Making my web portal and portfolio go beyond text

Wow! I am really amazed and impressed with all the tools and therefore the possibilities of incorporating video and audio into the portal. I really opens up a person's creativity and individualizes projects and presentations. I can see how the addition of either video, audio or both can help capture the real classroom, and can show what a teacher can really do in the classroom , which ultimately improves teaching. I could see how students would become a lot more engaged, stay focused and want to use the technology to "show what they know" and personalize their presentations. Technology using video and audio would also help the learner who better demonstrates their learning through performance than thru pencil-paper means to show that they've learned their material. It gives a lot more flexibility for assessment and evaluation. I could use the video and audio for sending parents a glimpse into our classroom and show what we've been learning and how we do certain activities. I could also create a presentation of classroom activities to show to the administration, in order to prove how valuable having the technology is to student achievement. I would love to be able to use Smartboard technology to "record" a lesson I present, for those students who could not be in the classroom, due to having to go to speech therapy or are absent and can't be involved in the learning themselves. Students would love to add music and sound effects to drama or puppet shows they present to an audience. There are lots of ideas, and I'm sure that when a teacher starts to use technology, students will come up with new and different ways as wll!