Online Portfolios

In my search to find the perfect way to record all of our wonderings, findings, brilliance, etc. to an online "place" I found a lot of different tools.  Many of which would be very useful in the classroom, some that add more privacy, some that are more limited, and some that are just too fancy for their own good.  I'd like to give you an overview of what I've found, and hopefully you can get some use out of my hours of geeking it out on the internet.

I'll start with a GREAT resource, Schoology.  It is FREE and easy to sign up.  You and your students will need email accounts for Schoology, but it is worth that hassle.  You can keep up with grades, attendance, important calendar dates, and even use it like a social media platform (such as Facebook) for group discussion and announcements.
Students can post updates (like questions for the class about a homework assignment) and write blog posts as well.  You can link to webpages, upload documents, basically put everything on the schoology site (and easily link it to your google docs account).
A few screen shots for ya.   You can see that the fact that schoology so closely resembles the facebook platform means that most students will have no problem navigating through.

You choose instructor, your students choose student (duh)

Easily create your courses, which you can divide into periods.  

Sample gradebook
Students have access to their own grades only.

Sample attendance

Course homepage.  Posts will show up here much like the Facebook platform 

Rcampus is FREE for educators, students, administrators and academic groups and clubs, and they do have site licensees available (although, I'm not quite sure why you'd need/want one)
You as a teacher can create your own page, different classes, invite your students to join and send out assignments, collect and grade portfolios all from your Rcampus account.    It seems easy enough to create a class and invite your students using unique access codes for each class.  I did find that the site was a bit cumbersome when I was trying to set up a "Faculty Group" for our TQ group though.  I can't imagine that it would be something you could sit down in one class period and direct your students through.  LOTS of options and personalization that has to happen before you can even begin to use the services available.
I could be swayed into thinking its a perfect fit, but I'm certainly not there yet (and especially if I have to be the webmaster).  Creating your ePortfolio for us as a group to share with one another is like creating a bunch of individual websites . . . I'm a simple girl.  The blog is plenty for me.
Just a quick glimpse of all the things you can do from your login screen.

There are TONS of online journaling options, ranging from simple text to really nicely integrated text and image.  Penzu was one that I was impressed with, although its really marketed to be more of an online diary than a "journal" in the way we teachers think of them.  It has a free and a paid version (the $19 a year paid version allows use on the iPad with a browser based app).

And of course different blogging platforms too, Blogger certainly isn't the only one out there.  The others that you'll find with a quick search are Wordpress, Blog.com, Squarespace and Typepad.  Of those, Wordpress and Blog.com are also free platforms (or at least have a free option).  And I like free.
I find that Wordpress is a really elegant blog platform, but that also provides part of its problems.  I like things simple, and the Wordpress platform always coaxes me into making things much more complicated than they need to be.  I haven't tested the waters of Blog.com (or the other paid platforms).  So, when you try 'em out, let me know if you've found heaven in another place.

Edublogs is one I certainly shouldn't ignore.  Your students (and you, I suppose) can create free blogs, with no email account needed.  To fully appreciate the services they have though, you would need a Pro or Campus account which provides you the opportunity to manage and connect to your students' blogs.

Kidblogs looks like a great tool.  They market their site for lower grade teachers (elem and middle), but I don't think the simplicity takes high school teachers out of the market.  Less distractions, and less excuses for mistakes with its very straight forward platform.  It is free, period, and your students log in by selecting their name from a list, so no more remembering user names.  You have complete control and their blogs are set to private, but they can easily view classmates blogs from the home screen.    Looks really simple to set up, and distraction free for the students to post.  From what I can tell, there are not limits on the number of students you can add and it doesn't look like there is opportunity for collaborative work or online discussion except through comments between the reader (you and classmates) and author (student). Also, doesn't look like you can divide it into periods, unless you create multiple accounts from the get-go.

Teacher homescreen

Student posting screen

So there you have it.  Hope you can get some value from my hours of internet searching.