. Now you are in trouble, because those photos are attached to different emails, and you don't want all of them.

At this point, with older computer styles of working, you might create yourself a directory or folder, extract all the photos from all the emails and put them in it. Then start searching through that folder for photos of baby etc.

We are not going to do anything like that last step. This present ePortfolio system we are all using sits on a database. Now the database holds all the files, reflections, artifacts, everything, and manages them for us. What it provides for us are addresses of everything. This is no mystery to us librarians. The addresses are a surrogate for the files just exactly as catalog cards can be a surrogate for books on a shelf. All our work is going to be with the surrogates; all we are going to care about is addresses not files (catalog cards not books).

When you write and publish a reflection, you upload (and thus attach) any relevant artifacts to it. And drupal in return gives you addresses for those artifacts. Good, the artifacts are 'with' the reflection they relate to.

However, just like the vacation pictures, there are occasions when you might want all the artifacts or all of the artifacts that do not relate to Homer. In other words, you want to cross from reflection to reflection gathering. As stated, it is tricky.

But, hey, we are librarians, we organize things. Clearly what we need to do is to organize the addresses of the artifacts. What we could do, is to start a page called Artifacts, and put all the addresses of the artifacts on it, and also arrange them (artifacts relating to 506, artifacts from my first year, etc.). All of this is good, apart from we don't have an obvious way of producing this index or jump page (and it itself is obviously not a reflection). So here is a suggestion. Every one of you has your own reflections home page within drupal. If your netID is 'jsmith' that page is called 'jsmithReflections', and that home page automatically links to all of your reflections (have a look and see). Also you can edit it. So why not start a paragraph or section on it called 'My artifact collection' and then just put there the links (addresses) to all your artifacts. You could also put a few words with those links (like meta tags or cataloging information eg links not about Homer).

In sum, attach each artifact to the reflection it relates to (and note the artifacts address). Then click on your group homepage <yourNetIDHere>Reflections, click on the Edit tab, paste in the address and any text you want to add, hit 'Submit'.

So Where do the artifacts go?; answer their addresses go on the relevant reflection and centrally on your home page.

Do I have to put my files on a server first before attaching them? If so, what is the server and do I need to use the secure transfer client software?

You do not have to put your files on a server before attaching them. You just click File attachments, Browse (and find what you want on your computer), Attach, then scroll down and click 'Submit'. [This last bit is a little strange, but it arises because no edit is considered permanent until you 'Submit' it.]. There is no server you are going to. You do not need SSH clients or similar.

What is the difference between reflections and artifacts, and what is the importance of each?

This is explained here.

Seed texts:

I have posted two reflections, but have some questions. I have two ppt's I would like to post as artifacts. It sounds like it is expected to create a reflection an each of those. I do not want these reflections on my ppt's to be part of the necessary 10 needed for degree completion. Is it clear where these reflections (or comments on the artifact) are to go? Are they submitted along with the artifact? Also, I only noticed a space to submit reflections, not artifacts. Where do the artifacts go?

In the June 504, I was led to believe that artifacts were just extras and that the written reflections were critical. Your explanations on drupal sound like the reflections should be of artifacts that we have created. I guess I need more info from SIRLS on the difference and the importance of each (which is more important or if they go hand in hand.)

Also, what else could be considered an artifact? I really think if these questions are answered, the previous ones are taken care of-the artifacts are considered a reflection for drupal's
purposes-correct?

.... The relative and absolute address are clear. I'm less clear if I have to put my files on a server first
before attaching them. If so, what is the server and do I need to use the secure transfer client software?