As a class assignment, I participated in the affirmative side of a debate for high stakes testing. The opposition side used portfolio assessments as an alternative to high stakes testing. While the public school system in the United States is not structured to handle mass portfolio assessments in K-12 and higher education, portfolios have a place.

Portfolios are important because traditional measures tend to only measure the moment. Frequently, two weeks after I take a multiple choice exam, when I find I need to recall previous knowledge, I unconsciously did a brain dump of the information I tested over previously. Portfolios, on the other hand, provide an opportunity to demonstrate application of knowledge and an arena to reflect. Reflection isn't possible if all the information has been brain dumped.

When I tell people I am studying instructional technology, the most common response is simply "computers". No matter the missing words around the statement "computers", their reactive description is almost completely inaccurate. Before I spend the time and effort becoming famous enough to coin a replacement term for "instructional technology", I am stuck with finding a way to explain what instructional technology actually means. I plan to explain instructional technology through my online portfolio.

At first, I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to design a website I thought would have clean navigation for the elements I wanted to have in the portfolio. I posted an autobiography, a resume, and a list of my skills. After reviewing the copious amounts of old assignments saved on my computer, I discovered simply uploading the assignments to a website or storing them in a folder would be entirely disorganized, un-descriptive, and in a way, hallow. To create my portfolio, I needed a cheap way to organize work samples, assessment rubrics, a narrative description of the work samples, and any other supporting materials. I found blogging software and content management systems had the tools I was looking for. In instructional system design with Dr. Hirumi, I learned portfolios often include things I never thought of including lesson plans, handouts for presentations, media clips, evaluations, graphics, awards, non-academic work samples, exams, trip reports, reflective journal entries, presentations, websites, opinion or concept papers,endorsements, programming code, flowcharts and storyboards, sample screen shots, and executive summaries of reports. Using Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage to generate individual documents with a description and reflective element for each element of a portfolio is not practical to maintain.

Technical elements I looked for in the web software I chose included a template system where by I could customize the look of the website. I wanted to be able to simply type, or even paste in, a description and reflection of the coursework. Having a hierarchy of coursework was important to separate my work between Ph.D., MS, and BBA assignments. Then I needed to be able to attach each assignment to the description.

The part of my portfolio where I'm having trouble is communicating course expectations. The simplest way appears to be to upload course syllabi, however copyright might be an issue. Though it might take some time, contacting professors to get permission to re-post syllabi content online is probably best.

When researching online, I often have top search results of my own online journal dating back to the year 2000. When my own journal is listed as the top five search results, my first reaction is to get frustrated. I think, "why am I the only one discussing this topic?" I retrospect, when that happens, it is probably a good sign of a topic on which I may be a lead researcher or authority. Importing my old online journal into my new Drupal-based portfolio will likely be an important reflection and resource area, especially when I need to study for comps.