Should Graduate Students Create E-Portfolios?

In case any number of you fine Ed.D. folks are still cursing me and my colleagues for the digital portfolio aspect of your program, I encourage you to read this fine piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

For me, the beauty of the digital portfolio is that it doubles as a form of assessment of progress in the program and as a potentially key part of your digital footprint. As a doc. student in the article states,

…crafting your own virtual identity lets you “mold a digital dossier rather than allow everything else—like Facebook, or that high-school sports story, or a post someone else put up about you—to say something about you.” All that stuff is going to be out there on the Web anyway, but if you configure your e-portfolio well, it will rise to the top of your Google hits.

Also, if you’re looking for ideas on how you might ultimately craft your portfolio (beyond just the blog page), this passage is noteworthy:

Almost to a person, their e-portfolios include a CV, teaching philosophy statement, some videos of them teaching, student evaluations, transcripts, a biographical page, an explanation of their thesis or dissertation topic (maybe even an excerpt or two), as well as links to things like their favorite academic blogs, online articles on pedagogy, or upcoming conferences in their field.

Some of those ideas are tailored to grad students pursuing positions in higher education, but many would be applicable to you. I especially like the idea of having a philosophy statement; maybe your leadership platform. Also, if you have an “About Me” page, that might be a great place to include all the information you know and have written about yourselves as learners and leaders.