The final step in this assignment takes place after students have posted their own e-portfolio material and then have responded to each other's work by posting comments, responding to discussion threads, and posting their own specific responses to individual works.
Encourage students to look at the conversations/responses and to put an asterisks next to their favorite ones. Then, select one from each student to put in the Collective Conversation. It will be a collage of written responses. If students respond with recorded conversations, mashups of audio, or video responses, you can select among them and post them too.
What results will be an almost magical patchwork quilt of collective thoughts and human emotion about hometowns and identity. You will be amazed at the kinds of social issues that come to the surface and the themes that emerge. The quality of the final project/collage is often high enough to be published in an online journal or blog.