Digital Portfolios

photo credit: JD Hancock via photopin cc

What Is Important To Your Students?

@joe_edtech

There has been a convergence of ideas in the books I've read recently. Daniel Pink's books Drive and A Whole New Mind both discuss the need for our schools to move beyond the structure and thinking of the Industrial Revolution and to provide students with multiple opportunities to think, create, and design for themselves. Sir Ken Robinson's Finding Your Element expands on his earlier work and criticized the artificial hierarchy and division of subjects and the need for all students to find support for their passions in schools. Danah Boyd's It's Complicated spends some time discussing the need for teens to develop autonomy and voice even when fear and adult overreaction often restrict them from doing so. 

It seems to me that simply adding more elements of student inquiry and student choice into the educational process can move us closer to the ideas written about by Pink, Robinson, and Boyd - and that without spending a single additional cent from already tight budgets.

Do you use student portfolios? If so, are kids instructed what to place in those portfolios and when? What would happen if you offered the portfolio as an opportunity instead of an assignment? What would it look like if it was offered as an opportunity school wide and all your departments supported it?

Two years ago I worked with the coordinators of a high school Literacy Lab to develop a template for all of their students to create a digital portfolio showcasing the work they completed in their high school years. The template included a blank page and directions for each of their four years. It was a great idea (not mine, of course - I was just happy to support it). But, I think it is time for a little revision.

Last Spring I had the opportunity to attend a workshop lead by George Couros, Division Principal for a school district in Alberta, Canada (@gcouros). The students in his school district create digital portfolios as well. However, when they get to high school, the students decide what, when, and how they post their work to their portfolios, and the portfolios can include not just classroom pieces, but blogs and photos if students choose to include them.

The idea is that in the elementary and middle school years teachers provide more support for students as they choose works to post online, and help them organize their portfolios in a way that makes sense. In high school, though, teachers encourage students to become digital leaders and develop a digital footprint that "won't just keep them from getting a job, but will actually lead to them getting additional opportunities" (probably not an exact quote, but I wanted to give George Couros credit for the thought).

Since I don't work in a k-12 district, we don't see our students until they are in 9th grade. So we can't follow the k-12 model. However, we can spend freshmen year focusing on digital literacy and provide them scaffolding and support for creating a positive digital footprint, then encourage them to create their own portfolios beginning with their 10th grade year. What would happen if we kept the structured template for the freshman year but then just provided them with a platform for them to create their own voice and vision throughout their high school years?

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Do your students create digital portfolios? How much autonomy do your students have in creating their digital portfolios?