Two weeks ago I par­tic­i­pated in the Lead­er­ship 2.0 Open Course hosted by George Couros. The first ses­sion, Cre­at­ing a Dig­i­tal Port­fo­lio, was well “attended”, and I’d rec­om­mend that you par­tic­i­pate in one of the other free ses­sions over the next seven weeks.

You can read about that first ses­sion on George’s blog, or check out the Twit­ter feed.  Dur­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion, George’s use of his blog high­lighted the ways a blog could be used as a learn­ing portfolio.

For many edu­ca­tors, sim­ply say­ing the word port­fo­lio sends shiv­ers up their spines. Per­son­ally, I cre­ated port­fo­lios as an under­grad, teacher, grad­u­ate stu­dent, and admin­is­tra­tor. I’ve also reviewed count­less port­fo­lios that were lugged into my office by eager teacher can­di­dates or vet­eran teach­ers “demon­strat­ing” their mas­tery of teach­ing.  Many of those port­fo­lios were sim­ply gal­leries used to store arti­facts that may or may not accu­rately rep­re­sent the portfolio’s cre­ator.  Unfor­tu­nately, many port­fo­lios have sim­ply become a “dog and pony” show.  So why has such a seem­ingly pos­i­tive learn­ing expe­ri­ence become so neg­a­tive to me and many other edu­ca­tors?  My bit­ter­ness towards these port­fo­lios really has lit­tle to do with the medium used to cre­ate the port­fo­lio, but rather the poor process of cre­at­ing and reflect­ing on the port­fo­lio.  George’s port­fo­lio embraced the many char­ac­ter­is­tics that should be part of any port­fo­lio.  Although the blog for­mat isn’t what makes his blog suc­cess­ful, the tech­nol­ogy sure makes things eas­ier! If you choose, or are forced to cre­ate a learn­ing port­fo­lio for your­self or your stu­dents, here are some key points that may help make your port­fo­lio more rel­e­vant and meaningful.

• Cre­ate a port­fo­lio that makes shar­ing with oth­ers easy!  As a prin­ci­pal, my first screen­ing of can­di­dates was a google search.  If I found that an edu­ca­tor had cre­ated a pos­i­tive dig­i­tal foot­print on a blog or another dig­i­tal tool, they would move up on my list!
• Use a tool that makes it easy to give and receive feed­back.  Those three inch binders don’t serve that pur­pose very well!  If you do choose a tool that allows for pub­lic feed­back, you will need to have seri­ous con­ver­sa­tions about how feed­back is pro­vided.  I like a pub­lic port­fo­lio because it pro­vides the learner with a wider audi­ence than sim­ply a teacher or principal.
• Use mul­ti­ple forms of media on your port­fo­lio.  Oth­ers want to read, see, and hear about your learn­ing.  Videos and images can cer­tainly enhance your portfolio.

When edu­ca­tors ask me about my pref­er­ence of a tech­nol­ogy tool, my first response is always to ask what objec­tive they are try­ing to accom­plish.  Cre­at­ing a port­fo­lio is no dif­fer­ent.  If you can clearly iden­tify WHY you are cre­at­ing a port­fo­lio, it will be much eas­ier to decide what tool works best for you.  Unfor­tu­nately, the why has often been poorly defined or for poor rea­sons.  As edu­ca­tors, we should rec­og­nize the value of reflect­ing on our work as well as receiv­ing feed­back on that work.  A blog, if designed appro­pri­ately  is one very trans­par­ent way to cre­ate such a learn­ing environment.

Nick Sauers