My Professional Portfolio - Updated

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Reflections on the Process

Internet (Lg.) In the absence of a blog, here are my reflections on the process of creating this electronic portfolio. In reality, this is the twelfth tool I have used to publish my e-portfolio on the Web. This version of my portfolio is actually an update, using TaskStream's updated WebFolio Builder in July 2006.

It took me about two hours to finish all of the entries using my browser, which was mostly a copy/paste job between the source code of my HTML portfolio and this system. I entered the HTML source from all of the pages, to get links into this system. I chose not to use the editing tools available for my browser (Safari).
I spent a lot of my time uploading links into the system, but they did not appear in the menus when I was creating these pages.  Rather than creating them again, I just copied the HTML code from other versions of my portfolio. I wish TaskStream would show me two items while I am creating a web folio: Web Links that I have previously used, and images that I previously used. I had to find them again and upload them again.

I was impressed with the number of new images available (like the one at the top of this page) and the new templates that were pre-designed for the presentation portfolios.  This revision provides a lot more templates and four options for the navigation bar. Very nice!

I found that when reconstructing this portfolio, there wasn't a way to convert a Content Section into a new Page. So I had to do a lot of cutting and pasting, and decided to copy my HTML code with the embedded links, rather than entering the individual links all over again. I also had to upload the small images again, since I could not find where they were already stored (as I was updating these pages)  If TaskStream would let me re-use the links that I had already used on another page, that would be very useful. When I look in my Resource Manager, a see a lot of duplicated web links and duplicated images.

My conclusion about this system is that it provides a very powerful set of tools for teachers and teacher education students. I have not used the other tools (Unit Builder, Lesson Builder, Rubric Wizard or the Communication tools) since I am only replicating my portfolio. Two years ago, I was impressed that the system allocates 100MB of storage space, enough for all of the digital video that I have used in this portfolio (linked to other server space that I have). Today, I think TaskStream should allow more space, up to 650 MB. The system has a menu to "Manage Online Storage" and a way to inventory all of the documents that were uploaded. I can see why this is a very popular system in Teacher Education programs.

The page below contains links to the other versions of my portfolio:
Author: Helen Barrett
Last modified: 4/10/2007 8:36 AM (EDT)