Digital Art Portfolio

Ever since my first child began preschool, I have Loved it when my kids brought home school work and all those cute art projects! The hand print art, strings of colored macaroni, and multitude of drawings. These are treasures to a mom and dad, but unfortunately as time passes these treasures look worse for the wear. Besides that, there are SO many of them I want to keep them all. How could I throw our something my sweet babies made? At some point a problemem arises. What do you do with all this stuff?? Add to the fact that I am hesitant to throw things out, my daughter is showing frightening signs of wanting to be a hoarder (kidding . . . A little). How can I save all these great memories without being buried by all the paper?
Technology to the rescue! This afternoon, my daughter (10 yrs old) photographed each of her artistic masterpieces she had created so far this summer, and then I taught her how to upload the pics to a cloud storage tool. Finally I helped her set up a LiveBinder (www.live binders.com) where she could organize, name and save all her creations. She was so excited that she could then share the binder with Grandparents and friends, or even do a formal presentation from our computer screen! Great way to save her creations AND clear out the paper clutter!
We still have lots of art my son created in preschool this past year. Tomorrow I think we will try photographing with my smartphone so we can upload straight to Dropbox with one less step. I will share a link to my LiveBinder once we get it in presentation condition.

(As a side note in respect to my quest to find an ePortfolio tool to use in my classroom this year . . . I think this may be it!)

ePortfolios Episode 3

So I have to say that I'm feeling frustrated with finding the perfect solution for this right now. There are obviously tons of web 2.0 tools I could use for ePortfolios. I have to have something that allows kids under 13 to register. I want something that students can use to work on assignments and collaborate with others AND showcase completed assignments. I also want something that would not be overly difficult for students to use on their own. Google Apps for Education seems to be the perfect solution, but I need district approval, etc to get that going and I have yet to hear back from my tech department in response to this.

I am playing around with Wiki Spaces and LiveBinders to see if that would work, but I am unsure if either will offer all the functionality which I want.

I know the solution is out there - I've just got to find it!

Feel free to comment with any suggestions!

ePortfolios LiveBinder

I am collecitong information and resources about ePortfolios in a LiveBinder.  You can check out my binder here:  http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=127946

Summer Tech Adventure

With school out for the summer, I am enjoying some much needed time to relax and enjoy my own children.  This also allows me some time to reflect on the past school year, and think about improvements for the upcoming year. Two topics I am currently interested in exploring are using ePortfolios to enhance student learning, and using technology to differentiate instruction.

So I am getting ready to embark on an adventure to learn as much as I can about these subjects and come up with a blue print for how I can incorporate them into my classroom in the upcoming year.  I honestly have no planned route for how I will get there, and I am excited to see what I will discover along the way.  I plan to blog my journey so that my experiences might assist other explorers. 

Wish me luck!