Creating A Portfolio

Students who are gifted often have many areas of interest.  Many times, their areas of interest are vast and seemingly unrelated.  Students who are gifted often have different areas of interest as they grow up.  Maybe they are interested in building roads out of Legos or other materials when they are 5 or 6 years old, then have great interest in collecting and learning about all different types of pine cones or rocks when they are 8 or 9 years old.  In middle school they may have great interest in statistics and probability in basketball. In high school they may collect books, media, models, and formulas about the history of flight leading to the space race to Mars. Student knowledge about these topics expands with each area of interest and as they grow up.  How do students show the knowledge they have about all of their interests when the learning has occurred outside of school, so they have a record of their areas of knowledge and learning over the years?

One way is by creating a portfolio that documents knowledge and activities through collections, writing, artwork, photographs, creations, and other items that are gathered and used as artifacts.  In a portfolio, an artifact is an item that shows knowledge, learning, competence, or simply joy in gathering information about a topic. Students create digital portfolios for many reasons, including documenting what they know and have learned throughout their lifetime.  Parents may also create a portfolio to document the growth of their child over time.

Some people think of portfolios as huge binders like pages in a scrapbook.  A learning portfolio is much more than a scrapbook. Nowadays, portfolios are digital and stored online.  Following are several digital platforms on which to build a digital portfolio. Some are easier to use than others, so it is beneficial to take a look at more than one option.  There are also YouTube videos for some of the options below that tell more about it if you do a search online.

Enjoy creating a digital portfolio!


LiveBinder    Free public binders.  Has an option of a subscription that makes the portfolio private.  Many portfolios to look at and use.
www.livebinders.com


3 Tools for Creating Digital Portfolios:  Google’s Suite for Education, Seesaw, and Book Creator
https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-tools-creating-digital-portfolios


Student Portfolio Apps and Websites:  17 Tools for creating portfolios
https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/student-portfolio-apps-and-websites


Google Sites
https://support.google.com/sites/answer/6372878?hl=en
    YouTube How-to Videos
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=google+sites+for+portfolios


Google Drive
https://www.google.com/drive/
    YouTube How-to Videos
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=google+drive+for+portfolios

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