What is an electronic portfolio and why would I want to create one?

An electronic portfolio is a multimedia document that provides a place for you as a student to collect, select, and reflect on your academic and even extra-curricular activities. This can be valuable to you for many reasons. One reason being that you have a place to keep your most significant work, that which you select yourself. Another reason is that with its ability to be added to and edited over time you can look back and reflect on your own work and ideas and see how you have developed/evolved over time. The fact that the portfolio is electronic allows you to house the written work, multimedia work, pictures, video and audio files that you have created. It is very common now in colleges and universities for students to be required to maintain an electronic portfolio which is a part of graduation requirements and it may not be long before high schools require the same. Creating such a document at this time in your education will prepare you for this. Another consideration is the ability to share your portfolio with others such as teachers, prospective schools, and even prospective employers so they can get a broader picture of you beyond standardized test scores, grades, applications, and/or resumes.

If you were going to create an electronic portfolio today, what are some pieces of work or documents that you would include and why would you select them?