Using digital portfolios as an everyday learning practice is becoming more and more popular, especially as schools pivot between in-person and online classes.
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But for many of us educators, this is a new concept to introduce to students and a new approach to our own teaching practice!

Enter SpacesEDU. To make it easier than ever for you to begin using digital portfolios in your classroom, let’s walk through six steps to complete in your first month of implementation.

During your first month of implementation, here are five easy steps to begin using portfolios with students.

View the Getting Started with SpacesEDU guide as a PDF.

As you prepare to implement digital portfolios, it is important for you to create an environment that fosters reflective inquiry and technology use.

Read: How do I set up my classroom environment?

Read: How do I set up my remote learning environment?

Now that you’ve set up your learning environment, it's time to get your students excited to share their learning and demonstrate growth over time.
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To make things easy for you, we've prepared a slide-deck with speaker notes for you to help prepare your introduction to students:

Create your first Teacher Post to spark student engagement and help introduce reflective inquiry. Need post ideas? Here are 5 ideas for your first Teacher Post in SpacesEDU.

Now that you've introduced students to portfolios and set your classroom expectations, it's time for your students to dive in and engage with your first Teacher Post.

Check out How do I invite students to join my class.

Once students join your SpacesEDU class, they can create rich media posts to showcase their learning and help you see their growth. Students can record video presentations, add audio journals of what they've learned, or snap photos to reflect on a topic.

Here are a few ideas for a first Student Post:

Teacher Tip: Take a look at the digital citizenship post idea on the last slide of the Intro to Digital Portfolios presentation for students.
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Introduce your Family Community to portfolios to foster parent engagement and meaningful feedback.
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Now that you’ve communicated clear expectations with your students, it's time to give parents a window into your classroom! (Read: Parents' and family guide to digital portfolios in the classroom).
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Once you are ready for parents to interact with your students’ work, click here to learn how to invite parents to create an account.
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​Looking for some tips on how to best provide feedback on your student's learning? We’ve got you covered. Click here to download our Family Feedback Prompts for Digital Portfolios (PDF).

While using digital portfolios may be a new learning tool for your students, rest assured that students are growing up tech-savvy. Truth be told, students have an innate ability to adapt to technology and use it to meet their needs.
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Plus, the vision of a digital portfolio is for students to be the architect of their learning, and to own their experiences by documenting and reflecting on their growth over time.
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You just need to light the match to spark students’ journeys to portfolio building.