The new "common app" form does allow for PDF attachments. Some institutions (University of Michigan for example) have actually entered the 21st century & allow high school teachers to add PDF docs to the overall student recommendation & evaluation. (I just filled one out for a student last week).
Excellent. So at least the University of Michigan admissions office has fully entered into the 1990s.
I expect more of this great land's premier institutions of higher education.
I want college admissions offices to accept (and actually look at) Digital Portfolios and Multimedia Recommendations. Our students deserve no less than that the folks making decisions about their futures should be able to speak the technological language of the real world in which the students are living.
And in the case of students without access to tech? Well, to be honest, there's really no excuse for students not having access to tech. There's absolutely no reason why every high school in the USA shouldn't have at least one digital workstation open to students in their college counseling room. No reason; no excuse.
But, that's a whole other post.
One about the allocation of resources.
Even though I'm happy where I am currently (teaching middle school English Language Arts), I have plans to some day take on teaching at the higher ed level. When this opportunity arises, I plan to use my blog and my Twitter as part of my resume. They are both a running log of my professional life - something much more relevant than any letter of recommendation.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, my post was not intended to be complimentary in my reference to U of M, sadly they are actually "ahead" of many others all across the entire nation!!!
ReplyDelete@Steven
ReplyDeleteI know. And that's the frustrating/scary thing.
best,
Shelly
The really scary & frustrating thing is that while we are in the midst of a difficult economic climate we should increase educational opportunities for kids...so what do we do? We cut educational resources (& thus opportunities) to the bone...talk about self-destruction for an entire nation, that's the way to do it!
ReplyDeleteI know this may not be the point, and excuse me for not understanding the admissions process but couldn't a paper form or pdf point to one or more url's that link a students eportfolio? Not ideal I know, but pushes the point. Any reputable institution would have to accept this as legitimate evidence of academic endeavor...
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