Creating Electronic Portfolios:
A Tutorial for Preservice Teachers

Introduction

Teaching Portfolios
Definition
Audience
Purpose

Portfolio Examples
Web Examples
NEC Examples

Planning the Portfolio
What to Include
Collecting Artifacts
Organizing Content

Creating the Portfolio
Creating Templates
Navigation Structure
Appearance

Portfolio Rubric

Resources

Contacts

Review the definition, audience, and purpose for your portfolio. Take a look at examples of teaching portfolios by other students. Notice what kinds of formats and layouts seem to be most effective. Notice what kinds of primary teaching documents and artifacts are included in the various portfolios.

What to include in your portfolio
There are certain requirements for the portfolio you submit to the faculty in the education department:

• A table of contents
• A letter introducing the faculty to your portfolio, what's in it,
  why you selected to include what you chose, and points of
  interest
• At least one letter of recommendation from a faculty member
  who is not in the education department
• A writing sample. Each applicant will be given a question to
  which he or she must respond in writing
• A copy of mid-semester and final evaluations from ED 2120:
  Practicum in Education
• At least two writing samples from courses other than
  education courses
• Other materials the applicant believes attest to his or her
  qualifications and ability to be a major in education such as
  sample lesson plans, *photos, videos of the applicant teaching
  a lesson
  * Do not include photos of children in the electronic portfolio (unless you have specific written permission from parents).

Other teaching artifacts might include sound clips, examples of student projects (digital photographs or scanned items), examples of assessments, and so on. 

Collecting teaching artifacts
Choose the word processed documents you wish to include, and save the files on a disk.

Choose primary documents such as letters of recommendation, evaluation forms, examples of student work. These items will need to be scanned. The files should be saved in a GIF or JPEG file format. Clearly legible documents will scan best. (Try to get a black and white copy of your ED 2110 Practicum evaluations for scanning purposes.) Save these files on a disk. Collect and save video, and sound files as well.

Think ahead to items you may wish to collect for future inclusion to your portfolio.

Once you have collected the items, you are ready to organize your portfolio contents and plan the layout.

Organizing the portfolio contents
Pull the evidence together and decide how to best group it. Prioritize the information and decide your focus and any theme you want to emphasize. Select the items that best support the goals of your portfolio, and also reflect your personal style, strengths, and values. 

Selection is a part of the portfolio process. Therefore, consider that the portfolio is not an archive of everything you have done. It can be concise and still be representative. If you have a number of documents consider making them available at sublevels of the portfolios with  hyperlinks. This way, viewers have a choice about viewing them without having to look through a lot of extra information. When possible, frame the information you offer.

© Joel Black 2001