I’m involved with an ePortfolio project with our Faculty of Education – aimed at getting student teachers to build a series of high quality, interactive, personalized portfolios outlining their development as professionals. It’s more about the journey (self reflection, writing, documenting) than the destination (the final website) so we were looking for tools that wouldn’t require technical know-how in order for the students to produce interesting products. When the project got off the ground (in the fall of 2005), there wasn’t really any off-the-shelf product that fit the bill, so we started to implement an instance of Pachyderm so the students could start authoring in it.
But, things changed recently, when Apple announced and released iWeb. It’s a dead-simple app to use, and comes with some great design templates. The output is just standard HTML, which can be served from anywhere.
To help figure out if iWeb would serve as an adequate ePortfolio management platform, I just whipped up a quick and dirty skeleton of my own ePortfolio to see how it works out. After about 15 minutes of play time, I’m really impressed. Built-in blogging (with multiple "blogs" in a site, each with their own RSS feed). Great content-agnostic templates that let you basically do anything you want to.
I’ll be trying it out a bit more over the next few days to see if we should switch strategies, but if I was to start this project over now from the beginning, I’d have recommended iWeb as our first choice. It’s not perfect – things like the generated URLs make me want to cry – but it’s so simple to use, and flexible enough to let you be as creative as you can be.
There are 3 issues with this solution, that I see:
- Cost. The computers available to the students will have to be equipped with iLife ’06. Many of the computers are old enough that they’d have to be upgraded to install iLife ’06 in the first place. Perhaps just iWeb can be installed on lesser/older computers? Making each student cough up for their own copy of iLife ’06 isn’t going to fly. We could try to get some kind of bulk purchase price or something, but that’s not something to count on.
- Mac-Only. Many of the students don’t have their own Macs. Ideally, a cross-platform solution would be better. Perhaps Contribute may be up to that task? (but, see previous point about cost)
- Publishing. iWeb has automated publishing to a .Mac account. Most students won’t have one. (again, refer to point #1) Heck, I don’t even have one any more. FTPing files will be beyond many of the students. How about a built-in FTP upload function, or WebDAV?
I’m involved with an ePortfolio project with our Faculty of Education – aimed at getting student teachers to build a series of high quality, interactive, personalized portfolios outlining their development as professionals. It’s more about the journey (self reflection, writing, documenting) than the destination (the final website) so we were looking for tools that wouldn’t require technical know-how in order for the students to produce interesting products. When the project got off the ground (in the fall of 2005), there wasn’t really any off-the-shelf product that fit the bill, so we started to implement an instance of Pachyderm so the students could start authoring in it.
But, things changed recently, when Apple announced and released iWeb. It’s a dead-simple app to use, and comes with some great design templates. The output is just standard HTML, which can be served from anywhere.
To help figure out if iWeb would serve as an adequate ePortfolio management platform, I just whipped up a quick and dirty skeleton of my own ePortfolio to see how it works out. After about 15 minutes of play time, I’m really impressed. Built-in blogging (with multiple "blogs" in a site, each with their own RSS feed). Great content-agnostic templates that let you basically do anything you want to.
I’ll be trying it out a bit more over the next few days to see if we should switch strategies, but if I was to start this project over now from the beginning, I’d have recommended iWeb as our first choice. It’s not perfect – things like the generated URLs make me want to cry – but it’s so simple to use, and flexible enough to let you be as creative as you can be.
There are 3 issues with this solution, that I see:
- Cost. The computers available to the students will have to be equipped with iLife ’06. Many of the computers are old enough that they’d have to be upgraded to install iLife ’06 in the first place. Perhaps just iWeb can be installed on lesser/older computers? Making each student cough up for their own copy of iLife ’06 isn’t going to fly. We could try to get some kind of bulk purchase price or something, but that’s not something to count on.
- Mac-Only. Many of the students don’t have their own Macs. Ideally, a cross-platform solution would be better. Perhaps Contribute may be up to that task? (but, see previous point about cost)
- Publishing. iWeb has automated publishing to a .Mac account. Most students won’t have one. (again, refer to point #1) Heck, I don’t even have one any more. FTPing files will be beyond many of the students. How about a built-in FTP upload function, or WebDAV?
