Research on how we learn
An extensive study conducted by the National Research Council supports the use of formative portfolio building to not only reveal what students know, but as a tool to help students know what they've learned. Eportfolios have added value.

Management and Storage
Traditional portfolios take up more space. They contain documents, folders, boxes, 3-ring binders, pictures, cassette tapes, and more.
In an electronic portfolio all information is stored digitally on a computer hard drive or some sort of removable media (floppy disk, Zip disk, CD, etc.) or uploaded to the Internet. This electronic information takes up very little physical space and is easily accessed and easily distributed

Access and Distribution: Allows for peer review,  feedback through the process and feedback from more people through the web or CD.  Greater reliability in grading. Easily reproducible on CD or accessible through the web.

HyperLinking
With Hypermedia words, pictures, and sounds can all be linked in a non-linear fashion facilitating connections between students' learning, experiences, ideas, and products. According to Gregori and Crow-one can jump among learning environments. Great flexibility on the part of the viewer. They can select the order and items that they examine in the electronic portfolio.

MultiMedia
You can easily add graphics, sounds and video to an electronic portfolio. This lets you represent many dimensions and intelligences.
graphics
sound
video

Cost
Assuming access to a computer, program, printer
Storage
 a
Recordable CD-ROMS/650 MG $.25
Re-recordable CDW $1.00
Zip 100 MG $12.00
DVD disk 4G $4.00
Upload to Internet none
Peripherals
 a
Digitizer: VHS to digital $400
Digital Camera $200-600
Digital Video Camera $400-$1,000
Scanner $99-$300

Computer Skills
Students learn valuable computer skills while creating or editing parts of their own electronic
portfolios! This includes:

  • saving files,
  • scanning pictures,
  • using a digital camera,
  • drawing and painting tools,
  • importing text and pictures,
  • generating and saving sounds and video,
  • storyboarding,
  • connecting information
  • planning a complex product
  • publishing on the internet


    • The electronic portfolio can serve as a vehicle for demonstrating these computer literacy skills.

    Revising
    Revising portfolios becomes an easy task. You can always delete material, edit pages, change spelling, and add additional pages and links so your portfolio grows with you. With the ease of revising, students are more likely to revise and revision is linked to reflection.