We get it, traditional sit and get professional development can be overwhelming to educators, expensive to the district, and near impossible to monitor effectiveness. As more of our work continues to embrace technology, it is important to explore the many benefits to online professional development.
Between creating lesson plans, grading assessments, supervising extracurricular activities, and juggling personal life, scheduling traditional face-to-face professional development sessions is never easy. Online professional development no longer requires teachers to be in the same room, at the same time. The only thing that is required by anytime, anywhere professional learning internet access and a tablet or a computer. A busy teacher can complete a Learning Path in between school and swim practice, while at home watching reruns of Friends, or on a snow day. Online PD offers flexibility to meet the needs of every teacher.
Like students, teachers have different needs and their professional development plans should reflect that. Online PD allows for educators to choose from a variety of Learning Paths, curated and vetted by Eduplanet21 and a team of content experts, that allows them to reach their individual professional learning needs. From teaching multicultural classrooms to the three dimensions of NGSS, there is a course for every initiative.
Some courses take place in a global cohort where educators will have the opportunity to interact across districts and share ideas and resources with their peers from across the world. Online PD capitalizes on interaction through discussions and web 2.0 tools, allowing educators to create a global network of like-minded professionals.
Traditional face-to-face professional development provides educators with a vast amount of information in just a few short hours often leaving educators with no plan to put their learning into action. With online PD, educators can learn at their own pace, completing a course in a few hours or a few weeks allowing educators to go back to the classroom and try out activities and ideas, reporting back to their colleagues with what worked, what didn’t, and what they will try again.
Continue learning long after a course is over by joining and utilizing communities. These topic-based communities allow you to create a centralized location where teachers can share how they have implemented their learning by sharing resources and ideas through discussions, links, and documents.