E-portfolios -- To Be or Not To Be?

It seems like within the last five years or so digital or e-portfolios have come to stay in the world of education. There are many for-profit companies vying for a spot in the market. Many of these are to ensure quality and access for program or university accrediting bodies. However, there are also many free products that can be used by students to create an online portfolio of their accomplishments, philosophies, projects, and more. I'll consider e-portfolios used by students in this post.

I think an e-portfolio could be beneficial for students seeking jobs. In addition to a c.v., a digital portfolio offers actual examples of what a student reports he or she can do or create. Also, an e-portfolio in the online environment allows the instructor easy access to student work to help him or her connect with students. I imagine they would also be handy when an online student asks a professor for a letter of reference or recommendation -- in this case the instructor can job jog his or her memory by visiting the student's e-portfolio. Additionally, being forced to construct an e-portfolio for a class, assures that student has some grasp of digital technologies.

A challenge I've hear posed against the use of e-portfolios is their ability to be changed by the student. Since the student has control over the content, he or she can add or subtract from the document at will. So let's say they get a less than stellar evaluation on a performance review, they can erase this content or choose not to include it for potential employers to see. This begs the question, who else besides the student should have access to his or her portfolio?

I'm creating an e-portfolio as part of this program, but other than the purposes of degree completion, I'm not convinced it will be helpful to me. There are many free tools that could be effectively used to build an e-portfolio. Personally, I would choose Weebly or Google Sites over other choices such as VoiceThread or Wikispaces. The first two sites seem to be more streamlined, look more professional, and are easy to navigate even if you haven't used them before. For example, I've watched someone try to view a project made with VoiceThread and though they were reasonably tech-saavy, they had trouble grasping the navigation. I wouldn't want to have an e-portfolio that was skipped over because the reviewer couldn't easily figure out how to access my content.