Remote Professional Development

I have been working as an online community producer, developing online communities for professional development, network, collaboration and the sharing of best practice.

There is such a need for on demand training, that we plan regular webinars and then archive them for people to view as their busy schedules permit. One particular webinar on online science had only 4 attendees, but the archive was viewed 800 times in 4 months.

"Minds collaborating online" is the real power of the Internet I think.
I have been involved with the development of a book, Education for a Digital world. It was a communal community project using a plethora of online meeting tools. It employed a unique interactive research model, a forming relationships model, a collaborative research model, the sharing of ideas to produce new thinking model. The book is the output of ongoing discussions among practitioners from all over the world who participated in an online community of interest that stimulated dialog among and between interest groups that shared a common vision of providing best practice knowledge for the benefit of their peers. There are over 60 contributors from all over the world. Together we compiled, wrote and edited. The book is being published by the Commonwealth of Learning. This project is just one example of the myriad of opportunities afforded by new technologies.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James O'Reilly on July 25, 2008 at 1:58am

I'm an Intern at the WebcastAcademy.net, which operates under the Creative Commons License.
Please take a look at the curriculum: http://www.webcastacademy.net/book/curriculum
The WebcastAcademy.net is a hands on, online collaborative training center for people interested in learning how to produce and host live, interactive webcasts with worldwide participants. English and Spanish language modules are being produced. Further languages are forecasted.

I like the innovative issues addressed, but as things are moving so fast "muddling through" has been the favored approach up to now. Convergence of the course into Moodle and into 3D virtual worlds is under way.

Permalink Reply by Les Klassen on August 5, 2008 at 8:51am

Hi Sandy,

My name is Les Klassen and a former employee of an Adult Education research company, The Centre for Education and Work. http://www.cewca.org. We worked specially on Workplace Education, transferable skills, and Essential Skills (these are the Canadian government's push to articulate the need for soft skills at work). I left the company to create on demand training company and thought that you might want to check out my company. http://www.dojolearning.com.

Thanks for your time,

Les

Permalink Reply by Jane Kunberger on October 29, 2008 at 7:19pm

Hi Sandy,
As Director of Staff Development at a private school in Atlanta, I like the idea of using a webinar for anytime training for our teachers. I have offered many classes on campus during the last 4 years, and it just doesn't pay to offer a class for less than 5 participants. With an online class or webinar the number of participants would not matter as much. I will be interested in hearing more about your work. I agree that sharing ideas and collaborating is the power of the Internet.
Best,
Jane

Permalink Reply by John Garrett on November 9, 2008 at 8:06pm

The webinar format for training sounds interesting. What sor ot classes are you teaching? I am a technology teacher and building level technology leader. Which means I wear many hats ranging from trouble shooter to professional development specilist. I am having difficulties with getting my staff to show up to trainings and when they do they are usually only 2 or 3. Are you able to give credit of some sort (our state offers clock hours for certification maintenance) or is it just for training with no credit?

Permalink Reply by MarcelB on November 26, 2008 at 6:50pm

Remote Professional Development caught my eye in particular because the PLC I am involved in is comprised of teachers who live remotely throughout Outback Australia and remote islands. It is a Maths PLC and so far we have sustained local and central face-to-face meetings, however this is VERY expensive and not sustainable for the central meetings, and also single isolated teachers are tending to miss out on these opportunities. Thus we are exploring the online option, hopefully to get started next year.

I hope to facilitate the use of webinars, but even Elluminate is problematic due to the woeful connection speed we have out here. Yet I think this will prove very useful in providing PD opportunities and also networking and social learning.

I think community success is achieved when the community members take control from the experts and begin presenting. It is a process of developing self-efficacy and testing technology, but I am confident we will get there.
I was very interested to read of the low attendance and yet high viewing of the archives. I wonder if that is experienced by most online communities?

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