The ePortfolio

Introduction

The ePortfolio (electronic portfolio, digital portfolio or the iWeb protfolio) should be a showcase for student works, skills and/or abilities. It should be considered the grand finale for all of your students. I feel that it is such an important document that the ePortfolio should be a graduation requirement for all high school students in the United States.

There are many programs that may be used to create a eportfolio. Adobe Director is a powerful contender with a large number of visual outstanding effects. A case can be made for creating interactive PDF using either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe InDesign. A DV portfolio can be created using iMovie on the Mac or Adobe Premiere Elements on the PC. Even Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple KeyNote could be used if nothing else is available. But the browser based (HTML) portfolio is becoming the more widely accepted standard.

This browser based portfolio offers many advantages. It can crossed platform and may be easily viewed on any computer operating platform. Almost everyone has or can acquire, without cost, a browser which serves as the projector/ presentation tool. Numerous file formats may be used within this presentation, including most: sound files, most images, digital video, flash (SWF and FLV), director (shockwave) and PDF files. Lastly, the portfolio can easily be placed on either a CD-ROM for local, in-house viewing or on the World Wide Web (internet) for viewing from anywhere. An outstanding professioal example of an HTML presentation is the CD tutorial for Apple's FinalCut Pro software entitled " Final Cut Pro Power Start CD-ROM" by Straight Scoop Enterprises, Inc. Another outstanding professional example of an browser based presentation,which was plased on CD, is the original X-box promotional CD (this CD is no longer published a may be impossible to locate, but it is well worth the effort).

A third grade student scanning material for her browser based protfolio.

Colleges and universities have embraced the ePortfolio, especially in education departments. It is often refered to as a teaching protfolio. Some secondary schools are becoming involved with the ePortfolio and it's beginning to become popular in elementary schools. The most ask question of me, however, when I am facilitating an ePortfolio workshop is, "What is the youngest age that a portfolio is appropriate?" Browser based (HTML) portfolios might be a little difficult for some elementary students, but an electronic slide (Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote) portfolio can easily be created at the first or second grade level.

Producing the ePortfolio

Producing a browser based portfolio is the same as producing a web site. I prefer my students use Adobe Dreamweaver when I really want them to learn HTML coding, Adobe Contribute is an execellent choice for those teachers that are not having their classes learn codeing. There are also numerous free editors. For a list of free PC editors go to Free HTML Editors / Free Web Editors or the free CoffeeCup HTML Editor. This is a trimed down version of The CoffeeCup HTML Editor ($49.00) which comes with a ton of extras. You can download the full version here.

For a list of free HTML editors for Mac go to Free Web Editors for Macintosh or Mac HTML Editors. Be sure to read carefully when downloading from Mac HTML Editors as this site includes many TEXT editors which require working totally in code.