Digital Portfolios
Key to the student-as-worker model at many innovative high schools is the digital portfolio, which provides the structure and repository for student work. According to portfolio expert David Niguidula, the digital portfolio is a software tool "that can help students create a "richer picture" of their skills and accomplishments than traditional transcripts allow. . . . By providing a more thorough documentation of how students are reaching goals, it can give a school better information on how to help individual students and the school as a whole."
Students build digital portfolios and publish them on the schools' Web sites. Portfolios include a personal statement, a current and sometimes a future resume, student projects and work samples, contact information, internship reflections, letters of recommendation, and assessments. New Technology High School, which pioneered the development of digital portfolios, exhibits the curent student portfolios and the best of the past on its Web site. According to California State University-Monterey Bay Professor John Ittelson, who is studying the new role of portfolios in high schools and colleges, "these digital portfolios are much more than archives. They are exhibits of living documents and integrated projects that drive the self-motivated student of the new millennium."
- General information about portfolios, assessment, and digital portfolios
- Examples of Student Portfolios
General Information about Portfolios, Assessment, and Digital Portfolios
Helen Barrett's
Technology and Assessment Site
This set of web pages describes and discusses the use of technology
to support alternative assessment from a number of perspectives. It was
developed and is maintained by Dr. Helen Barrett, Assistant Professor, Educational
Technology, School of Education, University of Alaska Anchorage. The site
includes "Favorite Internet links on Alternative Assessment & Electronic
Portfolios", "Books and Articles on Portfolios, Alternative Assessment
and Tools for Developing Electronic Portfolios", Dr. Barrett's On-Line
Publications on Electronic Portfolios, and Dr. Barrett's Most Recent Conference
Presentations.
Digital Portfolios
A site for information about technology, assessment, and portfolios for
students, educators, and schools. This page is maintained by David Niguidula
and Hilarie Davis. This site includes Introduction to Digital Portfolios,
View Sample Portfolios, Read more about Digital Portfolios, and Digital
School Portfolios.
Ideas Consulting
Ideas Consulting is a Rhode Island-based group headed by David Niguidula
that consults on technology, assessment, and portfolios for students, educators,
and schools. This site contains information about Digital Portfolios and
samples of student portfolios at the elementary, middle, and high school
levels.
ISTE Assessment
and Technology Forum
On June 14, 2002, over 100 educators gathered in San Antonio, Texas, to
discuss the latest issues in assessment and technology. During the morning
sessions, attendees participated in a "Gallery Walk" of Digital
and Electronic Portfolio projects from around the nation. The site includes
a table which lists both the K-12 and college / university projects presented
during the Gallery Walk. From each project, you can link to a description
of the "essential elements" (describing how each school has put
its portfolio system in place); and a "Tech Story," where a student
or teacher describes his or her experience with creating a portfolio; and
a web site with sample portfolios or other information.
Examples of Student Portfolios
New Technology High
School (Napa, CA)
These portfolios of current 11th and 12th grade students are continuously
under construction. The best time to view them is in June near the end of
the school year. The site also contains "Good, Fair and Poor Examples
from the Past", from the classes of 2000, 2001, and 2002.
High
Tech High (San Diego, CA)
Sample Digital Portfolios
from Ideas Consulting
These include samples of student portfolios at the elementary, middle, and
high school levels.