I have the privilege this week to participate in the University of Northern Iowa’s all-day seminar on portfolios, The Learning Portfolio: A Tool for Student Engagement and Inquiry. They have invited John Zubizarreta, author of The Learning Portfolio: Reflective Practice for Improving Student Learning, to share his idea about how portfolios can be used for assessment and support of students’ learning.
Dr. Zubizarreta will speak in the morning and then there will be a portfolio panel of UNI faculty. These faculty members include:
- April Chatham-Carpenter, Communication Studies
- David Grant, Languages and Literature
- Patrick Pease, Geography
- Donna Vinton, Office of Academic Assessment
- Leigh Zeitz, Curriculum and Instruction
While I only have 5 minutes to describe how we have been using portfolios in Curriculum and Instruction, I have a number of resources that you should find useful to learn more about using digital portfolios.
- Digital Portfolios Made Easy in Curriculum and Instruction at UNI slideshow – the presentation slideshow that I used during my presentation. This is posted at Slideshare.com.
- Digital Portfolios Made Easy – this is my website that has been up since 2007. It has a number of Google Sites portfolios templates that can be used to create digital portfolios.
- Curriculum and Instruction Digital Portfolio Wiki – this wiki page is the source for support materials for creating digital portfolios in the C&I program. I provides portfolio examples, instructional videos, a link to the UNI Teacher Education Google Sites template (along with a set of instructions), and a list of possible artifacts that might be used with each of the INTASC+1 standards.
- UNI Example Portfolio – an example of the type of digital portfolio that a student creates in our Educational Technology and Design course. This portfolio evolves into their final digital portfolio for their teaching program.
- Dr. Z on Digital Portfolios – interview with Dr. Z by Wesley Fryer in Philadelphia. Dr. Z reflects on his philosophy on digital portfolios.
- Digital Portfolios: Why Do We Do Them? – Dr. Z explores the backwards manner in which most portfolios are designed to fulfill standards instead of sharing what is important to the student or professional.
- Electronic Portfolios – Helen Barrett’s website that supports using electronic portfolios and digital storytelling for lifelong and life wide learning.
How do you use digital portfolios? What additional support materials would you recommend for our readers?
Leave a comment and keep the discussion going.