This book provides a very surface level look at using digital portfolios as a professional development tool for teachers. The chapters covered the use of portfolios in professional development of educators (very broad and jargon-y), the need to have a digital portfolio (5 pages to say what you could in one paragraph), defining a personal vision (useful), specific steps in creating a portfolio (best part), covering the technology used to create portfolios (woefully lacking in detail), presenting your portfolio to the world (some good parts, especially on including material by children), evaluating the portfolio (lacking in detail), “sharing the knowledge” (not sure what the main idea was of this chapter), and the potential for development through portfolios (sketchy vision).
Another problem I had with the book is the references used to support it. Several appear to be non-peer reviewed reports posted on websites (typically on the author’s website). Others only weakly support the point made in the text (in my opinion). There were many statements in the book that I hoped would be backed up in some way (by references or logical argument), but were not. Does all this mean the authors are wrong? No, but it means support for some claims they make is weak.
The paperback itself is workbook sized and fairly sturdy. The larger page size is a good call considering the frequent use of tables and figures. So, the physical book is good quality.
I can’t really recommend it as I’m not sure who it would be useful to. It’s not detailed enough for practitioners and I assume theoreticians would already know all this. Two stars.
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