Portfolios: paper or plastic?

Or pixels? (Or am I spending way too much time trying to think up semi-clever titles?) Anyway, the subject of e-portfolios, raised below by Howard, seems worthy of its own post. A little bit of research (i.e., googling) turned up these relevant sites/pages:

• for a good intro, see D. Alexis Hart's interview with Kathleen Blake Yancey, Textured Literacy
• for the "official" word, check out the Nov. 2007 4C's position paper on Principles and Practices in Electronic Portfolios
• and for a rich site with a tremendous number of links, see Montgomery College's ePortfolios, Oh My.

Questions for the day:

• If yr department uses portfolio assessment of some sort, have you already made or are you contemplating a transition from paper to electronic portfolios?
• What do you identify as the challenges and rewards of e-portfolios (in particular, in contrast to the paper variety)?
• How (if at all) does a community college setting (with great differences we see in our FYC students in terms of writing competency, tech experience, and academic/career goals) affect the feasibility of e-portfolios?

Comments

[Howard Tinberg]

All terrific questions, Holly. I am in such awe of what LaGuardia has done through its e-portfolio programs (thanks for the link). If this kind of innovative work is possible there, why not at other community colleges? I continue to feel that we sell our students short when we fail to offer our students innovative options for composition.

I am seriously considering e-portfolios for my required composition course. But of course I'll need to be ready to provide models for students to emulate.

Here's the key question, however: is visual literacy among the various competencies expected of community college writes? And are digital and web-based compositions relevant to workplace success?

[Holly]

Yes, that LaGuardia project is very impressive and inspiring. It's interesting to think about the distinction(s) between their institutional approach and the classroom approach you're contemplating. What's the difference between offering and requiring, between a reflective summary of the totality of a student's college work and a single-course requirement?

Your questions seem to contain several embedded questions. The notion of what's "expected of cc writers" is a little unsettling for me; who's setting the expectations, and (how) do these expectations differ from FYC students in four-year institutions? And should the expectations differ? Visual literacy is an aspect of these e-portfolios, but I think the reflective aspect, the potential gains both in critical thinking skills and in self-awareness/self-confidence may(?) be equally or more valuable. And the transferability of skills to a workplace setting is certainly an important question, but I think the competencies to be gained far exceed the "merely" technical (not to imply that's what you were saying!)...it's all very exciting stuff!