e– Portfolios
Kelly Driscoll
platforms for sharing and collaboration using twenty-first-century
skills.
E-portfolios are online spaces
for teachers and students to
communicate, share, reflect,
and collaborate inside and
outside of the classroom. They have
created exciting opportunities for
teaching and learning worldwide.
The popularity and wide adoption of
e-portfolios is due to three key factors: easy access, low cost, and high
impact on teaching and learning.
Kelly Driscoll is cofounder and president
of Digication and teaches graduate and
undergraduate courses at Rhode Island
School of Design’s Art + Design Education Department and Bryant University’s
Department of English and Cultural Studies. kdriscoll@digication.com
WEB LINK
www.digication.com/eportfolio-quickstart
Web-based and Low Cost
E-portfolios are easy to access
because they are web-based. This
means that any computer with
Internet access can access the software and become a hub for communication between teachers and
students. Increasingly, e-portfolios
are available for low cost for both
teachers and students to use. Low-cost software removes one of the
biggest technology hurdles
schools face:
a limited budget. E-portfolios have the
potential to
deliver high impact on teaching and
learning when integrated into the
curriculum.
art and design institutions,
Digication e-portfolios give
teachers and students the
tools they need to easily
publish their work online in
a professional way within
a connected community of
learners.
For teachers, e-portfolios provide invaluable channels to share
their curriculum, reflect on best
practices, and disseminate student
work. Likewise, e-portfolios provide
students the opportunity to create
and customize a showcase of their
knowledge, a history of their process and progress, a reflection on
their experiences, and a record of
their aspirations. It is a vehicle for
expression that creates a powerful
motivation for creating great content
to share with teachers and peers.
Additionally, e-portfolios are gaining an increasing role in the college
admissions process as well as career
advancement.
Content
The content for the e-Portfolio can
include research papers and presen-
tations for class, digital images of
student work,
The popularity of e-portfolios activities or
is due to three key factors: easy travels to
access, low cost, and high impact other coun-
tries, video
on teaching and learning. clips of stu-
dents acting
in plays or dance recitals, or playing
sports or musical instruments, or
descriptions of life goals or involve-
ment in community organizations.
The process of creating an e-
Portfolio not only gives teachers and
students an opportunity to build
necessary technology skills but also
provides an excellent opportunity
for acknowledging strengths, recog-
nizing areas for improvement, and
setting goals and milestones. They
are powerful tools for learning and
reflection and can provide dynamic
E-portfolios empower teachers and students with the ability
to easily publish work online in
professional, customizable presentations that serve a number of different uses including:
• online image galleries
• journals of educational
experiences
• archives of work produced
• collaborative projects
• curriculum sharing
• interactive resumes
Impact
As an educator and co-founder of
e-Portfolio software company, Digication, I have seen the impact of e-portfolios on teaching and learning
first hand.
Digication is the campus-wide
e-Portfolio software for Rhode Island
School of Design and Otis College
of Art and Design. At these premier
Got Five Minutes?
Make your own e-Portfolio. Just go
to
www.digication.com/eportfo-lioquickstart to learn more. This
website will show you the simple
steps you can take to create your
own e-Portfolio using Digication
e-Portfolio software.
