The Voice They Would Rather Hear: ePortfolio Profiles and Advice From the Mouths of my Students

Below you will find the ePortfolio Profile questionnaire my grade 9 and 10 students recently filled out on one another.  They looked at 2-4 ePortfolios by other students in our class.  Below (in red) you will find a random listing of of their responses.  Try it with your students and see what they say:

1. Name of ePortfolio author:
2. What is the first thing you notice when you pull up their ePortfolio?
3. List one word you would use to describe this student:
4. Does this student seem to be interested in learning?
5. Based on the ePortfolio, if you were to guess, what grades do you think this student earns in school?
6. Does this student have any outside activities that they are involved with?  What?  List them.
7. Name two things you enjoyed about this ePortfolio:
8. Name one thing you would like to see more of on this ePortfolio:
9. Does this student give too much information about themselves?

• Cool design
• Huge Shelfari Library
• you have HTML codes in your post
• need more widgets
• you have only included what was suggested in class, show me something unique about yourself
• check your grammar
• calming and professional
• interesting current events
• you have no activities but love to read
• big picture in header-I love it
• you are obviously interested in current events all over the world
• since you are ESL, post work from other subjects to showcase your strengths
• have you seriously only read one book?
• who are you outside of school?
• your blog is very bland, you are not, fix it now
• love the twitter headliner
• you seem very opinionated
• your blog is dark, you are not
• it was nice to read a different point of view toward America
• You make me want to know more
• you gave me ideas on things to include on my own ePortfolio
• I can tell you are passionate about music
• you seem intriguing
• you may want to include pictures and illustrations to break up all of your text
• you seem so serious, are you having any fun at school?
• I love your tag line "my views, my world" I need a better one now
• you misspelled your title
• your blog looks like you
• you misspelled learning, hello!
• you don't seem centered, your blog lacks direction
• time was obviously spent on the aesthetics behind your blog
• I had no idea you were so creative
• you have posted too many essays, show that you have a life
• add more categories-you are only showing schoolwork, what about all of your community service?
• get rid of some of your games, you appear childish
• you seem like your theme-blank and boring
• your bookshelf is irritating and destroys the mood of your blog, fix it
• if you use a dark color as a background, make sure we can see your font
• you tell me nothing about yourself
• great creative writing
• you like badminton, who knew?
• I love your fan counter
• I can tell you really like school
• you are like a jewelry box, I keep finding new treasures
• you may want to update your blog
• even your titles are creative
• I am surprised we picked the same layout, maybe we are more alike than I thought

As a parent and a teacher, I know that these comments meant a lot more to my students when they knew they were from their peers instead of coming from me.  Try it with your students and see how they can help one another create a stronger presence on the web.  Show them how their digital footprint can make a difference.