Electrifying the Experience

Gone are the manila folders. Gone are the three-ring binders. Gone are the scissors, glue, tape, and construction paper. Gone are the stacks of papers piled higher than most engineers would advise.

As a strong proponent and veteran of the use of portfolios in the classroom, I learned a new trick this year. One that made my job easier, improved the learning of my students, and possibly saved me from violating the fire code! Thanks to a grant from the Auburn-Washburn Public Schools Foundation, this year we electrified and digitized our portfolios.

Images, sound files, video clips, word-processed text, colorful backgrounds, special fonts, documented learning, and serious reflection have all appeared without the destruction of a small, South American rain forest. We’ve saved trees, expanded our learning, and created a final product that outshines the more traditional, hard copy predecessor.

For years now, teachers and students alike have used portfolios to document learning and growth. Peter Berger sarcastically describes portfolios as “folders where kids keep their work.” But as teachers we realize portfolios are something much greater than a gathering place for various paper assignments. Portfolios allow work to be tracked over time; and with reflection, portfolios allow students to relate the importance of the growth and learning that individual work samples have facilitated.

A clearer conception of the holistic nature of portfolios would be a “use of records of a student’s work over time in a variety of modes to show the depth, breadth, and development of the student’s abilities; it is the purposeful and systematic collection of student work that reflects accomplishment relative to specific instructional goals and objectives” (Tierney, Carter, & Desai). This definition comes much closer to explaining the possibilities portfolios enable. Here, portfolios are shown to be “purposeful” and “systematic” which illustrates the importance of portfolios being thoroughly conceived in the minds of teachers and students alike. It is vitally important for both students and teacher to be focused on the reasons and purposes for keeping a portfolio. If they are not, portfolios are reduced to that “folder where kids keep their work.” The danger here is that these become what Beverly Bimes-Michalak calls “junk portfolios,” a dumping ground for student work one rung higher on the educational step ladder than the trash can.

As the availability of technology improves in schools, our students have the opportunity to digitize and electrify the portfolios they create. Using advanced technologies not only allows students to make “real world” connections to the work they are completing in school, but it also allows students to include a wider variety of work that cannot be included in a hard-copy portfolio, such as artwork, videos, and musical and dramatic performances. Terry Wiedmer defines an efolio as “a purposeful collection of work, captured by electronic means, that serves as an exhibit of individual efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas.” With the increased possibilities of mediums, the electronic portfolio offers advantages above and beyond those of the hard copy portfolio.

Even efolios themselves can be created for many purposes and can accomplish many different tasks. In “Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom,” Mary Daniels Brown outlines three of the most common types of portfolios: (1) the working portfolio, a collection of assignments and tasks the student is currently working on or has recently completed; (2) the display portfolio, a collection that showcases the student’s best work; and (3) the assessment portfolio, a collection which presents documentation that the student has met specific requirements, objectives and learning goals.

Anna Maria D. Lankes’ article, “Portfolios: A New Wave in Assessment,” further divides portfolios into six types: (1) developmental, samples of student’s work along with self-evaluations of specific assignments; (2) proficiency, used to prove mastery of a certain objective or in a particular subject area; (3) showcase, documents that reveal a student’s best work; (4) teacher planning, an existing portfolio structure that allows other teachers to acquire information about an incoming class of students; (5) employment skills, a collection that employers can evaluate to determine a prospective employee’s work readiness skills; and (6) college admission, a showcase portfolio colleges can use to determine eligibility for admission.

There are several reasons for teachers to use efolios in their classrooms and many benefits students receive from having the experience of creating an efolio. An efolio can be a method of instruction, a learning experience, a method of assessment, and a predictor of future success all rolled into one.

· communicates assessment information to parents, patrons, and school officials

In addition to all of the instructional benefits efolios provide teachers, they also record the content knowledge and skills base students have acquired. Electronic portfolios “serve as evidence of what an individual knows, how the knowledge was acquired, how the knowledge has increased over time, how the individual evolved, and where the individual may be heading…” (Wiedmer).

