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Your students are creating fantastic projects to show what they know. You can take their learning, and your ability to assess their achievement, to an even higher level using digital portfolios. Portfolios have long been a mainstay in the visual arts, where skill and expertise cannot be accurately represented by percentage points and letter grades. Electronic portfolios have been around for years, but the advent of powerful new technologies makes building, maintaining, sharing, and archiving student learning in digital form easier than ever before.
A digital portfolio is a computer-based collection of student performance over time. Portfolios make classroom learning more accessible to parents, administrators, and other district support staff because they provide a window into student learning. A portfolio showcases both student achievement and student learning over time. To demonstrate growth, a portfolio will often include similar work done over the course of several years. What Should a Digital Portfolio Include?
When used as a student assessment tool, digial portfolios should demonstrate that “the student is involved in meaningful performance tasks; there are clear standards and criteria for excellence; there is an emphasis on metacognition and self-evaluation; the student produces quality products and performances; there is a positive interaction between assessor and assessee.” (Burke, 1999) The performances students include in their portfolios should be related to the curriculum and evidence their engagement in meaningful learning.
Students should choose the content of their portfolios with the clear understanding that the items must include examples of their best performances, demonstrations of achieving a particular objective, and examples showing personal and academic growth. The content should be indicative of a wide range of skills and abilities and provide clear demonstration of student ability.  One of the most important ingredients in a portfolio is the student’s reflection on their work. Students should include reflections on each performance to clarify why pieces are included in the portfolio. This is perhaps the most valuable part of the portfolio, since it provides a much clearer window into the learning of each student. Student reflections help us “discover and observe what our children are really experiencing, thinking about, questioning, wondering about, trying, and attaining.” (Niguidula, 2002) In the words of John Dewey, “We don’t learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience.” The tools used for creating digital portfolios make it easy to type or record a voice reflection.
A portfolio should also include clear criteria for judging the merit of each performance contained in it. Portfolios should include a detailed rubric explaining the effectiveness and overall value of each performance. The rubric helps students understand expectations and provides a guide as they reflect on the different aspects of their performance. |
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