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To help figure out if iWeb would serve as an adequate ePortfolio management platform, I just whipped up a quick and dirty skeleton of my own ePortfolio to see how it works out. After about 15 minutes of play time, I’m really impressed. Built-in blogging (with multiple "blogs" in a site, each with their own RSS feed). Great content-agnostic templates that let you basically do anything you want to.
So, do the students need to know how to create a website from scratch? I have made a template of an e-portfolio and our Ed students download the template and put in their content. The content is what is important. That content contains their reflections and artifacts. However, all of the portfolios look the same. I could teach the students to modify the CSS, but I really don’t think they need to know HTML. I think this is kind of how you feel. We need a drop dead simple, point and click, drag and drop, website creator with lots of customization options for the look of the site. iWeb and Sandvox are the closest things I have found that create a folder that the student can burn to a CD and take with them.
I would tend to agree. Politicians in the UK are very keen to engage with what they call the NEET group – Niether in Education Employment or Training. These people are highly disparate group and they epitomise why a one size fits all approach will never work as the needs of a single mother on benefits are totally different to a middle class kid on her gap year – yet both can desribed as NEET. As you quite rightly pointed out the best results are tied to the journey not the destination.
Peter, my recent thinking on the topic is basically around the idea that the notion of an ePortfolio as a separate “product” is somewhat flawed. The most valuable part of an ePortfolio is the process of creation, not the end product. The most valuable process of creation is by contributing to the Read/Write Web in whatever way(s) you are willing/able. By extension, the most valuable ePortfolio would just be pulling relevant bits that you’ve already published. Could be blog posts, forum discussions, Flickr albums, podcasts, etc… More thinking to do, but that’s sort of where I’m headed…
I have recently done some consultancy work on eportfolio’s and I’m really keen on discovering ways to genetate ePortfolio’s that are sticky amongst secondary school users – 12-18 years old. Eportfolios are going to be mandatory in UK schools by the end of 2008 so we need to get it right.
Any ideas you guys have would be well received.
D’Arcy,
I don’t have an app that gets away from 1 and 2, but it does get away from 3. Sandvox is very much like iWeb but doesn’t require the .Mac. It still costs money and still requires a Mac, but otherwise it feels more intuitive and has more features I think. The unfortunate thing for Karelia is that they had been working on this app for a long time before Apple announced iWeb. Shades of Watson…
Jon, thanks for the reminder about Sandvox. It’s a pretty cool app, and would run on machines that can’t handle iLife ’06 – but like you said, still Mac-only. How times have changed. Wasn’t that long ago that all the “cool” software was Windows-only, and us Mac users were being ridiculed for not having any software available…
D’Arcy,
Another possibility in this category: RapidWeaver
http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/index.php
I’m currently studying the pros/cons of designing new templates for iWeb and RapidWeaver – I haven’t made any decisions on this front yet, though.
Number 3 is the silly one for my dollar. PSU gives faculty ,staff, and students an entire GB of webspace … how many of our students should purchase another gig from Apple for $99? I say none of them. iWeb, like iLife in general, should provide an easy (one button easy) publishing option. Just my opinion. But at the end of the day, iWeb (or DreamWeaver, or GoLive, or whatever is the tool of the day) makes the author think about the technology, forces them to contribute from one machine, and can lock them into a longterm solution without any real way out.
It has me wondering … so you are a WordPress guy … why not WP multiuser? You’ve used Drupal for a couple of big projects, why not that? I have a local install of MovableType on my powerbook and I can publish those files anywhere … I guess what I am saying is why aren’t we moving some of the best and easiest to use tools into these types of spaces? I’d rather move people to the notion of a publishing platform than teach them “someone else’s toolset.”
Why force people to fight with tools when what we are after are results? Just my thoguhts …
Cole, the ePort project is currently using an instance of Drupal to provide the communication/collaboration/reflection framework. But, that’s tied to that instance of the application – hard for the student to take the content with them. Hard to copy their contributions onto a USB jumpdrive to take to a job interview. Hard to burn on CD. Hard to take with them to their next school or to their (hopefully waiting) job. I’m just thinking of tools that make the content truly belong to the student, and which will not require technical skillz to operate. These students will not be running local copies of MovableType, nor their own web hosting with WordPress…
Heck – I’m even starting to think Google Pages might work, except it doesn’t have the built-in media management stuff (these students won’t be using Photoshop to resize/optimize images…)
The publishing stuff – we give every student web space with FTP and WebDAV access – but most won’t be able to use FTP or WebDAV on their own, so if the apps don’t speak it natively, they’re basically locked out. My initial reaction of “well, they should learn FTP/WebDAV” won’t fly.