However, efolios also offer many benefits that transcend the benefits of traditional portfolios. Among these are enabling students to display work in a variety of mediums, offering students further practice in developing skills with technology, and a more efficient use of storage space.

For years, students have been limited in terms of what they could include in their portfolio based on the chosen medium of the portfolio itself. For example, if a student chose to create her portfolio in a three-ring binder, she was limited to items that could be hole-punched and placed into the notebook—things such as a musical or dramatic performance would have to be eliminated. If a student chose to make a video portfolio, then any word-processed documents the student desired to include could not be altered, modified, or edited at a later date; the videotaped pictures of the document would be all that exist. Even when a student chose to create a portfolio of more than one medium, a combination of videotape and a three-ring binder for example, the final product often times became disjointed and lacked cohesion. Electronic portfolios help to correct this problem.

Because efolios allow digitized documents, sound files, video files, et cetera to be hyperlinked and connected with technology, the limitations of medium are greatly reduced. In an efolio a student can include word processed documents, videotaped performances, digital pictures, and sound files all in one unified and organized package without the viewer having to bounce back and forth from television screen to audio tape to three-ring binder. Although there are still some limitations to what can be included in an efolio (there is still no way, for example, for a student to include a piece of sculpture), they are far reduced compared to traditional, paper portfolios.

Another strong reason for using digital portfolios in the classroom involves the technology itself. Any exposure and/or practice with technology we can provide our students is time well spent. Not only do efolios allow the student to be involved with technology but they also allow the student to be more involved in the learning process itself. “Electronic portfolios can be more meaningful than traditional portfolios for students because students actively participate in their creation” (Siegle). While few teachers deny the importance of our students being familiar with technology upon their entrance into the ‘real world,’ finding time in our already overstuffed curriculum to incorporate technology instruction can be difficult.

Electronic portfolios offer students a chance to involve themselves with technology throughout the portfolio experience with little loss of instructional time. If teachers are organized and clearly outline the requirements of the efolio in the beginning weeks of the school year, students spend their time the remainder of the year brainstorming ways to incorporate technology into their work. Simple statements on the part of the teacher such as, “Be sure to save your essay onto a computer disk so that come May you won’t have to waste your time re-typing it” remind and force students to begin planning for and organizing their efolios from the beginning, and this planning includes the use of technology. As Wiedmer states, the “development of a digital portfolio requires active participation from the very beginning of the process.”

Because students themselves are seeking out technology and finding ways to incorporate it into their portfolios throughout the school year, teachers are left with more time in-class to cover the curriculum. And because students are spreading their exposure to technology over a longer period of time, rather than one or two days of intense experience, their technology skills develop more fully and are more likely to remain entrenched in their schemata.

Another of the benefits of technology in the efolio process for students and teachers alike is the dramatically reduced space needed for storage. In previous years the portfolios of students enrolled in my various classes have occupied the entirety of two drawers in my filing cabinet (7750 cubic inches). This year all 144 of my students’ efolios fit nicely onto one CD-ROM, which I store in a slim-line case next to my computer (5.15 cubic inches).

Storing efolios onto a CD-ROM also saves another valuable school resource—paper. This year I handed each of my 144 students a copy of a CD-ROM that contained all of their year-end efolios. Because each student listed his or her email address in the efolio, at least theoretically, students can spend their summers discussing online their observations and suggestions for each other’s writing. To do the same with traditional, paper portfolios would have required more than 220,000 pieces of paper.

However, the benefits of efolios go far beyond storage space and reams of paper. Imagine my surprise when, on the afternoon of the last day of school in May, I received a phone call from a parent demanding to know what I had “done” to her daughter. For the first year in recent memory, her daughter didn’t make a mass deposit in the trashcan of a year’s worth of school work, didn’t throw her book bag into a forgotten corner of her bedroom until August, didn’t vanish to attend some wild, out-of-control teenage party. On the last day of school, her daughter came home and ran to the family’s computer to read the efolios of her peers. Mom was flabbergasted; so was I.

