Electronic Portfolio

Log on to the Internet, there are increasing numbers of electronic portfolio events taking place all over the world in the form of conferences, professional development workshops, electronic   portfolio system development. The e-portfolio has become a buzzword associated with authentic assessment and reflective practice. Traditional instructional and assessment practices are not capable of preparing the trainees to play the renewed role with competence. Alternative assessment movement is a shift away from traditional assessment practices to make assessment more authentic to develop the real world skills and competence. The authentic assessment examines the students performance directly based on actual task and it provides opportunity to learn by planning, implementing, revising the final products or performances. Portfolio is one of the most appealing and effective methods of alternative assessment. “A portfolio is a planned collection of learner achievement that documents what a student has accomplished and the steps taken to get there. The collection represents a collaborative effort among teacher and learner, to decide on portfolio purpose, content, and evaluation criteria” (Kubiszyn and Borich, 2003, p.174). In teacher education, a portfolio of student teachers work on various areas would reflect the complexities of learning to teach and also provide a useful means of performance assessment.

The electronic version of the portfolio offers a powerful and dynamic tool for student teachers to demonstrate the performance-based standards of teacher education including the ICT competencies. Unlike the paper-based portfolio, the electronic portfolio uses a multimedia approach that allows the presentation of artifacts in a variety of formats. In addition to improving the assessment practice in teacher education the electronic portfolio helps in enhancing the trainees ICT competencies. There by electronic portfolios represent a crucial key to integrating ICT in teacher education. Portfolio in general and web based digital portfolio in particular could meet the twin goals of integrating ICT and alternative assessment practices in to the existing teacher education programmes.