Professor E-Portfolios?

Here's a topical subject for my colleagues: Have you created your professional e-portfolio site yet?

Several recent education articles have suggested that e-portfolios are a new tool for college professors and instructors to use to document their research and teaching strengths, publications, and awards. These sites are a visual and digital record of educational careers which can be quite effective when faculty contemplate moving to another campus or prepare to meet tenure requirements. If you are unfamiliar with career e-portfolios, excellent examples are presented at http://www.professorportfolio.com. While this site charges a fee for their services, most colleges and universities offer their instructors free Web site addresses on their servers. Obviously, professors can also also use these sites to display their successful teaching strategies, publications and professional credentials; they just can’t take those addresses with them when they leave. :)

If you have misgivings about showing some of your career information online, much of it may be there already. Try "goggling" your own name to see how many “hits” your name generates. Many professionals are amazed at how much the public can see about their history and credentials. If you have ever been interviewed by the media, published documents or conducted research; chances are your name and information are already online!

Have you already published your career e-portfolio? If so, please let our faculty readers know what you thought were the most important items to share online! We'd love to hear from you!