“Good portfolios don’t just happen; they evolve only after much thought, planning, and hard work” (Bimes-Michalak). In order for an efolio assignment to be successful in the classroom it must be organized, clearly explained, manageable, and something students buy into. But be forewarned, there will be frustration, for teachers and students alike.

A good efolio assignment begins before the first day of school, not during the second week of May when a teacher is looking for “filler” to make time pass more quickly. Because efolios require reflection on the part of students, efolio assignments require reflection on the part of teachers. Each assignment must be unique to the class and to the students involved. In fact, attempting to create a “one-size-fits-all” portfolio assignment oftentimes only leads only to self-destructive behavior.

In Assessment Salvia and Ysseldyke have suggested that a portfolio should (1) focus on valued outcomes, processes, and strategies, (2) mirror real world work, (3) use collaboration among and between students and teachers, (4) use multiple dimensions for evaluating students’ work, and (5) encourage student reflection. If teachers value highly all five of these characteristics and strive to include them in their own classrooms, the efolios their students produce will be of a much higher quality.

Having portfolios focus on valued outcomes, processes, and strategies will help to reinforce in students’ minds the importance of what they are doing in the classroom. Through the use of efolios, students can actually see, and not just be told, why the day-to-day practices and activities are important. Knowing that these practices will be required components of a future project also helps to hold students accountable on a daily basis. Teachers who base efolio assignments on these valued outcomes, process, and strategies link assessment with instruction, offer students ownership in the process, and ultimately facilitate the quality of the final efolio product.

Mirroring real world work is also a valuable goal for a teacher to have in mind when designing an efolio assignment. If students look at all assignments, projects, and activities as being possible components of a portfolio that might help them get a job or be admitted to a particular college, classroom work is more likely to be viewed with a sense of meaning and purpose. It is the buy-in students demonstrate throughout the school year that adds to the quality and credibility of the final efolio.

Collaboration among students and teachers is a valuable lesson for all students, even the ones behind the teacher’s desk. Especially at the high school level, education becomes so fragmented and isolated that meaning sometimes is lost for students and teachers alike. Portfolios offer the opportunity for focus on objectives and open the lines of communication for students and teachers to discuss the very process we engage in the classroom—learning. Building collaborative learning assignments into the fabric of an efolio is crucial. Because an efolio is the collaborative expression of teacher and student working together to communicate growth to an outside party, collaboration along the way is necessary.

The use of multiple dimensions for evaluating student work is also vitally important. For centuries now we’ve understood and accepted that not all people learn the same way, and yet we seem satisfied to attempt to measure that variety of learning using only one method. Having a multi-faceted presentation of student accomplishment should allow the observant and investigative teacher to see student growth regardless of the particular form that growth takes. Likewise, having a multitude of mediums to express information in an efolio increases the likelihood that some component will capture the viewer’s attention.

Encouraging student reflection allows students to discover the purpose and meaning of their own work. Unfortunately, human beings have the tendency to take the easy way out of most situations. With a little extra reflective effort, students begin to develop their own reasons and justification for what material they have learned and how they have learned it. In this way learning becomes personalized and the student feels that sense of ownership that often times makes a world of difference in how much value and effort a student will place in the education process.

It is absolutely crucial that these five elements be built into any efolio assignment. Regardless of the focus, regardless of the content, efolio assignments must be created out of a love for the learning process. Teachers must “sell” the assignment to students early in the school year, and students must buy-in, both to the process and to the final product. As Beverly Bimes-Michalak argues, “[t]he best portfolios are organic, growing out of the context of [the teachers’] particular students and their classrooms” (Bimes-Michalak).

Early in the efolio process it is crucial to have students begin thinking about the final efolio project they will complete. Clear communication from teacher to student about requirements, deadlines, formats, processes, et cetera must occur in order for the assignment to be successful.

