ePortfolios at LaGuardia

Last April I participated in the ePortfolios Conference at LaGuardia Community College and saw a team of students representing hundreds of their peers present their ePortfolios. Student after student of both genders and every color proudly stood up to show us who they understood themselves to be and where they intended to go in this world.

LaGuardia has focused its curriculum on helping students develop a consciousness of who they are becoming. Their three-tier approach to portfolios provides a scaffold for students to progressively invent and re-invent themselves in the eyes of the world. The lowest level provides a good amount of structure and technological assistance. Each successive level requires less structure and invites more freedom for self-expression.

Clearly sparks of self-confidence and a wealth of capabilities were always present in these students. But it took the catalyst of LaGuardia's caring faculty along with a plan for using ePortfolios and other formative tools to expose and ignite these sparks into sources of heat and light. There is no end to what these students can do in this world. I saw quiet, confident, purpose-driven citizens of the world, ready to live meaningful and productive lives. There can be no greater outcome for educators and education.