As many of you know, portfolios are often advocated as assessment tools in rhetoric and composition. Portfolio assessment usually consists of a process in which a student produces various drafts of assignments over the course of a semester. Those drafts are submitted to peers and the course instructor for comments, but grades are not assigned. Students use these comments to revise their work extensively before it is submitted at the end of the semester in a final portfolio. This final portfolio, then, represents the studentŐs best work. An understanding of "writing as process" motivates most portfolio assessment, as does a foundational understanding of print-based literacy. What happens to portfolios when students no longer produce print-based* products? We're about to find out.
This semester, you will produce a "new media" portfolio, which will include 3-4 new media projects, all published on the web. Notice that I use the term "new media" and not electronic or digital. What often get described as electronic portfolios or digital portfolios are really nothing more than traditional papers and projects published on the web in PDF or MS word formats. The production process is the same in that students draft, revise, and submit their best work; the only difference is that they publish and submit their work on the web.
In contrast, I'm conceiving of a "new media" portfolio as doing something different from these other types of portfolios. Rather than thinking about portfolio production as self-referential (this shows my progress, my development as a writer or producer), I want to think about the portfolio as productive--as doing something in the world (however you want define that).
I'm also not going to create assignments for you to produce (although I provide suggestions below). Rather, you'll assign yourself projects, create your own production schedule, and invite feedback from those parties who will be most interested and invested in the projects. You may not even have "drafts" of any kind since new media often follows a different logic of production. However, you will want to publish your pieces and get them out there to people who would be most interested and provide the best feedback.
Ideas for projects:
The portfolio should ideally consist of 3-4 projects, but depending on the scope and size of projects, this may vary. Some ideas for projects include producing a new media manifesto and submitting it to changethis.com. However, one would want to go beyond the PDF format of most manifestos.
Another idea for a project would be to produce a piece (or pieces) of tactical media. The Critical Art Ensemble explains: "The term 'tactical media' refers to a critical usage and theorization of media practices that draw on all forms of old and new, both lucid and sophisticated media, for achieving a variety of specific noncommercial goals and pushing all kinds of potentially subversive political issues" (Digital Resistance 5).
A third idea would be to engage in a documentation project--to document a practice, issue, problem, event, etc. Implicit in this project would be an exploration and interrogation of what documentation means, in all senses of the term.
Finally, there are two projects that might be collaborative efforts. The first involves building a web presence for The Friends of Cary Home for Children, a non-profit group in charge of raising funds and awareness about Cary Home for Children (a county-operated, state licensed residential treatment facility for adolescent males). The second project is the development and design of a special issue of The Writing Instructor, co-edited by Pat Sullivan and myself.
Or you may create a set of entirely different projects for your portfolio.
We'll spend the last week in class working on our projects and we'll have a few other times in class to discuss and work on the projects. If you havenŐt already done so, you might start thinking about what you want to do and discussing them with your peers and with me.
The portfolio is due at the end of the semester.
*While many people may see websites as new media, they are often unduly influenced by print-based aesthetics.
