The Tomorrow’s Professor mailing list recently had an insightful piece entitle The Benefits of E-portfolios for Students and Faculty in Their Own Words. Finding one’s voice, developing a history of one’s work, and portability (a favorite issue of my own to consider), there are many issues in and around e-portfolios as they are increasingly being used (it seems). I do not have any of my students (in any of the 3 programs where I teach) use them, nor do I have one with my own doctoral studies.
While I talk about them in one of the classes I teach, I do not see a lot of them being used (at least not yet). My concerns over privacy and duplication of efforts (I blog a lot about my work and learning, so why should I duplicate the effort in your system over there?!) still pop-up, though nobody has ever asked me for my e-portfolio. For that matter, nobody has ever asked me if I even have an e-portfolio.
I wonder if this is still too technology-focused or perhaps still too new?
