Digital Portfolios

Tuesday Feb. 6, 2018

This week's focus is all about Digital Portfolios and how students can use them to share, highlight, and reflect on their work. This is a particularly great tool in ADST and Fine Arts courses where Sharing, Communicating, and Documenting are all key parts of the curriculum.

Types of Portfolios

Students can create several types of portfolios. Here are 2 types that may work in your class:

Showcase - most common type; student/teacher directed; contents are specific to curricular area; students choose which work to highlight, comment and reflect on.
To Demonstrate Learning/Growth - students select work, document the creation journey, reflect on the piece/process, and provide evidence of growth in an area that is related to learning

This IT 9/10 Student Portfolio was organized by unit area and featured student work and reflections in each area.

Portfolio's in Google Drive

One of the simplest ways to create and manage portfolios is to use Google Drive. By setting up a single shared folder students will not need to share an artifact or piece of work with the teacher every time they create one. This will save both time and many email notifications.

Students create and share a Portfolio Folder

1. Students open their Google Drive

2. Click New > Folder

3. Students name the folder. Suggestions:

- Include their name
- Include the course name

4. Once the folder is created, student will Right Click on it and select Share

5. Students enter the teacher's name or learn account (@sd61learn) email address

The Portfolio is now created and shared with the teacher.

This video shows how students would create and share a Portfolio folder in Google Drive

Adding items to the Portfolio

Organizing within the Portfolio

You may want to have students organize their portfolio by assignment, category, topic, or curricular area. To do this students should create individual folders for each item. To do this:

1. Students will open Google Drive

2. Find and open their Portfolio Folder

3. Click New > Folder

4. Name the Folder appropriately

** Because these folders will be created within the original Shared Portfolio folder, there is no need for the student to share it again.

Creating Items from Within Google Drive

The easiest way for students to add things directly to their portfolio folder is to create them directly from Google Drive.

1. Students will open Google Drive

2. Find and open their Portfolio Folder (and subsequent folder if necessary)

3. Click New > Doc, Sheet, Slide, Form, Drawing, etc.

** Once again, this item will automatically be saved and shared with the portfolio teacher, no need for the student to share it again.

Assignments Created Outside Portfolio Folder

Often students will be creating items outside of the G Suite for Education platform. In this case, they will need to Move their item's digital file to their portfolio folder. To do this:

1. Students will open Google Drive

2. Find and open their Portfolio Folder (and subsequent folder if necessary)

3. Students must now upload their item (file, photo, video etc.) to Google Drive by selecting New > File Upload

4. Students select appropriate file

** If the file is already located in Google Drive but not in the Portfolio Folder, students can click & drag the item or Right Click > Select Move to... to move the file.

This video shows how students would:

Creating Folders within the Portfolio
Creating a Document from within Google Drive
Moving a File to the Portfolio from Drive

Teacher Access to the Portfolio

Find Student Portfolio Folders

The easiest way to find and view student portfolio folders is to use Google Drive's Search bar.

1. Open Google Drive

2. In the Search Bar type in the students name

3. Once students learn account appears, click on it > the search bar should now say owner:student@sd61learn.ca

4. Below will be a list of all items owned by that student and shared with you!

Organize Student Portfolio Folders

You may find it easier to organize student Portfolio Folders within your own Drive for easy access.

To do this:

1. Create a new folder in your Google Drive to hold all the student Portfolio Folders

2. Find student Portfolio Folders using the method above or clicking on Shared with Me

3. Move the student folder to your newly created one by clicking and dragging or Right Clicking and selecting Move to...

**If you wanted even easier/quicker access you can then bookmark this folder in Google Chrome!

This video shows teachers how to find student portfolios that have shared with them and organize within teacher's Drive.

Take it One Step Further with Google Sites

Using Google Drive to create and manage digital portfolios is one of the simplest, no frills ways to do so. However, if you would like to take it one step further, consider having your students create a Google Site for their Portfolio.

To do this:

1. Have students create and share a Folder for their Digital Portfolio as mentioned above

2. Within this folder, have student create a Google Site by clicking New > More > Google Site

3. A new Google Site will be created directly within the shared Portfolio Folder. Student can then use Google Sites to organize and manage their work.

For more information on the basics of Google Sites check out my post HERE.

**IMPORTANT: Be sure students include all items posted on their website within their shared Portfolio Folder. This will ensure you have permission to view all of their work and will allow you to view the website without it having to be published on the web.

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