Online Professional Development Today
Professional development is vital to our long-term professional welfare: it enhances our individual work, our workplace, and our professional communities. We increasingly recognize that online professional development is a practical way of remaining current with the varied facets of our professional lives. Our exposure to exemplary concepts and techniques for the purposes of teaching and learning can be greatly enriched through effective online professional development.
The ways of delivering professional development have evolved dramatically over the past two decades. Today, with greater opportunities to personalize our education, online professional development makes it possible for educators to have access to the resources they need to continue to learn. ISTE Online Professional Development allows every teacher, novice and experienced, to learn from experts in the areas of technology and education. Participants can reflect on effective teaching strategies and understand what works and what does not.
Why ISTE Online PD?
The Internet does dissolve the constraints of time and place by offering a seemingly endless choice of options “anytime, anywhere.” However, the overwhelming number of choices raises the question of what makes an online professional program or resource worthwhile. Again, ISTE’s answer is to provide learning modules created by educators who are leaders in their fields and deeply familiar with the National Educational Technology Standards. The theory and objectives of the NETS guide the creation of the practical information and objectives contained in these new learning modules. In fact, both experience and advice from educators tell us that a practical approach is needed in online professional development, thus ISTE’s online professional development will present modules to inspire classroom instruction by embodying the NETS.
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What's in Store?
In early January 2009, ISTE will release its first series of learning modules dealing with Web 2.0 learning environments. The goal of these modules will be to offer educators the necessary skills to identify and support effective use of technology as a tool for teaching and learning. Professional development threads will include:
- Digital age learning environments
- Technology standards and Essential Conditions
- Creative approaches to instruction
- How teachers learn to use technology
ISTE will initially offer its online professional development as self-paced modules in order to make them widely available. To take its online professional development offerings to a deeper level, ISTE will also release, in mid 2009, mentored professional development courses. This will expand the scope of ISTE’s professional development services from its signature Webinars and Institutes to a broad range of resources and services that respond to the needs of today’s educators. Our goal is to continue ISTE’s commitment to leadership, professionalism, and community in an online venue.
An example of our online modules covers Implementing the Refreshed NETS•S
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