August 09, 2002
A year or so ago I mentioned an electronic portfolio project, which has now been released publicly: e-folio MN.
This is really cool. Residents of Minnesota and those enrolled in Minnesota schools can create a web-based portfolio, with all sorts of customizable templates and options, for free. Content areas have been set up for students, teachers, and job seekers, but you're free to create your own.
As Minnesota schools move to portfolio-based assessment, this is perfect: students can set up portfolios of their work and make them available to teachers, family, colleges... If you're a college student, use this throughout your college career to show to potential employers or grad schools. Teachers and professors can build portfolios of their work, often necessary for licensure or tenure. Looking for a job? Sell yourself with a customized portfolio. Preparing for a performance review? Document your work here.
Now, as a web developer I have some issues with how some things were done here. I still think there are accessibility improvements to be made. The markup doesn't validate. It heavily favors IE/Windows. It runs only on Windows servers.
I don't want this to detract from how very cool this tool is, though. Check it out.
Oh, I should remind you that the terms of service limit this to Minnesota residents and students.
One humorous note. In one of the sample sites, the Career Objectives page used text that I used in a test site I built during the design process. ("I don't want to produce anything, process anything, produce anything that's been processed, process anything that's been produced. Now that I reflect a bit more, I'm thinking that I'd like to get into kickboxing.") They were obviously amused. Suppose I should tell them that I lifted that line from the movie Say Anything.
Update: I told them. They pulled that line.
