Samantha Frye

ETEC 424

Wolfe

Folio Thinking

As the United States enhances technology and all the wonderful new things we can do

with it, education has made many strides to where the classroom becomes virtual. Many

homework assignments are now completed online, software’s have been adapted to fit the

student’s needs, and now more than ever tablets, laptops, and cellphones are now a part of the

classroom instead of being prohibited. One of these tools is ePortfolios. Just like a physical

portfolio, ePortfolios are completely digitized versions of accomplishments, writings, artworks,

and artifacts all stored electronically. Think of it like instead of carrying your portfolio around in

a bag or briefcase, you can carry it on a USB, CD-ROM, or DVD (Lorenzo & Ittelson).

ePortfolios are extremely beneficial for students as well as teachers/professors. This tool can help

keep students organized by having all their assignments in one place, which in turn makes it

easier for their instructors to view and grade (Lorenzo & Ittelson). By default, this also teaches

organizational and management skills to the students who are utilizing this tool. In order to have

an exceptional ePortfolio, one has to be somewhat organized. Students can customize and

arrange this to fit their styles and personalities.

ePortfolios are an assessment of learning due to the fact that in most cases, a student-

portfolio is often a collection of papers, assignments, and maybe even tests. With all these works

in one place, a student can look back and see what their strengths were and what they might need

to work on a little more. ePortfolios have become an assessment of learning simply because there
is no other tool quite like it. It has become a global phenomenon that is quickly enhancing the

way the world views education. What was once a new and upcoming system is now widely

accepted and people from all around the world are wanting to learn more about what it is all

about and what it can do for them (Batson). In a way, ePortfolios have revolutionized education

in the sense that students can keep their work long after their class is over, and still be able to

reference to it. Learning is no longer restricted to the classroom or within the beginning and end

of a semester (Batson). This is something that test scores cannot accomplish. Keeping up with

old school work, especially old tests, can become difficult to do. After each semester you will

have a whole backpack’s worth of schoolwork and will quickly run out of room to store all of

this, unless you feel like having a few filing cabinets in your bedroom. Grades and transcripts are

just proof that you’ve mastered, or at least attempted to master, the content in which you were

being taught at your desks. They don’t show the strides you made or the effort that you put in.

It’s not a secret that learning comes easier to some than to others, and let’s face it, not all of us

were born with the gift of photographic memory. Having an ePortfolio will allow you to PROVE

that you were able to take the lesson from the classroom and apply it. It’s more than a few letters

on a piece of paper. It’s being able to show others, hey look- I did that, and here’s how. Being

able to have an ePortfolio to return to year after year when be greatly beneficial because it can

allow you to keep the information at your fingertips and will allow you to be able to refresh your

memory whenever you may need to do so.

One main difference between being of learning and for learning, is that being an

assessment for learning, to me, means that there is an element involved in the process that is

beneficially to the actual learning, but isn’t directly related to the lessons. Evidence-based

learning refers to the documents, PowerPoints, visual, and audio components of education
(Grush.). This is “evidence” that you’re learning, but it isn’t the actual material that you are

covering in classes. This is all the other components that contributed to that 4.0 gpa, that

contributed to that perfect SAT score, and that contributed to that full ride academic scholarship

to University. It’s the life moments that you captured in the forms of papers, photos, and videos

that led to the As on the report cards.

 Works Cited

Batson T. ( 2010 July 28) A Profoundly Disruptive Technology from:

https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/07/28/A-Profoundly-Disruptive-Technology.aspx

Grush, M., & Batson, T. (2012, February 15). AAEEBL: It's All About Evidence-Based

Learning--Supported by ePortfolios -- Campus Technology.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/02/15/evidence-based-learning-supported-by-

eportfolios.aspx

Lorenzo, G., & Ittelson, J. (2005, July). An Overview of E-Portfolios [PDF file]. Retrieved from

https://case.edu/artsci/cosi/cspl/documents/eportfolio-Educausedocument.pdf