A portfolio has been recommended by various educators and professionals in the educational world. I have been instructed to complete them by teachers as a student and have helped students create or add to them. They are a wonderful display a student’s work and progression throughout a semester or school year. All types of papers, projects, homework, and classwork are put into a portfolio. In recent years, ePortfolios have become a new technological tool for teachers and students to use. Many teachers have students complete their assignments online these days, so it is definitely easier for teachers to instruct students to create an ePortfolio. Either way, the students get to display their skills and completed works throughout the year, including their technological abilities and collaborative efforts. The Macaulay Honors College decided to have students try out ePortfolios with the integration of social media. For example, “We encouraged students to place “artifacts” of their thinking, their learning, and themselves on display in their own ePortfolios. We emphasized that the work that they engaged in might consist of a range of formats—research and essays to be sure, but also conversations, quotations, photos, and other online artifacts” (Klein 61). Through the ePortfolios, the students could insert their creativity, ideas, and information about themselves alongside their work. I have seen students create great portfolios before, and seeing their progress from beginning to end is quite fascinating.
What I would find most interesting is how students proceed with the planning process of their ePortfolio, and how they continue to become more perseverant when implementing their work and improving it. When the social media aspects are involved, the ePortfolio allows students to interact and collaborate with one another. Students have become quite tech savvy with multimodal projects, and since they are growing up in this digital-oriented world, having them make an ePortfolio could be a great benefit for them; “In terms of opportunities for connection, communication, and collaboration, social media supplies an exceptional technological and social framework for interaction. Furthermore, situating student ePortfolios within the social context of the Web fosters authentic student voices and facilitates student-centered social content” (Klein 71). Klein makes a great point here about ePortfolios and authenticity. The students are taking an initiative to display and lead their learning and progress. Additionally, they get to work with their peers, share ideas, collaborate on assignments, and in some cases review each other’s work. This is where the learning and ePortfolio work comes to illustrate “student-centered social content” (Klein). This can enhance the thinking and work of the students in a wonderful, creative way. Two challenges may arise with ePortolios however, one being that the workload could be intimidating and difficult to do. The second challenge that may come about is that there may be students who struggle greatly, and may feel uncomfortable to display their work. Both challenges can be worked through however, whether it is through extra planning on the teacher’s part or the provided supports for certain students.
I originally questioned where do the teachers come in with all of this, especially if a majority of the work is crafted and completed by the students. I would believe, based on my experiences with portfolios, that the teachers act as a guide on the side through the portfolio process. When the students need help or are truly struggling, then differentiation and scaffolding can be provided to students. I would make sure to monitor how the students are doing throughout the entire completion of the ePortfolio. That being said, I may set goals for them and/or prompt them to set their own goals and help them to achieve them; “For example, as students work on an outcome, they are reminded about that outcome, about ways to demonstrate it, and about the eportfolio-as-genre itself and expectations accompanying portfolios. In other words, the portfolio itself functions directly as a teaching tool, with the portfolio environment including, by design, reminders about the curriculum as well as a scaffold to support portfolio completion” (Yancey 5). What Yancey describes here is what I have pondered about and discussed above. The students will set goals for themselves and work towards reaching a final outcome for their work. I can step in if needed, but this type of project in its own way teaches the students how to progress, improve, and reach their learning goals. Most importantly, a portfolio has been used to replace summative assessments like final exams. This is where I would say that ePortfolios could enhance teaching practices. I think that as teachers in this day and age, it could be very beneficial to replace a midterm, or maybe a final exam with an ePortfolio. The students should always be assessed fairly, and I think that a project like this could display their strengths and developing skills in a better way than a test with specifically worded questions. I know that exams can be important, but depending on the class and group of students, the types of assessments we choose can make or break the student. I definitely want to assess my students in a manner that reflects their progress, even if they made mistakes along the way. I want them to feel proud and know that those mistakes in the end lead to great growth and progress. Alas, ePortfolios provide a lot of teaching and learning benefits and could be quite useful if implemented.
Klein, Lauren F. “The Social ePortfolio: Integrating Social Media and Models of Learning in Academic ePortfolios.” (2013). ePortfolio Performance Support Systems: Constructing, Presenting, and Assessing Portfolios. Katherine V. Wills & Rice, Rich, Eds. Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press, 2013. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/eportfolios/chapter3.pdf
Yancey, Kathleen Blake. “Portfolios, Circulation, Ecology, and the Development of Literacy.” Technological Ecologies and Sustainabilities. Chapter 5. Eds. DeVoss, Danielle Nicole, Heidi A. McKee, and Richard (Dickie) Selfe. Utah State University Press, 2009. http://ccdigitalpress.org/tes/index2.html
Hi Sarah! You emphasize an important idea with your statement that students are tech-savvy and feel more in their element with projects that focus on their creative multimodal skills. As you said, ePortfolios, in general, will entice students because of their ability to make the assignment their own and display skills that might get overlooked in the classroom. I also like that you mentioned Klein’s idea of student-centered social content because it shows that allowing students to create their own ePortfolio will enhance not only their educational experience but also their social experience as they are encouraged to be authentic and vulnerable with their peers. You also do a great job addressing some of the negative potential impacts of ePortfolios, as you state students may struggle through this process. This struggle can come into play for many reasons, but one that comes to my mind is that while creative liberty is often appreciated, some students don’t know where to start when they are encouraged to be imaginative and authentic so they can share their creations with others. How could we combat that issue? Using example portfolios could help students gain inspiration for their own portfolios while feeling like they are being supported throughout the process!
Hi Sarah,
Excellent post: I really enjoyed reading your insightful response. Your detailed explanation of the efficacy and relevancy of ePortfolios was very intriguing and offered validity in its usage. I think it is very interesting to see how we have evolved over time in terms of what resources are more tangible and beneficial for students. As we’ve become more antiquated with technology, it is very fulfilling to see it put it into fruition in our classrooms. I am curious to see if this is something that will evolve and be prevalent when I begin teaching.
In K-12 I think having the eportfolio as a standalone, year round project that is mainly controlled by the student is great idea. Of course, as teacher, you’d have to give students a list of goals that they understand and can adhere to which won’t hamper their autonomy and creativity too much. That would also have to be true for interaction between students for “the social eportfolio.” This would scale with student level and maturity, so that older students would have both more independence and more responsibility for their eportfolio. The last thing in the world you would want is for the eportfolio not to matter much (it would have to count toward their progress) but I also think it should not be too deeply tied to the major assignments directly. This is in direct conflict with what I currently do in college with my students, by the way. Our portfolios for WRT are directly tied to their progress, although it is the papers in the portfolio rather than the “container” that are evaluated. I wouldn’t recommend this kind of system for younger students, though. I think eportfolios can be used to promote self-reliance, independence, autonomy, reflection, pride in presentation, and even social feedback.
Just to add–as you are teaching college, if you don’t need to use portfolios as an exit mechanism like we do. I would recommend something similar to what I described above, too. The stress on portfolios as an exit mechanism is not really conducive to using the portfolios as an ongoing learning environment. In some cases, if we’re lucky, the students use it that way, but there is not much room for the social portfolio.