In An Introduction to Using Portfolios in the Classroom, Charlotte Danielson and Leslye Abrutyn outline five steps in the portfolio development process: (1) collection, (2) selection, (3) reflection, (4) projection (or direction), and (5) presentation. Outlining these five steps for students early in the efolio process helps them understand the direction they are heading and even how fast they will need to get there.

The first step of the process, collection, involves saving artifacts that represent day-to-day results of teaching and learning. Students can be charged with keeping all of their work—assignments, notes, journals, et cetera—in a safe and secure place. Depending on the age and organizational abilities of the student, this can be done in the classroom or at home. Having a location for each student to save and store assignments in the classroom is often a critical component of a successful efolio project. Many teachers use ‘working folders’ for students to keep their papers in. In my classroom I have found pizza boxes to be an improvement over simple manila folders. Pizza boxes can be stacked, can accommodate larger, non-paper items, and the student’s name can be made clearly visible on the edge of the box. Regardless of the form of storage space, having students label each piece of work is also crucial to success. Typically, I have students make sure that every piece of work is labeled, dated, and—if time permits—that a few short, reflective sentences about the assignment are also included.

The second step of the process is selection, where students review and evaluate the artifacts saved and identify those that demonstrate achievement of specific standards or goals. Obviously, for students to be able to complete this process the requirements and criteria of the efolio must already be set. This is crucial for success. Students cannot identify and evaluate their work if they do not know the purpose for which they are evaluating it. In my classes, we spend 30 minutes each month competing the selection step. Students also use this time to sift through their work and begin eliminating work that they believe does not demonstrate their growth and learning in regards to the specific criteria. Even if a student eliminates the work in his or her own mind, however, it remains in the ‘working folder.’ Opinions and evaluations sometimes change with time and many students document growth over time by showing non-examples from early in the year in comparison to stronger examples from later in the year. For this reason we keep everything we do.

Reflection, the third step of the process, is also done during this same thirty minute time period each month. Students log several sentences in a journal format about what pieces of work they have selected, the criteria these pieces of work demonstrate, and their reasons for why they believe this particular piece of work supports these criteria. This is done in a simple three-column format. These monthly logs are then stored in the ‘working folder’ and are the first pieces reviewed the next month. In this manner students are reminded of the criteria they have already supported and also remind themselves of the criteria they need to support further. This helps focus their attention on the selection process and ensures that students are focusing of the requirements and criteria of the efolio assignment itself. The higher order thinking and problem solving skills demonstrated during this stage are absolutely critical for efolio success. Although some students view this thirty-minute period as “down time,” a quality, finished efolio is often a reflection of the hard work spent during the steps of selection and reflection.

The fourth step of the process, projection (or direction), asks students to compare their reflections to the goals and criteria of the efolio assignment and establish learning goals for the future. Although this step is similar to the reflection step, it asks the student to take a step back and look at the “big picture” of the efolio they are creating. In my classes this step is done at the end of the year when we begin devoting our full attention to the efolio. I ask students to review their three-column reflection logs and ask themselves basic questions:

· Do the assignments and work I have selected portray a complete picture of my learning this year?

· Do the assignments and work I have selected portray a complete and accurate picture of me and my personality?

It is the combination of monthly reflection and the establishment of personal learning goals for the future that helps students begin to see purpose and validity in the work they are completing for their efolios.

Presentation, the final—and most rewarding—step of the process, involves sharing the efolio with peers, parents, teachers, community members, and others in order to receive feedback. This evaluation process can involve more formal assessment as well, and many teachers create rubrics for just this purpose. However, more informal evaluation often allows for more verbal feedback on not only what students have produced but also on the process they engaged in completing the work. The vast majority of my students walk away from the presentation stage saying that their portfolio experience—whether traditional or electronic—was one of the most rewarding and intellectual stimulating learning opportunities in their schooling careers. For teachers and students alike, the celebration of learning that occurs in the presentation stage validates the hard work, time, and energy that efolios require.