It’d be easy for me to go ahead and modify Drupal to help them do something kinda along the lines of a self-published ePortfolio – but in the end, the “product” wouldn’t be portable, and therefore wouldn’t “belong” to the students…
Or, am I just overthinking this?
I enjoyed this post a lot; I’ve been thinking about portfolios for teachers and students, as you suggested more for the journey than any final production. I was thinking we’d build something ourselves, but the idea of using existing tools is appealing. I was playing around with Google pages, it’s simple and Google will give 100MB, though you’ve got to have a google account and I wouldn’t want to insist that all the students in the school open up an account. Maybe it’s back to ‘Contribute’?
For windows you could consider citydesk by fogcreek? If they used wordpress.com they wouldnt have to pay and could take it with them but I guess they still need to be able to manipulate their media files.
I would say to not insulate them too much from technicalities, they are useful skills and not hard to learn (not as hard as, say, teaching LOL). When I worked at our local college in the “learning technology unit” the staff really enjoyed and appreciated being taught HTML, they picked it up in a few hours – that was back in the day when we worried they would all have to use MS Frontpage. What they produced wouldnt win any design awards but they all grasped it and what they created was 100% their own. Just a thought.
Um- D’Arcy- pardon my stupidity-
What is more portable than a globally published website?
It seems to me you are thinking about converting bits to atoms- to give them “portability”- when in fact- it’s already ubiquitous- I mean- who are they interviewing with that doesn’t have a computer with access on the desktop?
I look at a lot of graphic design portfolios- the ones I now prefer- done in Acrobat- and done right- with links, embedded QuickTime, branches.
The old school black box with boards- is almost irrelevant in today’s world.
Why have them going backwards to a statically created site- when they can build an active, live site with word press?
I had a PhD candidate in theology contact me about building his marketability for when he graduates. Talk about innovative thinking- he paid an ad agency to help him prepare for his job search. I googled his name before the meeting- and said- well, I won’t say it here- needless to say- “Charles Halton” had 9800 entries- all for a “B” movie actor from the 50’s-
my first suggestion to him was to adopt his initials- JC Halton- and to build a blog in wordpress.
6 months later- he has quite a body of work posted. He’s the envy of his classmates- and he’s in the top 5 hits on google for “Charles Halton”- see his site http://www.awilum.com
I vote for teaching them the power of Word Press- any solution that isn’t open source- cross platform is wrong- and anything that doesn’t help them build their relationships- isn’t helping.
These particular portfolios have images and videos of K12 students – which can’t be freely published to the whole internets. I can’t just send them to wordpress.com or edublogs.org to build public portfolios…
D’Arcy-
Can’t they password protect pages in wordpress?
The other option is to build PDF’s.
There are applications on both platforms to do this.
In your iWeb site, when I click on your “Start slideshow” button, I get to a window with arrows to navigate between the photos.
I don’t get that when I do it on my own site I’m building with iWeb.
How do you do that?
Daniel – I just created a new “Photo Album” page (or something like that) and dragged some photos from iPhoto. It did the rest automagically…
D’Arcy,
You brought up portability. I posted on my blog about the same thing a few weeks ago. I was asking the question “Who are e-portfolios for?”. If they are for the student, then they need to be portable as you mention. The studetns will have space on the school’s drives only for six months past graduating. This means they need to be able to take the site with them. If the e-portfolios are for the Education Department then they live in the Department’s webspace for as long as the Department deems appropriate. This whole thing is still up in the air and I don’t think a lot of faculty have answered the basic question I posed. However, the answer determines the type of solution.
Jon, the ePortfolios are absolutely for the student. It’s not about the product, as much as the process they go through to get to the product. The cookie-cutter dossiers that would be built for The Department Of Education (or somesuch) would be essentially useless to the student. If The Department gets some use out of them, that’s gravy – but it’s primarily an exercise in professional development, reflection, documentation and growth – by and for the student(s).