Many students in the University of Ottawa professional teacher preparation project have created professional digital portfolios as part of their program. This project was introduced at student orientation as an optional thing — not required of everyone, but encouraged. I created a website to support that work and some colleagues integrated the initiative into their courses this year.

A survey of our teacher candidates’ experiences with their digital portfolio projects has informed deeper understandings of challenges, the perceived benefits and students’ recommendations for revision of this project programmatically. Over the past week, Jessica Coleman, a pre-service teacher candidate, has analyzed themes in the survey data as part of her final community service learning placement experience in the B.Ed. program. This morning, we will present our findings to the Teacher Education Program Committee.