Title: 4 Free Web Tools for Student Portfolios
Author: Dave Guymon
Location: Edutopia
Relevance of source: Benefit #2 of Google Sites – Student portfolios
Summary of resource: While students are in your class, they probably end up creating many projects, responding to various discussions, and completing numerous assignments. I remember about 20 years ago when I was in high school, many times my teachers required a physical notebook for their class. We needed to have a binder with various dividers that would separate our sections of learning. Nowadays, Google Sites takes this idea of a binder and puts it online by allowing students the opportunity to create a digital portfolio. Instead of a physical binder where students can lose their papers or become disorganized, Google Sites is a way for students to create a personal space for their learning all by themselves. Through the idea of portfolio creation, students will be able to see their growth over time. “And as our focus in the classroom continues to move toward performance-based assessment, [Google Sites] will help you and your students to compose memorable narratives of their learning” (Guymon, 2014).
For my professional practice, I like the idea of my students creating an online portfolio. I teach AP Stats, and they need to be prepared to take their AP exam in early May. We cover a lot of material and they do a lot of their own research in the class. With Google Sites, students would be able to organize everything they learn and create in the class. At the end of the year, they would have one comprehensive space in which they could find all of their work. This would make it so much easier for them when studying. Additionally, this is something that they could have forever. Oftentimes, after they graduate, my students will email me and say that they referred back to their Stats notebook when they were taking a similar class in college. However, sometimes they email me asking me to explain something because they threw out their notebook. If each student had their own Google Site, they would be able to refer back to it whenever/wherever they needed.
Online portfolios via Google Sites are a great way to provide students with an online platform to collect their work. “You will be helping them practice digital citizenship while simultaneously helping them learn important technology skills” (Guymon, 2014). In my professional practice, promoting digital literacy is something that I need to work on, and utilizing Google Sites with my students would be a step in the right direction.
Citation:
Guymon, D. (2014, May 2). 4 free web tools for student portfolios. Edutopia. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/web-tools-for-student-portfolios-dave-guymon