| ePortfolio's monthly Column |
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Spring 2006 faculty |
Dear faculty and students,
Welcome back! We hope you had a peaceful and enjoyable break.
We would like to thank the following faculty for implementing ePortfolios last semester:
Professors Miriam Abety, Juan Escandon, Albert Lenel, Irene Canel Petersen, Manolo Garcia, Lourdes Gonzalez, Liza Greenberg,
Rosalie Kolesar, and
Ileana Porges West.
We attended many of the students' presentations and want to compliment everyone on the wonderful ePortfolios that have been created.
This was a great semester; the ePortfolio team is pleased to have served 7 faculty members and 150 students.
To view students' ePortfolio, visit the Faculty page and click on faculty names.
A special effort was made this semester to assist students in including various media in their ePortfolio. You will see more graphics, videos and sound files than in earlier ePortfolios.
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New faculty:
Professors
Manuel Duasso
Cynthia Schuemann
Faculty re-implementing
Professors
Miriam Abety
Salma Bustamante
Irene Canel Petersen
Liza Greenberg
Albert Lenel
Yvette Lujan
Ileana Porges West
Rene Revuelta
Thania Rios
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| In-house ePORTFOLIO |
Coming soon..
A very special thank you to two ePortfolio enthusiasts, Professors Ileana Porges West and Juan Escandon, who have helped us test-drive the new ePortfolio platform in their class.
Between the two classes, we had 48 users testing the new system.
We also had a gracious group of about 8 independant test-users.
The new system was well received;
some users familiar with LiveText found the new system easier to use.
The new system will be tested one more time this semester in 4 classes. |
| Reflection on Last Semester |
Don’t let Media Overshadow Content!
Integrating technology by using ePortfolio is a great vehicle for instructors to deliver material, and it is a great tool to engage learners into learning. However, one aspect of technology unfavorable to the implementation of eportfolio occurs when students learn they can include graphics and dynamic effects as part of the content areas of their electronic portfolios.
Some students have a tendency to become fixated with the idea of adding flashy graphics and effects to their eportfolio. By adding too many graphics to a portfolio, the assignment outcome becomes more of a platform to display pictures rather than a vehicle to meet and convey mastery of course objectives. Similarly, once students learn how to manipulate HTML code, they begin to include dynamic effects to their ePortfolio making their ePortfolio become a tool that appeals to the eye rather than a tool to measure or display achievements over time. Decorating a portfolio with graphics or effects so it can look appealing to an audience is a great strategy to catch someone’s attention. However, by adding too many pictures or effects to the content areas of a portfolio may discourage your audience from thinking you are serious and focused.
It is always good to keep well-balanced content areas; that is, being selective when including many decorative graphics, dynamic effects, or just text. Balance within the content area of an electronic portfolio materializes when all its artifacts convey a careful selection of artifacts and their quality as such. Above all, a well-balanced portfolio is one that appeals to the critical mind of your audience.
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| eportfolio’s
Link of the month |
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Benefits of ePortfolios:
Nice article from a teacher showing how the process of developing ePortfolios helps students with creative and critical thinking.
Electronic Portfolios and Dimensions of Learning
By Frederick Conway |
