Boston School Rolls Out Senior Projects with Free e-Portfolio Tool

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Boston Community Leadership Academy (BCLA), a pilot college prep school in Massachusetts, last month began using a free e-portfolio tool to help its senior class present capstone projects in community studies. The projects were part of a final assessment for graduation, requiring students to conduct research in their communities, collect data, and defend their portfolios. This was the first year the school used electronic portfolios for the capstone projects, and, in doing so, the school also became the 1,000th to use the e-portfolio solution from Digication.

Students from four senior history classes at BCLA used Digication's Web-based e-portfolio tool, with more than 60 students publishing their work. Some of the projects have been made available to the public. (See link below.)

"The Senior Capstone project was an opportunity for my students to ask important questions about the community they live in and develop significant answers. Digication provided an amazing opportunity to showcase the lessons learned and share their experience with the entire school community, as well as future classes," said James Liou, senior history teacher, Boston Community Leadership Academy. "We've understood the opportunity the Internet presented as a medium to learn and reflect, but learning to build a web page is a time consuming task. With Digication, many students immediately said, 'I can do this' or 'I like this' and were excited by the opportunity to incorporate their personality into their e-Portfolio."

Digication is available free for up to 1,000 users at accredited schools in the United States. Digication Inc. also publishes the Digication Admin Tool, which provides administrative and additional features for schools, including course management and user access privileges, customization, data import, and group publishing. The company donated the Digication Admin Tool to BCLA in recognition of being the 1,000 school to adopt the technology.

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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].

Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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