In addition to setting the stage for a portfolio assignment early in the school year, there are also a number of tips that can make the experience more manageable along the way.

· Involve students in the process. Students should be actively involved in the portfolio process from day one. If possible, involve them directly in creating the portfolio assignment itself. If students can help establish the criteria and the type of portfolio they will be creating, they are more likely to feel ownership and empowerment in the process.

· Start students early. Have students begin organizing and selecting pieces for their efolio as early as possible. Likewise, begin having students experiment with various technologies early in the process as well. Waiting until the end only increases the frustration level of students and ultimately produces efolios of inferior quality.

· Spread selection over time. Schedule time on a regular basis for students to review their classroom work. Encourage students to write the date on every assignment they complete and even write a few reflective sentences about the importance of that assignment at the time it is turned in. By May, the memories of an assignment completed in September may be foggy at best.

· Back up all disks and files. Disks do fail and unforeseen problems and obstacles do occur. Encourage students to take responsibility for backing up all of their files, either on a hard drive at home, a zip disk, or a CD-ROM.

· Keep visual files and images small. High resolution takes up a great deal of space and is not necessary for an effective efolio. Because these images are being viewed on a computer monitor and are not being printed, smaller, lower resolution files will do just fine and save valuable storage space.

· Show examples. Providing models for students to examine is critical for their understanding of expectations. Both outstanding and less than stellar examples of previous efolios help students to not only understand the specifics of the assignment itself, but also understand the realm of possibilities that exist in setting up and designing the efolio.

· Provide checkpoints. Set up road signs on the path to portfolio completion. Stair-step deadlines and goals so that efolios are a manageable and accomplishable in the mind of students. Set up times for peer and teacher conferencing to order for students to be able to ask questions and receive feedback.

· Make the efolio an integral part of instruction. Efolios should not become “busy work” that is an add-on to the primary assignments and content of a class. The efolio assignment should drive the curriculum and provide a link from instruction to assessment.

· Set high standards. Too often students achieve at a level just above punishment. Establishing high standards for efolios helps to keep students understand the importance of what they are doing and the relevance to their own lives. Having students involved in setting those standards also increases motivation, and often time students set standard for themselves that are much higher than what we teachers would set.

· Create your own efolio. Not only does creating your own efolio provide another example for students to explore, but it also shows them you are engaging the very same process as they are. And because efolios link instruction and assessment, the teacher learning that occurs can be beneficial and insightful.

There are many platforms and multi-media programs that teachers and students can use to construct a digital portfolio. Netscape Communicator, PowerPoint, HyperStudio, COMPEL, Persuasion, Storyboard Live, Dreamweaver, Claris Home Page, and Cyber Studio are all being used by schools and students to design and display digital portfolios (Abrenica; Bergman). This past year I chose to have my students use the multi-media program that was most familiar and most available to us—Microsoft Word. Although not the most technical or ‘flashy’ of programs, Microsoft Word offered a platform which students were already familiar and had experience using. To me, this was valuable; I did not want to spend time teaching students a new program; I simply wanted them to expand the technology skills they already possessed and use those skills to create a new project.

In “Feasible Electronic Portfolios: Global Networking for the Self-Directed Learner in the Digital Age,” Todd Bergman offers these additional criteria. Good efolio software should facilitate:

Our decision to use Microsoft Word for our multi-media program worked well for our efolios. Students were able to create efolios with very little new technology instruction. Figure 1 is the list of simple instructions I gave my students as a reference. These instructions supplemented the thrity or so minutes worth of computer instruction I gave them in class.

