Creating Your Digital Self – Telling your story with Web 2.0 (Part 3)
“My electronic portfolio is my tree. In building a portfolio I see a tree of many branches with each branch being an extension from the trunk which begins with ones self and goals. As we grow, our branches grow and spread out in many directions. We see our achievements, focus’s, strengths, weaknesses, and our progress growing upward toward the sunshine. The sunshine would reflect our ultimate goal. I see leaves on the branches which represent self assessment.” ( Sassee Ann Arnold)
A habit of mind, something you do every day.(from a discussion at the 1st International Conference on the ePortfolio, Poitiers,France,October 203)
Creating your electronic portfolio may seem to be the most difficult thing to do, but once you start putting together all your life-long collection and start connecting them, you will truly enjoy it. Soon you realize that it’s not only a tool for documenting your achievements and experience but also it’s the best tool for continuous professional development and a way to blow people away with your skills!
Here are some of the Web 2.0 tools that can be used to create your e-portfolio.
Glogsteris my favourite Web 2.0 tool to use when I create my e-portfolio. You can edit links, videos, podcasts,titles and you can choose from so many different colourful widgets. You can change the background or you can decide on your glog wall. Thanks to Glogster, I have a very colourful+cheerful first page on my e-portfolio. You can also use Wixwhich has a similar use like Glogster and can be used as an introduction page on your portfolio. Wix also allows embedding.
If you want to use your videos, you can upload them on Youtube,Vimeo, Dotsub, TeachersTube or BlipTV. Vimeo has become my favourite video sharing site these days. It’s easy,fast and has different embed options. (While you decide on the site that you are going to create your portfolio, you should check if it lets you embed videos, podcast, widgets or other Web 2.0 tools.)
To create online presentations or to share your ready presentations online ,you can have a look at Slideshare, Jogtheweb,Prezi, SlideRocket, Prezentit, SlideSix, 280Slides, Vcasmo, Yodio,, MyPlick, SlideBoom,SlideStory, SPresent.
Voicethreadis an amazing Web 2.0 tool that you can use for any purposes you want. For your e-portfolio, you can use it to get comments from the visitors or you can show others how you have used Voicethread in your lessons.
Why not using polls? Here are my choices : PollDaddy, MicroPoll, PapayaPolls, Survey Monkey.
You can display your pictures of your lessons, projects, seminars, workshops you have attended and you have done by using Slide, BubbleShare, Joggle, MixBook, MyPhotoAlbum, PhotoShow, SlideRoll, PhotoShop, SmileBox.
Voki is another web tool that you can use, you can record your voice and display it with a 3D animated avatar. You can welcome the visitors using it.
You can add some fun to your e-portfolio. You can have a look at Hetemeel, Fodey, Bubbleply, Blabbarize,Dvolver, Gizmoz.
You can create word clouds using Wordle.
What else to include:
- Links of your blog/blogs
- List of some of the web tools that you are using
- List of your favorite sites
- List of your favorite videos
- The sites/blogs/wikis that you are using in your classes
- The links of the projects that you are involved in
- Other websites that you have or you are a member
- Widgets
- Your social bookmarking/Twitter link
- Your CV (You can use VisualCV for this, I like it because it easy and you can add widgets, pictures, hyperlinks,videos)
To read more about e-portfolios, you can have a look at Helen Barrett’s website. She is the guru of portfolios.
I believe once you finish gathering the best package of your whole work (though an e-portfolio will never ever be a complete one as we go on improving ourselves), it will help you to stand out of the crowd. This is what has happened to me!!