Michelle Matias's List: E-Portfolios

So those are the issues in K-12 schools. I'm not sure electronic portfolios will  work well in elementary schools until we get systems that are BOTH easy to use  and allow student creativity in presentation, something that doesn't exist  today. I've often said that e-portfolios will only happen if elementary teachers  have partners in the process, either parent involvement or older students to  assist the younger students to digitize their work, and to upload it to a  program.

I guess my question to you really focuses on WHY you want to  implement portfolios in elementary schools. If it is to support student learning  more about themselves through a reflective process, I am 110% behind you. But if  it is for large scale assessment, for purposes of reporting to external  audiences (primarily administrators, politicians and the general public), or  quantified just like traditional testing, then I am not as supportive. I think  high stakes accountability is killing portfolios for learning. I also think  teacher education programs who are only creating accountability portfolios are  "poisoning the well" by turning off a whole generation of teacher candidates to  using portfolios with their own students. I have anecdotal evidence that  students who create these Teacher Ed portfolios don't know how to create  learning portfolios with their own students. That tells me that there is no  authenticity in the accreditation/accountability portfolio process.