April 2004 — Features
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Electronic Portfolios: Blending Technology, Accountability & Assessment
Last fall, I worked with a Rhode Island public school, the Woonsocket Area Career & Technical Center (WACTC), on its e-portfolio initiative. Taking the assessment needs of the school, I headed the development of a Web-based e-portfolio software project called eduPortfolio.org. The following sections outline our collaboration, which supported past lessons and introduced new e-portfolio possibilities.
The Planning Stage
While developing the digital portfolio project with WACTC, we spent the majority of our time and energy on the planning stage. Our first goal was to create an e-portfolio system that allowed WACTC to outline clear learning standards for its students, while simultaneously providing students with the opportunity to showcase a portfolio of exemplary work. We realized that e-portfolios provide a unique way to use educational standards for the benefit of students and teachers, while validating the individual work done in classrooms.
As a result, we designed the school's digital portfolio with a unique architecture that revolved around creating portfolio templates. This allowed schools, classrooms and districts to create specified learning standards, which they could then attach to various groups such as classrooms, schools and subject-area groupings. Students can log in to the system and attach their work to fill in the standards of a portfolio template. Working with WACTC, we found that the majority of time was spent discussing and creating schoolwide standards and portfolio templates for the students.
Previous experiences with e-portfolios showed that the planning process is a key requirement for successful portfolio projects. Administrators and teachers must explicitly outline clear structures and learning standards before students can begin to populate their portfolios with artifacts. Teachers can individually define these learning standards, or they can use public standard sets that a school decides to adopt.
In either case, creating a set of standards precedes any portfolio project, and this planning process is a vital step for any school. Standards should be used as organizational guides for student work and as the organizational structure for the portfolios themselves. With explicit learning expectations mapped out in the portfolios, students can constructively work to complete assignments that meet those requirements. Teachers will also have a clear way to assess and provide feedback for student work. E-portfolios provide an effective way to combine accountability and clarity within the fabric of each classroom.
Reflection and Feedback
As an assessment tool, e-portfolios provide an economy of scale in terms of efficiency and informational depth. Using the Internet, e-portfolios can be designed to effectively organize student work, providing ease of access to teachers, students and the general public. E-portfolios also can be designed for more intimate interaction between students, teachers and other stakeholders as they provide opportunities to view individual student work, personal reflections and detailed feedback. In addition, e-portfolios can efficiently organize and index this personalized data to allow schools to view both an individual and schoolwide picture of educational progress.
