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5 functions of an ePortfolio that place students at the center of their learning.
Should we teach a one semester course on ePortfolios for those students interested? Perhaps that would sell it better than cramming it down their throats as a mandate. Faculty would also be more comfortable.
Collection — gather, save, and store information and artifacts.
Selection — review and evaluate information and artifacts, identifying those
which are useful and important.
Reflection — become reflective practitioners by documenting and evaluating
their own growth over
Student buy-in is essential. To get it will require mentoring by teachers to guide students and teach them how to be reflective and make relevant connections.
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More and more institutions are encouraging -- or even requiring -- students
to create "electronic portfolios" that highlight their academic work and help
them reflect on their campus experiences.
Essentially, an e-portfolio is an extensive résumé that links to an online
repository of a student's papers, problem sets, pictures from study-abroad
stints, and anything else that demonstrates the student's accomplishments and
activities. The hope is that students will show off their portfolios to
potential employers or to parents eager to see where their tuition money is
going.
| <!---start content here ---------> At the recommendation of the Portfolio Director and the Educational Policies |
Property rights: we should teach our students about this aspect of being employed in a creative field.\nBalancing your portfolio (filling the gaps)
If you're employed full time, your design or art does not legally belong to
you, it belongs to your employer. Freelancers working directly for a client do
own their work, except for two circumstances: when they create the work under a
non-disclosure agreement or when they've signed a work-for-hire contract. Such
contracts frequently have a clause saying that the company that hires you owns
the copyright to the work. That means you need their explicit permission to show
your work in a digital portfolio.
Some employers are
more generous than others, but sometimes it's not a generosity issue. They can
themselves be under contract to a company that doesn't want unauthorized copies
of their work distributed. And a digital portfolio -- on the Web or mailed on a
disk -- is definitely "in distribution".
DT&G Hmmmm, so I'll bet many job seekers
don't know that. When the issues come up, the designer is usually pretty upset.
What's the best plan?
Cynthia: This is a big topic and every
situation can have its own complex legal issues. Sometimes you can wiggle around
the issue by only showing the work in person, but not always.
My advice is to try to negotiate the rights to show the work, even if you
won't own it. Do it up front -- as part of the contract, or at the beginning of
a work project. And do everything you can to avoid work-for-hire situations for
portfolio-worthy projects.
DT&G Make a note folks! Dot the 'i' and
cross the 't' up front rather than later!
Okay, so now I've got a pile of art and samples -- perhaps a few comps from
college or design school. What do I want to zero in on for the main ingredients
for my digital portfolio?
Cynthia: You're looking to balance work to
show your strengths, and to demonstrate that you have the abilities and talent
people are looking for. A designer, for example, will want to show some variety.
Those comps from school are good, because they're a way to show your process --
how you develop ideas. And of course, it should go without saying that all the
work in your portfolio should be your best.
DT&G Sounds good -- but many times people
will say: "I just don't have enough outstanding work." Is it okay to
invent or dream up portfolio samples?
Cynthia: It sure is, Fred.
Invention is creativity with another name, and it's a great strategy!
Designers have to pay rent like anyone else, and not every job provides you with
exciting and challenging projects. Creating your own projects gets you out of
that rut, and gives you the opportunity to fill in portfolio gaps.
DT&G Ah, good. Some of the most fun -- and
best creativity -- is in those kinds of projects.
So now we have the pieces to incorporate in a digital portfolio, are there
pros and cons of CD vs. DVD, vs. a web site?
Cynthia: It depends on what kind of projects
you do. CDs or DVDs may be your best medium if you work with moving image, if
your designs or images rely heavily on detailed textures or if you need to show
your work at a high resolution to emphasize typographic strengths.
Web sites are great because people can view them anytime on their
own desktops, without any problems with platform compatibility or some of the
other problems you can run into with a CD.
DT&G So, perhaps a mix of both might be in
order. CD for portability and web site for accessibility. Of course you cover
both thoroughly in the book.
Purpose and goals of portfolio.
What are the goals?
Outlines an action plan and supplies a list of guiding questions that should be explored before launching a digital portfolio project.
Vision
As you answer these questions, consider multiple perspectives. Do students,
administrators, parents, teachers, and others see the school's systems in the
same way?
Suggests 3 questions on which to base student portfolios.
Three questions
were formulated to help schools make
educational
decisions involving portfolio assessment:
Three questions were formulated to help schools make
educational decisions involving portfolio assessment:
Digital Portfolio Components Checklist
9 items | 25 visits
This collection of articles has been highlighted with inserted comments. They are part of my research before beginning work to implement student ePortfolios grades K-12. Your additions and comments are welcome.
Updated on 2009-11-04
Created on 2009-01-26
Category: Schools & Education
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