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Pathbrite
Pros: Can serve as a stand-alone tool or integrate nicely into existing curriculum. Encourages student self-reflection.
Cons: The cost for course and institutional use may deter some users.
Bottom Line: A simple PBL tool that promotes digital literacy and lets kids create flexible, accessible digital portfolios.
Pathbrite is a great fit for classroom use in any subject area. Teachers should familiarize themselves with all the tool's features by watching the demo videos, viewing the sample portfolios, and perhaps creating a portfolio to introduce students to how portfolios work and how they'll be used in the course. The simplest way to use Pathbrite is to have students create portfolios for a specific assignment. For example, students can create a digital art exhibit as a final assessment, build a multimedia presentation on a historical event, or set up a digital résumé. If teachers or schools want to invest in the paid features, teachers can deliver content, collect assignments, and grade student work through the program.
Pathbrite is a Web-based tool that makes it easy for students to create digital portfolios. Students can showcase work, teachers can manage and assess classes, and institutions can collect data. The site is free for individuals to create portfolios. For large-scale use with courses or institutions, there is a $10–20 fee that can be paid by the student or the school.
After registration, users receive demo videos and access to sample portfolios. A step-by-step guide to portfolio creation allows users to use templates to determine theme and layout and to customize as little or as much as desired. Content, images, and videos are uploaded from any device or website (including Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and other social media platforms), and portfolios are easily viewed and shared across a wide range of devices. An insight page encourages feedback and highlights viewers' engagement and activity with portfolios.
Developing digital literacy skills is a key to academic and professional success, and Pathbrite provides educators and students with a platform to strengthen those skills and document accomplishments. It's best used in a secondary or post-secondary classroom, and students will learn how to make a digital portfolio and will be able to monitor their learning progress. Using portfolios promotes self-assessment and models the medium for making a positive impression in the professional world.
The drag-and-drop tools make the program especially accessible for a wide range of abilities and levels of tech fluency. Plus, the teacher features are strong; teachers can deliver content, create interactive prompts and assignments, and assess student work with custom rubrics. Beyond direct use with students, Pathbrite has the capacity to provide reports on students' work and grades that can be used for accreditation or curricular decision-making. It also easily integrates with a number of learning management systems, making this a flexible, robust tool for promoting and assessing student learning.