As a learner, I remember very few essays I've written, and I remember even fewer quizzes and tests I ever took. There are some standouts: a big paper I wrote over Chaucer, the rocks and minerals test I took in geology, an especially horrific test that had me matching poets and first lines of 75 plus poems. But by and large, from 18 years of education, I remember a small percent of the assignments that made up said education. Certainly my education is worth more than the sum of its parts, and I retain the skills I gained as a reader and writer, but when I think of how much time I spent making flashcards, reviewing, and completing assignments, I can't help but think it could have been done in a more meaningful way.
As I looked through portfolios this week, I remember different semesters of college where I would have to collect work, but there was never an overarching purpose. It felt like each teacher was going rogue. Although I found value in the portfolio assignments, because they were only done intermittently, they never really achieved what I would think of as the full goal of portfolios.
Defining Portfolios
Loyola University defines an ePortfolio as
a digital collection of work over time that showcases skills, abilities, values, experiences, and competencies through a broad range of evidence-based learning. An ePortfolio may include a variety of artifacts - or relevant documents and media files - that provide a holistic representation of who you are, personally, professionally, and academically.
According to this definition, a teacher could use many different assignments as a type of portfolio. I think of giving my students journal prompts throughout the semester or having them write a beginning, middle, and end of the year assessment. But to me, the last part of the definition is most important: a holistic representation of who you are personally, professionally, and academically. Haphazardly assigned writing prompts or the portfolios I completed as an undergrad do not fulfill this purpose. They were all pieces and parts, but never came together as that holistic view of me as a learner or as an educator.
Affordances of ePortfolios
Last week, I discussed blogs and asserted that any student familiar with internet access and a passing familiarity with word processing software can maintain and update a blog. EPortfolios can be nearly that simple or can be built from scratch including the coding to create the web page. With websites like Wix and Weebly, the affordances of ePortfolios make it a great tool for student learning.
Wix and Weebly have drag and drop tools that allow students to easily customize their website, and they also have a myriad of editable templates. One potential drawback to these websites is that they are ad-driven, and to remove the banner requires payment. Additionally, some school districts may block them as social media.
Another great option is Google Sites, free with any Google account. If you go this route, Google also provides a gallery of templates to begin, including a portfolio option. An embedded tour guides the creator in adding elements and eventually publishing the site.
Wikis are another option for portfolios. One main way Wikis differ from blogs is that they allow groups to maintain the same site. Of course the ubiquity of Wikipedia ensures that everyone's heard of a wiki, but in my experience few of my students have ever used or edited one. When I first began teaching, my students used Wikispaces to create websites but that site was shut down some time ago. PBWorks is another collaborative website that has undergone such a dramatic change it doesn't even look like a traditional wiki. That's not a bad thing because, to me, one of the main drawbacks of wikis is the somewhat dated appearance and lack of usability. However, with Wikispaces and PBWorks gone, I don't see myself using or recommending wikis.
Another interesting e-portfolio option I found is within Canvas, a learning management system very popular in Oklahoma. Our campus has been using Canvas for a couple of years, but only when I became a student at a summer course did I see the portfolio option. 
It's very easy to create the portfolio within Canvas. It begins with a brief overview of what an ePortfolio is and includes a “Getting Started” wizard to help you begin. My students are very familiar with Canvas, but I would hesitate to recommend this option because you have to have a Canvas account to access it. If an ePortfolio is designed to showcase lifeline and lifelong learning, I feel it's important that it's hosted somewhere with the most access available.
Google Sites have come a long way in the last few years and are really as simple as Wix and Weebly. It's a very clean interface with a robust help and FAQ section. Pluses to a Google site is familiarity with the brand, the majority of students will have a Google account, and it's free. One negative would be ensuring that students create the site under a personal email. Our students have Gmail addresses that go away after they graduate so they would need to use personal email addresses that are difficult to access at school. For my personal ePortfolio, I'm going with Sites. I'm a big fan of Google tools and think it has the look I want combined with the ease my non-coding self requires. ***
ePortfolios in APLang Class
As a writing teacher, having students keep an ePortfolio would be a great addition to my course. I struggle in AP Lang with midterms and finals because multiple choice tests don't feel like an accurate representation of what my students have learned. However, assessing full-length essays isn't always possible in the last couple of weeks of a term either. I feel like ePortfolios are the best of both worlds. They're a much more authentic assessment of what my students have learned and add the authentic audience that I so value in blogging. I think blogging has a place in my classroom as well, especially as a reflection piece. But I really like the idea of incorporating portfolios as an authentic assessment of my students.
APLang centers around three types of writing: rhetorical analysis, argument, and synthesis. I would like my midterm and final next year to be an ePortfolio with one sample of each type of essay. Having students curate their writing pieces throughout the year would probably just be augmentation on the SAMR model. I'd also like to add a visual component where students explain which pieces they choose which would bump it up to at least modification. I intend to model the different portfolio tools I've looked at, and then allow the students their choice of what site to use.
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