Digital Portfolios

My school ( independent preK-9) is looking at doing student portfolios. I know next to nothing about how to do these- other than a collection of materials based on standards/concepts to illustrate/showcase student learning. In the past we have done literary/art magazines which were used more as a marketing showpiece. When I taught K I collected student work and put it all together for the child and his/her parent. But that's really all that has ever been done at my school.

I would like to have a long discussion around this topic with the academic affairs committee at my school but am looking for advice. How does your school do portfolios? Do you use digital portfolios? Do you use a brand name software or open source or ?? Can students and parents access it from home? Who decides what goes into them? Who gets to edit them- student? teacher? How are they used- assessment of skills? culmination projects on concepts? grading? used for conferences? passed along to the next teacher and added to every year? Who owns the materials in the portfolio- the school? the student? Is it portable- can the student take this with him/her as a starting point for their digital footprint?

Lots and lots of questions... so if you are doing these at your school and can offer some answers or even better focused questions, it would be appreciated. If you use an online program or software, if you could drop a link...

Thanks