QUESTION 1:

What steps are being taken to safe guard my student's work from being displayed  openly on the internet and to safe guard any Intellectual Property that their work may contain?

ANSWER 1:

Each teacher account has the option of assigning ALL of the portfolios connected to that class as "private" ,the highest privacy setting through the Weebly software.  The public will not be able to see the work.  (See the WEEBLY VIDEO DEMO by clicking this link... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AqR6vo0pno) 

In addition, steps are being take to include TIME STAMPING ( a method of securely notarizing digital documents)  of all works to be submitted through the Innovation Portal when the site and connections to "Opportunity Modules" are established. Click this link to learn more about "Time Stamping" 
(http://www.digistamp.com/timestamp.htm)

QUESTION 2:

This site only involves a process for organizing and creating the student portfolios.  When can we expect news about how to connect the student works to the "Opportunities like scholarships and competitions that were mentioned as the overarching goal of the Innovation Portal or "IPORTAL"  Project?

 ANSWER 2:

     The idea and organization of people to build the Innovation Portal took place late in the summer of 2010.  As we finalize a partnership with a programming sub contractor to create the full portal we realized two things;  First that Weebly's "Education Campus" management service combined with it's award winning drag and drop web site creator offered a perfect solution for one half of the equation; the building, and teacher management of online portfolios for students. 

    We created this pilot project using the Weebly service in order to get students building in a secure environment while the other half of the equation is being built.  If we were to wait we might end up with a functional site containing many opportunities for students and no one ready to participate.  We would have to release the entire project as a whole in the spring and "lose a year" as it were.
 

QUESTION 3:

Will the Innovation Portal be using the WEEBLY education campus and web creator for coming years as well? 

ANSWER3:

At this point it looks unlikely that we will be able to seamlessly connect the platforms of WEEBLY with that of the "Opportunity Module" functions of the Innovation Portal.  We are hoping to be able to transfer all of your student's work over easily.  as mentioned in the "Background Information", the worst case scenario is that students will have to "drag and drop" the pieces they have created or gathered to make a second portfolio ( see the page" A strategy for Building a Portfolio".     The final version of the Innovation Portal is intended to  have the same drag and drop process for generating portfolios  and process for managing student portfolios that you will experience with this pilot process.

QUESTION 4:

Is there an example of what either a student portfolio or the actual Innovation Portal  might look like that we can see?

ANSWER 4:

An example of what a completed portfolio would look like can be found at..  http://markschroll.weebly.com    Instead of placing random material on each of the pages we have endeavored to include resources and examples on each of the pages of this example.

The rough mock-up of the actual Innovation Portal site (created to help our programmers envision the end product) can be found at    http://innovationportal.org

QUESTION 5:

Looking forward, what are the best and worst case scenarios for  me and my students as part of this pilot project?

ANSWER 5:

     The very worst case scenario is that the online site to connect students to opportunities will not be ready to launch before the 2010-2011 school year ends and will have to wait for official launch in the fall of 2011.  (Even in this case it will likely still be  possible to connect the portfolios with  scholarships, and competitions but in a less seamless fashion.)  Also,  at the very least,  all of  the student's work will be assessable through the student's accounts at the WEEBLY site.   The work will not be lost. 


     The more likely scenario is that our programming team will have a working prototype online by the end of March and students will be able to begin to read about and review the "Opportunity Modules" for which they will be able to connect their online portfolio work.  The strength of having the portfolios all using the same structure and in the same format is that such a structure is the most time consuming  part of the whole equation.    In this format it is then very easy for people and organizations interested in the work to organize their efforts around this structure.  ( This is why all students have to organize their work in the same way for a science fair)