Choosing a Student Portfolio Platform that works
With so many different tools available, it can be tough to know which one is right for student ownership.
Student publishing to digital portfolios is a great way for students to showcase their work, reflect on their learning, and set goals for the future.
Here are a few things to consider when choosing a portfolio platform:
- Simplicity: The platform should be easy for students, teachers, and parents to use, even if they don’t have a lot of technical experience.
- Flexibility: The platform should be flexible enough to allow students to showcase a variety of work, including essays, projects, presentations, and more.
- Authenticity: The platform should be authentic, meaning that students should be able to use the skills they learn in the classroom to create and share with an authentic audience, safely.
- Ownership: The platform should allow students to take their portfolios with them so they can share with others in the moment, year after year.
You’ve probably heard of these three…
Google Sites enables simple and basic designs, but you’ll need to teach website-building after the fact, and then link to all your students’ sites to share with anyone. You’ll be making sites for your sites that few will see or interact with. How do you give feedback here? How do you create discussion around that content?
Wakelet enables bookmarking into a profile, but assumes that you’ve already got content all over the web to curate. It ends up feeling like trying to organize the Internet. Do we need more digital bookmarks?
Seesaw is exactly what it sounds like — You see it and then you saw it. Picture digital worksheets and activities for kiddos with messaging to parents. Neither students nor families can own, share, or build upon it with an authentic audience.
Digital portfolios can be a valuable tool for students, but they only work if students are engaged in the process. Fanschool is a safe learning network where students own their portfolios and share with an authentic audience. It’s where young people build lifelong learning blogs by actively engaging in reading and writing. It’s the place where student voice and choice actually matters.
Two decades of research on digital citizenship have revealed two key findings:
1) Student-directed family engagement is more effective.
2) In order for student work to have purpose, it has to be shared.
By choosing the right portfolio platform and providing students with authentic feedback and audience, you can help them create portfolios that they will be proud of, year after year.
I hope this article helps you choose a portfolio platform and get students publishing with more simplicity, flexibility, authenticity, and ownership.
