Creating E-Portfolios with Blogger

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I was attending the Instructional Technology Conference at MTSU. One of the sessions at the conference discussed Practical Stategies for succesfully implementing E-Portfolios. This peaked my interest in E-Portfolios, and I started researching the topic.

However what I discovered was that there were some tools available, but few were simple enough to implement, or they cost you money to subscribe to their service, to accomplish the task.

Until recently, when I ran into an excellent video by Dr. Christy Keeler, from the University Of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Keeler talks about using Blogger in creating an E-Portfolio. The reason why I liked it so much is that Blogger is available free of cost, and the sample E-Portfolio looked real good. Plus I think that this is an excellent application for Blogger.

Dr. Keeler has graciously given me permission to use her video for creating an E-portfolio above, so I hope you enjoy this post. The elegance of this approach is in it's simplicity, yet it allows you to completely accomplish your task with pizzaz.

Web 2.0 - Catch the Wave

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This is a screencast on Web 2.0 from Chattanooga State

You have no doubt heard a lot of buzz about "Web 2.0" this year. Web 2.0 is the moniker for an emerging set of Internet-based tools and an emerging philosophy on how to use them.

The technologies encompassed by Web 2.0 include, but are by no means limited to, blogs, tags, RSS, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, and AJAX. The philosophy focuses on the idea that the people who consume media, access the Internet, and use the Web shouldn't passively absorb what's available -- rather, they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities.

This philosophy contrasts sharply with the old "Web 1.0" methodology, in which news was provided by a handful of large corporations, Web pages were static and rarely updated, and only the tech-savvy could contribute to the development of the World Wide Web.

Web 2.0 isn't just the latest new toy for geeks or the bleeding edge so beloved by entrepreneurs. It's the beginning of a new era in technology -- one that promises to help nonprofits operate more efficiently, generate more funding, and affect more lives.

In some previous posts I have discussed what Blogs, and Podcasts, and RSS Feeds are. So what is a Wiki? and what is the difference between a Blog and a Wiki?

A Blog usually has one person who authors the posts, whereas in a Wiki you can have more than one person that can manage the site. So there is more collaboration in a Wiki. More than one person can store files on a Wiki and revise documents. To watch the Screencast click on Click to Play. If the screencast does not play, install the Flash Player

What in the world is a Blog ?

The word Blog (online journal), has been derived from the word Weblog. Weblogs or ‘Blogs’ are personal Websites consisting of regularly updated entries displayed in reverse chronological order. They read like a diary or journal, but with the most recent entry at the top.

In plain english a Blog is simply a Website that you can easily post information to, without having to know how to use HTML or FrontPage. This is mainly because a Blog has it's own HTML editor, that allows you to simply type in your information, like you would in say a word processor like Microsoft Word.

Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photographs, videos or audio. For an example of using Blogs in education click here . For more information on using Blogger for your Blog, please click on "Dummies Guide to Blogger".