What goes through the mind of a student who ceates a portfolio? Some thoughts from a High Tech High student

In 2014 I wrote to Ben Staley and asked "how do you put together your portfolio?"   His reply is part of a book called "Show Your Work"   TINYURL.com/ShowYourWork


In 2018, I contacted Ben to find out if he still makes a portfolio.  Here is his reply:

Hello!

Unfortunately I’ve been super busy and hadn’t had a use for a Digital Portfolio. I moved everything over to Weebly a while back when I was applying for jobs, but now that I am employed and attending school I haven’t had the time or need. That is also why I let my fancy URL expire. Now it’s just BenStaley.weebly.com. As soon as I start applying to jobs I will probably update it as an extension of my resume but this is as “long term” as it’s going to get right now :-)

Best,

Ben

I wrote the following:

Hello Ben,

Thank you for taking time to write back.  How stable is your weebly page?  IS it guaranteed to be around 10 years from now? 

1.  I like the idea that you kept the practice of DP going, even if you made only summary notes for some courses.   It's more than I made of my college courses.

2.  what is it that you like about Weebly?   I want to give my students a "user's" opinion.

3.  Is it okay to share your portfolio on Weebly with my students?  I am putting together an expanded explanation of "what a DP looks like" and I want to use your HTH and your weebly versions as examples. 

4. If you know of any other HTH students who would like to have their DPs looked at by kids in Florida, please put me in contact with those students.    

5.  GRADUATION BY PORTFOLIO -- the state of Rhode Island has an innovation:  Students can qualify to graduate by submitting a portfolio.   You might have heard that the state of Rhode Island is looking for examples of portfolios to show a standard that is expected.   Would you be interested in having your portfolio exhibited and made available to students in other states to look at?

Thanks for your time.   Steve McCrea

My students continue to ask, "What did Ben do?"  and "Where did Ben go?"   now I can say, "WPI" (west Pacific Institute) and show them his new weebly site

Ben wrote the following:

Hello! Sorry for the delay

Weebly as a company seems pretty stable but I’ll never really be sure. The internet is a constantly changing place and I need to be flexible to change with it. Hopefully I won’t have to remake it anytime soon though :P

1. Yeah right now I was more focused on the framework of my DP. That way when I am out of college I can use it as an extension of my resume (which as worked well in the past)

2. I am a fairly technical person so if I had unlimited time I would design my own website. However I do not have unlimited time and weebly simply offered me a template that I liked (I am very picky). I used adobe illustrator and photoshop to make custom graphics and that’s about it.

3. I am not sure if my hth DP still exists unfortunately, but if you have it you can share it. You can also share the weebly one but make sure everyone knows I don’t use it right now so it’s rough :)    NOTE:   It exists here

4. I don’t think any of my friends from hth keep up their portfolios anymore. Maybe when it’s time to start applying for jobs. You can always go on the hth website and there is a list of current students that you could get in touch with. You can also contact the staff.

5. I would be interested, but I would be curious to know the requirements of want an example should look like (as mine is incomplete). Is there a certain time they need to be done? If it’s far enough out I might be able to polish it up.

Additionally, if you have any advice for how I can improve my digital portfolio I am all ears. P.S. The contact page on my website does work but I would prefer email for back and fourth communication.

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Ben's advice appears in TINYURL.com/ShowYourWork

What goes into a Digital Portfolio?

Example of a "complete" Digital Portfolio.

Notice that the student includes comments in some of the pages as "reflections" about the work.

This blogpost is a form of "archive."  The work of Ben Staley is on a Google Site, but the site appears to be under the High Tech High Google Site.   To help students of the future, selections of Ben's digital portfolio are displayed here so you can get a quick overview of "what a large DP looks like."
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You can see these items in a Google Drive archive HERE

Ben Staley wrote two descriptions of the process he used to assemble his DPs.  The first is from 2014 (his last year at High Tech High school) and the second is from 2018 (when he was a senior at WPI).

Start a Center for Projects, Presentations and Portfolios in your school.  Click HERE
The Center's website (a tribute to educational pioneer Abraham S. Fischler)