Digital
Portfolios
HOW IT WORKS
In Digital Portfolios, students learn the
art of Web design through html and the Microsoft FrontPage
program. They also take the time to do creative writing
and then choose their best writing samples to make Web
pages. Topics in their portfolios include book critiques,
music and television reviews, family stories, culture,
and personal thoughts on various themes and ideas. The
students draw pictures and then scan them to add to
their Web sites, and are taught how to make a frames
Web site so that they can bring all of their writing
into a digital portfolio. They also edit each other’s
work for grammar, spelling, and aesthetic quality. Finally,
they make corrections and upload the Web sites. This
project allows enrichment for gifted students who wish
to advance their Web skills independently and even add
JavaScript and Flash to their digital portfolios.
THE
STUDENTS
One hundred and twenty sixth and seventh grade students
at Christa McAuliffe Intermediate School 187 in Brooklyn,
New York created digital portfolios. The students’ ages
ranged from 11 to13 years old and they came from various
cultural backgrounds. These heterogeneous classes met
twice a week for forty minutes. This project can be
adapted for the fourth grade and up. The students were
all very interested in the Internet and in learning
to design their own Web pages.
THE
STAFF
Marlene McGarrity is a technology teacher at Christa
McAuliffe Intermediate School 187. She has been teaching
for ten years, with seven of those years spent in the
Board of Education. Marlene has won District 20 grants
twice and participated in a fellowship in robotics and
mechanical engineering at Polytechnic University this
past summer.
WHAT
YOU NEED
Digital Portfolios requires the use of at least one
computer with Internet access along with a printer,
a digital camera, a scanner, a Gif Construction Set,
and Microsoft FrontPage or Microsoft Word software programs.
This project can be adapted students in the fourth grade
and up.
OVERALL
VALUE
If you want excitement and a real-live use of technology,
making Web sites is the way to go! Building digital
portfolios makes students excited about writing, editing
their work, and publishing it. |