The Wide and Wonderful World of ePortfolio Technology
Abstract: Within Higher Education Writing Studies and English programs, there is discussion about the need to expand definitions of "reading," "writing," and "literacy" to reflect digital communication practices. The change of the term "literacy" calls for assignments that incorporate and appeal to the variety of ways meaning is constructed: i.e. Visual, Linguistic, Multimodal, etc. One way of transforming assignments is to transition traditional print portfolios into digital ePortfolios. The purpose of this paper is to review the benefits of ePortfolio Technology by presenting several examples of innovative, open-source ePortfolio programs. More specifically, the paper will discuss three categories of ePortfolio Technology (Visual Tools, eBinders, and Websites Tools), review the educational benefits of the programs, and provide ideas on how to transform portfolio assessment goals into digital-age experiences.