Hawisher and Selfe (1997) briefly discuss connecting features of portfolio assessment and use of computers in the composition classroom. With this early work, they find parallel discussions of portfolio and technology usage throughout the discipline.

They caution instructors and researchers to be critical of how they discuss using portfolios and contemporary writing technologies—implying that instructors and researchers need more precise language to talk about these classroom tools.

A critical, cautionary approach to understanding portfolio and technology usage is crucial to moving praxis forward, but talking about portfolios and multimodal writing with parallel terms and tones is not enough to explain the connections and limitations of using portfolios and computers together in the first-year composition classroom or any other composition classroom.

I articulate the parallels, consistencies, and inconsistencies associated with using portfolio assessment approaches in technology-accessible classrooms. I use these articulationg throughout the webtext as a means to answer the following questions about portfolios and contemporary composition classrooms through a critical lens: