Day10: Electronic Portfolios for Students

I really like the idea of digital portfolios for students as a means of evaluating them instead of just collecting a folder that constains their test scores. At my district we use to have student portfolios for all students. Every student had a folder and it was passed on to each of their teachers every year, and each teacher would put in a couple samples of the students work. However the folders were getting so big and so hard to handle by the time the student graduated from our school that my district stopped having us put in any samples of work. Now each student has a folder that is kept in a file cabinet in the school office, and at the end of the school year each teacher puts a report card and AIMS test scores for each student. Now that folder is the only thing that we have to evaluate the students progress at our school. Even though I didn't realize it at the time it seems like we were on the right track years ago when we were collecting samples of students work. Even though keeping those huge folders year after year would of run into some storage problems it would of shown more of assessment than I think just a folder of test scores do. Having a digital portfolio for every student would be so beneficial to everyone involved. Students would be able to get a copy and take it with them to high school. Teachers would be able to see what they did and what they are cabable of doing prior to coming to their class and parents could see how their child was progressing year after year.