Portfolio+4 is a digital white paper created by four teacher education students in EDTEC courses. Portfolio+4 examines the current tools and methods for creating and publishing digital portfolios four years after a digital portfolio requirement in the Ball State University teacher education program. They document software potentials and related issues for advancing how digital portfolios might be realized by future educators.

Ball State students, faculty, and staff are welcome to join "Portfolio+4" Community:

Portfolio+4 ("P4") started as a class project that Joe Ault, Andrew Brubaker, Adam Hofer, and Brooks Holloway worked on in EDTEC 360 during Fall 2006. Andrew and Joe continued their inquiry beyond EDTEC 360 by gathering preliminary feedback from students, faculty, and staff of Teachers College. They also consulted to two vendors: RealMac Software, LTD. and Apple, Inc. Andrew extended P4 even further in his EDTEC 480 practicum course during the Fall of 2007, in which he developed RapidWeaver training for future teachers. The SITE and EOL presentations are also, in part, a result of those EDTEC course experiences.

Topics discussed in Portfolio+4:
  • Technical and curricular challenges
  • Construction of digital media-rich portfolios
  • Publishing of content
  • File management and other technical skills
  • Relationships to coursework

Technologies evaluated:
  • iWeb (by Apple)
  • RapidWeaver (by RealMac Software)
  • Netscape (Mozilla) Composer (by Mozila.org)
  • Dreamweaver (by Adobe)