Googling Towards ePortfolios

As my resume introduction indicated, I became an advocate for Google Apps for Education in my last public school placements.  I also promoted ePortfolio assessment, having once studied and then worked at the alternative school which founded itself on authentic assessment through portfolio roundtables, University Heights High School in the Bronx, NY.  Joining these two topics led to "Googliing Towards ePortfolios", a blog post for Educational Collaborators which statistics showed became very popular very fast.  I followed up with conference presentations on the topic.

As my presentations clarify, I do not consider Google Apps for Education a mature environment for ePortfolios on its own.  There are too many steps, too many workarounds required.  However, there are "overlay applications" that work with the document development and grouping systems of Google Apps.  These are pricy, so I recommend that early adopters within a school pilot ePortfolio practices within their classroom and their cohorts just with GAfE.  If and when the whole school (and district, since portfolios follow students) decides the expense of adoption is worth the benefit, these other applications should be considered.