This past school year I designed several efolio assignments with my classes. The efolio assignment described in Figure 2 was designed for a junior level American literature class. As I sat down to plan and map out what I wanted this efolio to include and what I wanted it to prove, I progressed through many of the processes listed above. I knew that I wanted my students to create a proficiency portfolio that documented their abilities in the area of writing. Because the curriculum of our class requires that students develop both formal and informal writing, I wanted to be sure students included multiple examples of each. However, I also wanted to leave as much flexibility in the assignment as possible so students would have to weigh in their own minds what to include and what not to include.

What I decided upon as a central focus of the efolio was to have students to explain their own definition and philosophy of ‘good writing.’ The concept of this assignment is something I adapted from a colleague, Jerrod Bohn, who devised a similar assignment as an in-class final for his Creative Writing students. This efolio assignment allowed students flexibility while still having a specific purpose for creating the efolio. This also allowed students to use samples of their own writing as evidence and support for the argument they made.

We spent time each month going through the selection and reflection steps of the portfolio process and in May I handed out the efolio assignment sheet. Students spent one day in class organizing their ‘working folders’ and making their final selections of pieces and final reflections and then we moved to the computer lab for six days to construct our efolios.

Once efolios have been created and presented, they also should be assessed. The authentic, performance assessment that portfolios facilitate is one of their greatest strengths. Rather than raw statistical data, portfolios offer a snapshot of student learning and growth and often times predict what a student may be capable of in the future.

In “Digital Portfolios” Terry Wiedmer offers three types of assessment rubrics: (1) the primary trait rubric that assesses a portfolio on the demonstrates performance in one or more areas of emphasis, (2) the holistic rubric that assess a whole portfolio and rates general skills, and (3) the analytic rubric that breaks of portfolio in parts and rates each part.

When creating a rubric for the efolio assignment in Figure 2, I chose to create a primary trait rubric. I wanted to focus my students’ attention on the quality of reflection and writing they were producing and keep the overall number of traits I was assessing low. After studying the example rubrics offered by Tammy Worcester (www.essdack.org/port/rubric.html) and Joyce Morris (www.uvm.edu/~jmorris/rubricep.html), I created the rubric in Figure 3.

This rubric was created in May and handed to students before they began constructing their efolios. This allowed students to see the exact criteria that I would be grading them on and also how each of three areas of emphasis was weighted. As a final check to make sure we were prepared for the presentation stage, I had pairs of students assess each other’s efolio using this same rubric. This gave students an opportunity to review their own efolio and the efolio of a peer and make any necessary changes before I graded them.

In my classes we shared all of our efolios by projecting them onto the Whiteboard and having each student explain the what’s, why’s, and how’s of their creations to the class. This more informal method of assessment allowed students the opportunity to see how others addressed the same issues and solved the same problems. This also served as an excellent way for students to preview what they were taking home on CD-ROM.

As a final method of assessing our use of efolios, I created a survey for students to be able to anonymously report their attitudes and impressions. I was particularly interested in seeing how students felt about their work in comparison to more traditional, hard copy portfolios. I was also interested in how students perceived technology’s effect on their efolios. Specifically, I wanted to know if students felt comfortable using technology and whether or not technology allowed them to be more creative in what they constructed. With these ideas in mind, I created the survey shown in Figure 4.

The results of the survey were extremely positive. Students reported overwhelmingly that they were comfortable, connected, and happy with the process of creating an efolio. In addition to the Likert-style survey questions, I also had students write a few comments about efolios on the back of the survey as well. The results of the survey and selections of comments written by students are shown in Figure 5.

I was extremely pleased on all counts with the use of efolios in my classroom. I also feel there are areas where more study of the use of efolios would be beneficial. Specifically, I would like to see more research on how technology affects the quantity and quality of student reflection. My students reported to me informally that the ability to choose images and backgrounds that connected with the content of their writing assisted them in reflecting on the value of the writing itself. Although this can certainly be done with hard-copy portfolios as well, my students reported that the ease of using a computer to create this facilitated more time being spent on reflection. A second area of additional research might be to study whether or not student attitudes about efolios are the result of their perceived relevance to learning, or whether they are simply a “fad” students find interesting and engaging because they are new.

