The benefits of creating electronic portfolios for students

Every parent with a child in school certainly has a portfolio with construction paper and other materials sticking out of the sides. What if there was an easier and more permanent way to store all of the work that parents and others are so proud of?

An electronic portfolio is a great way to store and display the work that a student has been working on for either a year or their entire school life. It's just another way for students and teachers to take advantage of the benefits technology brings to the world of education.

The portfolios are just like scrapbooks of their progress, with the following components involved:

• cover
• table of contents
• purpose statements
• goals

These are typed out, while the cover may be a digital image taken with a camera of a paper or other work. As for the work, writings are typed out while drawings are also captured with a digital camera. The works are saved to the portfolio and can be burned to a disk or other form of storage for display or viewing at any time.

The portfolios can be customized as far as colors, shapes, text, and more. Students can choose accompanying images and can even link to webpages online. The portfolios can also be uploaded to the Internet for access online.

There are several ways to create a digital portfolio. Teachers can get their hands on programs made especially for creating digital portfolios, including The Portfolio Builder and The Portfolio Assessment Kit. Individuals can also use PowerPoint and Microsoft Word, among others. PowerPoint is a great way to present one's portfolio to an audience... including parents at home!

Clearly, one benefit of electronic portfolios is that they can be stored and saved in a variety of ways for convenience. They are easy to access and place for safekeeping. Creating these portfolios is also a great way to increase technological skills, which they will definitely need in the future. Additionally, they give students a chance to survey their work in one place, while teachers can assess progress and parents can admire work. Portfolios in general give teachers a chance to view a student's work along educational standards. Also, they can be added to easily, as they should be!

Please consider creating electronic portfolios. This is great not just for elementary students, but for middle-school and even high-school students as well!