Debbi,
Can you tell us something about hosting options for putting an e-portfolio online? Would you recommend using something like Yahoo!'s GeoCities (http://geocities.yahoo.com/join/)? Or are there better ways?

Morty,
Our focus is on the pedagogical aspects of e-portfolios, how e-portfolios can be used for teaching and assessment. To respond specifically and critically to your question, we will turn to the expertise of one of our faculty, and get back to you later. For now, let me say that the e-portfolios with which we've worked are mainly compiled by students on CDs rather than posted on a Web site. Some institutions offer space on their own college Web sites for such postings; with some notable exceptions, our institution does not.

I'd like to pose a question to any educators who are reading this: what do you see as the pedagogical benefits of e-portfolios as a teaching and learning tool? Diane Holtzman and I have been researching this topic, and expect to have an article on e-portfolios out sometime early in 2007.

More to come . . .

Hi Morty…In conducting research on the e -portfolios, D’Arcy Norman from the University of Calgary presents excellent information on the use of different authoring tools in the development of portfolios. One link presents information regarding the use of “Pachyderm”, an easy-to-use authoring tool designed for people who have little or no multimedia experience. Pachyderm is accessed through a web browser and is as easy to use as filling out a web form. Authors upload their own media (images, audio clips, and short video segments) and place them into pre-designed templates, which include built-in functionality for playing video and audio, linking to other templates, and other features. Descriptive text can be copied and pasted in, or authored directly in Pachyderm. Once screens have been completed and linked together, the presentation is published and can then be downloaded and placed on the author's website, on a CD, or elsewhere. Quoting from D’Arcy Norman: “I picture the portfolio as being closer to the job interview than the resume. It's a creative proxy for an individual, not a standardized data transmission vector. So, when we were deep in development of Pachyderm, and tossing ideas around about how it could be used academically, the idea of a dynamic, interactive, person-centric portfolio management tool seemed pretty cool. It's totally not what Pachyderm was initially designed or intended to do, but because it's basically content-agnostic, it doesn't care how you use it. And that's pretty much what we need from an ‘ePortfolio’ authoring tool.”
To read more about the project access the information using the link below
http://wiki.ucalgary.ca/page/Interface2006_ePortfolios#ePortfolio_Software_used_in_the_Faculty_of_Education_Master_of_Teaching_ePortfolio_pilot_project
Information on the link also includes the following:
ePortfolio Software used in the Faculty of Education Master of Teaching ePortfolio pilot project
• Pachyderm
o Patti's sample ePortfolio authored in Pachyderm
o D'Arcy's Pachyderm ePortfolio
• Drupal - the software that runs the online community of practice
Other ePortfolio Software
• Apple iWeb (an extremely easy and powerful website authoring and publishing program which could be an effective part of an ePortfolio authoring system)
o Sample ePortfolio authored in Apple iWeb
• D'Arcy's "live" ePortfolio (blog posts tagged with "Noteworthy" - a blogfolio)
• Elgg (a combination of weblogging, e-portfolios, and social networking)
I hope this information adds to your knowledge about authoring tools that can be used in development of e-portfolios.
Diane