Portfolios and efolios have certainly changed the way I teach. With their assistance, I have helped my students step back from their work to look at and assess the quality of their own learning. They serve as a record of past work, a snapshot of current skills, and a predictor of future success. Electrifying the use of portfolios in my classroom has empowered my students, energized me, and brought dramatic results.

Simple Instructions

Step 1 – Create a folder to store all of the files and documents to be used in your efolio.

3. Title the new folder with a descriptive name, such as “John Doe’s Efolio”

[NOTE: In order for your efolio to work correctly ALL files, documents, images, sound clips, etc. must be saved into this folder before they are added to your efolio.]

Step 2 – Move all existing documents and files that are to be a part of the efolio into the folder created in Step 1.

Step 3 – Create an Index page that serves as the link between all of the components of your efolio.

3. When ready to save, click on the “File” menu and select “Save as Web Page.”

4. In the “Save As” window, be sure that the “Save in” box reads the name of the folder you created in Step 1; in the “File name” box type the word “INDEX”; double check that the “Save as Type” box reads “Web page (*.htm; *.html)”; then click the save button.

Step 4 – On your Index page, insert hyperlinks to the documents that are components of your efolio.

3. On the right side of the “Insert Hyperlink” window, select “Browse for File.”

4. Select the file you want to link to this descriptor from the folder you created in Step1.

6. You will return to the “Insert Hyperlink” window, click “OK” here as well.

7. On the “INDEX” page, you will notice that the descriptor is now underlined and in blue. This link works exactly the same as a hyperlink of the Internet.

Step 5 – Add appropriate text, graphics, sound clips, backgrounds, etc. to your “Index” page as you see fit just as you would in a normal Microsoft Word document.

Final Efolio Assignment

Describing the nature of good writing has challenged philosophers, poets and littérateurs since humanity learned to express itself through the written word. Many scholars suggest that before a writer can truly master writing, he or she must first articulate a theory addressing the question, “What is good writing?” For your final project, I would like you to create your own philosophy of good writing. Additionally, I would like you to explain to what extent writing will continue to be a part of your life once you have left this class.

On the “Index” page of your efolio, explain your philosophy of good writing and explain how writing will be a crucial part of your future. Embedded within this text should be hyperlinks to pieces of your own writing that serve as evidence to support and defend your position and your beliefs. You might also want to mention some of the examples of good writing that we have read in class.

Of course, there are many ways this explanation might be achieved and there is certainly no single correct manner in which this should be done. But below is an outline of one way this assignment might be broken down into more manageable chunks:

Topic 1 – Content

Topic 2 – Emotion

Topic 3 – The Process

Topic 4 – Your Own Writing

Topic 5 – Your Future

To stimulate your thinking and springboard into some of your own writing, you might find it helpful to look at what some other writers have said:

“The only time I know the truth is when it reveals itself at the end of my pen.”

“If you wish to be a writer, write.” “You write because you want to be read”

“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

“When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know.”

“All writing comes by the grace of God.” “Writers are the engineers of human souls.”

“Writers aren’t exactly people, they’re a whole lot of people trying to be one person.”

Efolio Scoring Rubric

_____ / 100 = Total Score

Please evaluate our use of electronic portfolios (e-folios) in regards to your learning by circling the appropriate number for each statement below:

Technology allowed me to be more creative in designing my portfolio.
1 2 3 4 5 6

I prefer to create an efolio rather than traditional paper portfolios

Creating an efolio allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my learning
1 2 3 4 5 6

Using advanced technology tocreate my portfolio will assist me later in life.
1 2 3 4 5 6

Creating my efolio allowed me to see a connection between what I am learning in school and the outside world.
1 2 3 4 5 6

After creating their very first efolio, 143 students enrolled in English classes at Washburn Rural High School were surveyed for their opinions regarding the process.

