The ePortfolio is growing in increasing popularity, so much so that there is an idea that all high school students should have one before leaving school. Where exactly does primary education fit with this?
Ideally, a student could have their own work on display for people to see it… unfortunately with child protection there needs to be very very careful consideration first. There is no doubt the senior primary students would have the ability to produce an ePortfolio, but the efforts that would need to go into teacher monitoring to ensure it is all appropriate may increase the burden to the workload.
Perhaps it would be more effective for each teacher to maintain their own as a reflection upon their teaching, using samples of work and communicating with other teachers. The main purposes of an ePortfolio is to record, reflect, gather evidence, plan, present and assess. In this manner a teacher is able to evaluate their teaching and record their strategies for improvement.
Although it is unlikely that the ePortfolio would be made mandatory for teaching, it is definitely a productive tool for teachers.
Below are a list of sites that provide more information into ePortfolios:
Professional ePortfolios in Education – http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jmresources/ePortfolio.htm
Brief information about ePortfolios, but lots of relevant links and examples.
ePortfolio Showcase – http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/symposium/showcase.jsp
A number of Australian ePortfolios in correspondence with the Australian ePortfolio Symposium
ePortfolio Platform – http://www.eportfolio.org/about.cfm
More information about what to include in order to make a successful ePortfolio
