Digital Portfolios: Powerful Tools for Promoting Professional Growth and Reflection

"Teaches you how to build a portfolio and shows the potential benefits of the portfolio process. Qualitative research, which is essentially what portfolios lead to, is beneficial for teachers because it helps them reflect on what actually happens in their classrooms. I can′t think of a more powerful tool for learning and growth."
―Erin Powers, English Teacher, Paul Revere Charter Middle School, Los Angeles, CA

Create a digital portfolio that effectively communicates your professional values, goals, and achievements!

Digital technology offers powerful tools to educators who wish to develop electronic portfolios to foster and enrich their professional learning. Digital Portfolios, Second Edition, written by experts in the field, explores the latest methods and techniques for creating electronic portfolios.

In this revised edition, Elizabeth Hartnell–Young and Maureen Morriss demonstrate how teachers, principals, and professors of education can develop high–quality portfolios that reflect personal vision, record professional growth, and celebrate accomplishments.

The authors present a comprehensive framework for portfolio development, from determining the audience and selecting material from a personal archive, to defining, producing, and sharing your digital portfolio. This timely resource offers ten easy–to–follow steps and:

• Provides the "why" for creating digital portfolios
• Emphasizes the importance of reflection as part of the process
• Presents tips and strategies for using digital technology
• Includes guidelines for evaluating portfolios

Whether you are a novice teacher or a veteran educator, this practical handbook is your comprehensive guide to digital portfolio development.

Elizabeth Hartnell-Young is a research fellow in the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her interests include teacher roles and professional development, ePortfolios, and using mobile technologies for learning in schools. Her recent experience in developing and managing innovative projects in Australian schools includes the Boys’ Education Lighthouse Schools Project in over 350 schools. Formerly a secondary school principal, Elizabeth has also developed and presented leadership and career development programs for the Australian Principals Centre, universities, and government departments. She is a founder of ePortfolio Australia™, a consortium of educators supporting professional development and research into portfolios, and she has written numerous reports and professional papers, including a chapter in the Handbook of Research on ePortfolios ((2006). Elizabeth is also an honorary fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Maureen Morriss is a 30-year teaching veteran and an author who has held leadership positions in the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association and the Australian Literacy Federation. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in 1977, and later served as a principal, curriculum consultant, and staff developer. Maureen has also worked as a tenured lecturer in Australian universities. In 2000, she joined A.U.S.S.I.E. Inc., a leading provider of customized professional development services for K-12 schools in the U.S. and abroad. She has worked extensively providing instructional literacy leadership support to teachers, coaches, and administrators in New York, NY, Montgomery County, MD, Hartford, CT, and Fairfax County, VA. Maureen created BLISS (Balanced Literacy Informational Seminar Series) for principals, now in its fifth year of use, and has acted as the regional leader for A.U.S.S.I.E. for New York City’s Region 7. Her passion is, and has always been, to make a difference in the lives of children through her work with other educators.