“I think creating the portfolio electronically allows for easier storage, viewing and more in-depth introspection.”

“It was fun and it allowed me to be much more creative than with ‘old fashioned’ portfolios.”

“This was a new experience for me and it was kind of fun, but I think I could have been more creative with a paper portfolio, even though it would have used up a lot of paper!”

“The efolio allowed me to express myself and show connections among the various pieces of work and also my growth over the year.”

“I didn’t really like making the efolio because it was hard to just write about my work. It did make me reflect though.”

“Creating an efolio was better than creating a regular portfolio because it allowed you to be more creative and have more fun with it. It did allow me to look back and see my growth as a writer throughout the year.”

“Efolios are fast, fun and involve a lot of learning. I enjoyed making mine; it’s a creative way to show what you’ve learned.”

“Efolios are the best idea in the world. There was absolutely no difficulty. It was perfect for reflection.”

“Efolios are interesting because you can do so many things and you don’t have to be artistic.”

“It took probably the same amount of time as a normal portfolio, but it went faster because it was on the computer.”

Abrenica, Yolanda. “Electronic Portfolios.” San Diego State University. 29 May 2003 <http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596r/students/Abrenica/Abrenica.html>.

Berger, Peter. “Night of the Living Portfolios.” NEA Today. October 1997: 41. EBSCOhost Web <http://search.epnet.com>.

Bergman, Todd. “Feasible Electronic Portfolios: Global Networking for the Self-Directed Learner in the Digital Age.” Mt. Edgecumbe High School. 29 May 2003 <http://www.mehs.educ.state.ak.us/portfolios/why_digital_portfolios.html>.

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	Missed the Mark! 1	Getting Close! 3	Bulls eye! 5
Index Page Reflection: ___ x 10	Reflection is missing, vague, repetitive, or does not address the prompt.	Reflection is present but lacks description, insight, development, or does not address the entire prompt.	Reflection is descriptive, insightful, and addresses the entire prompt in a full and detailed manner.
Writing & Mechanics: ___ x 5	Writing is rough and awkward. Spelling and punctuation errors are frequent and distracting.	Writing is rough in places. Some spelling and punctuation errors are evident.	Writing throughout is smooth and fluid. Very few or no errors in spelling and punctuation.
Overall Design: ___ x 5	Design is incomplete and/or inappropriate. Supporting evidence documents are missing, incomplete, and/or inappropriate.	Attempt to capture the viewer’s attention through design is not entirely successful. All documents are present but are not fully developed or ready for publication.	Graphics, sounds, etc. engage the viewer & reflect the content of the writing. All documents are complete, of high quality, and ready for publication.

Electrifying the Experience: Using Technology to Create Digital Portfolios

by Matt Copeland

Simple Instructions

Final Efolio Assignment

Topic 1 – Content

Topic 2 – Emotion

Topic 3 – The Process

Topic 4 – Your Own Writing

Topic 5 – Your Future

Efolio Scoring Rubric

_____ / 100 = Total Score

I prefer to create an efolio rather than traditional paper portfolios

Creating an efolio allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my learning
1 2 3 4 5 6

Creating my efolio allowed me to see a connection between what I am learning in school and the outside world.
1 2 3 4 5 6

Electrifying the Experience: Using Technology to Create Digital Portfolios

by Matt Copeland

Simple Instructions

Final Efolio Assignment

Topic 1 – Content

Topic 2 – Emotion

Topic 3 – The Process

Topic 4 – Your Own Writing

Topic 5 – Your Future

Efolio Scoring Rubric

_____ / 100 = Total Score

I prefer to create an efolio rather than traditional paper portfolios

Creating an efolio allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my learning 1 2 3 4 5 6

Creating my efolio allowed me to see a connection between what I am learning in school and the outside world. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Creating an efolio allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my learning
1 2 3 4 5 6

Creating my efolio allowed me to see a connection between what I am learning in school and the outside world.
1 2 3 4 5 6