Electronic Portfolios
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Electronic Student Portfolios
What is an Electronic Portfolio?
A portfolio is a collection of student work over a period of time. It is a performance based assessment tool used for evaluation by demonstrating how and what the student is learning. An electronic portfolio simply means that the portfolio is technology based. Rather than collecting student work and keeping it in boxes over time, electronic portfolios allow students and teachers to retain work over moths, one year or the student's career virtually by scanning, digitally photgraphing,recording, and saving working to a CD, Zip Drive or computer hard drive.
Why Use an Electronic Student Portfolio?
The purpose of The Electronic Portfolio is for authentic assessment (feedback on student work to facilitate improvement), as well as showcasing best work and growth over time. The focus is more on communication about student work. Much student assessment is based on standardized testing, this is a more reflective way to assess student learning. It involves the student in the process rather tha having the process applied to them.
An Electronic Portfolio does the following:
- fosters active learning.
- motivates students.
- provides a forum for feedback and discussion on student performance.
- is accessible.
- can store multiple media.
- is easy to upgrade.
- allows for cross-referencing of student work.
- evaluates student learning against state standards
How to create an Electronic Portfolio
Electronic portfolios can be created using commercial software available on the market (including LiveText,Grady Profile Sunburst Learner Profile), open source software(Open Source Portfolio), or a combination free wikis, blogging, Podcasting and screencasting software and Adobe PDF files. It is important to provide a template for students to work with.
Disadvantages
can be time consuming to create, manage, and evaluate the items included can consume memory space
Use in the Library
The Electronic Portfolio is an excellent tool to engage students in active learning, and to track student growth. The SLMS could create a template for an e-portfolio, and provide examples of how it has been used in other schools. This could be demonstrated to teachers at an inservice professional development program, or provided one on one when creating a lesson plan with individual teachers for lessons in the library. An electronic portfolio would work well for documenting library skills development. Each project the the students do in the library could be saved as part of their e-portfolio, and they would reflect on how their skills have grown in the research area.
