Professional Development and Recertification for Bloggers and Web 2.0'ers

[Ernie Easter]

I posted this on my blog and thought it would also make a good Forum Discussion for Seedlings.

April vacation is coming to an end and I'm sitting looking at my front fields still covered with snow with waterways running through them. But it is warm now and I can sit on my porch and read blogs, work on curriculum, and just rest.

Reading blogs, responding, and generally soaking up information is not part of your typical professional development in the traditional sense. But I would suggest that we need to develop a way to do just that - provide credit for life long learning. Our Professional Learning Community (PLC) that we create through Nings, Facebook, Diigo, or any other format are important to our continued growth, yet they go unrecognized within the traditional school based professional development that gives credit for workshops and college coursework.

What would professional development for recertification credit look like for members of our PLCs who read and write blogs and participate in discussions like on our Ning?

[Cheryl Oakes]

Hi Ernie,
This is a question many of us ponder and talk about. If you look at the K12online conference you can take that conference for Graduate credit as well as CEU's. It is a way to document your growth through blog reflections. Look at Bob Sprankle's bobsprankle.com/bitbybit as he just finished up his round with the k12oneline conference for graduate credit through Plymouth State College, NH.
As a matter of fact I have drawn up some documentation for my summer professional development classes for our staff. Plymouth is going to grant 2 graduate credits for the work I have laid out. I am NOT being paid by them, however, teachers can take the class and pay for the graduate credits when they complete the work. There are options.
Cheryl

[Ernie Easter]

Thanks Cheryl -
But this is still going through the traditional university system for money. Granted some contracts will pay for some or all of it, but my question is, is there a way of setting this up as a Professional Learning Community that is recognized by local steering committees that will count towards recertification? If I needed the graduate credits, then Plymouth State would make some sense. But not needing the credits (and not wanting to lay out the money) how can we devise alternatives that would also count that recognizes what individuals are contributing to the Web 2.0 world?

[Cheryl Oakes]

I award CEU's to the staff in my district and other districts when they attend workshops, similar to the statewide workshops. But I think your question is, could each district award CEU's for a PLC agreeing to work on reading, answering and writing blogs. That is interesting. I would love to see that, because my best professional development comes from moments like this with conversation, reflection and trying new things out. Thanks for this Ernie.
Cheryl

[Larry Johnson]

Hi Ernie, our assistant principal was discussing this at one of her classes and one principal said that they offer time off of duties, or get out of school early cards for documented professional development of any type. I thought that was a very interesting idea, we are going to try to use it this summer in our teacher tech camps to try and gain more teacher interest.
Larry

[Ernie Easter]

I like that, time off of duties and the get out of school early. But I just think that it would be great if we got credit for non traditional workshop/course work time.

[Janice Friesen]

At my school district we are attempting to put together something like this. It is based on Goals set by teachers themselves, since everyone is at a different place. We have a sort of rubric describing teacher centered teaching with technology to student centered teaching with technology. It is in a very drafty state, so I won't share it here now, but I am very interested in what others are doing.

I think that you are right that Blog reading and responding should be part of ongoing personal professional development...

Janice

[Cheryl Oakes]

I found this great article by Sylvia Martinez, discussing professional development. I thought you would like the link.

http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2008/04/27/6-degrees-of-profession...

[Janice Friesen]

Thanks Cheryl. I really do find this helpful!

Janice

[Ernie Easter]

Great resource! Thanks for sharing.

[Nick Shuman]

Nice find! I'm going to share this with our technology director and our curriculum coordinator.

[coakes]

Nick, do you have any summer professional development going this summer? Last year 4 of your teachers came to the session Bob and I offered.
I am offering 4 different weeks of 4 days, 9-1 pm. If you think you are interested let's chat.
Cheryl

[coakes]

I blogged about professional development at TechLearning.com/blog today. In a round about way.
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/05/signs_of_spring_in_educati...
Ernie you were mentioned in my blog for starting this conversation here at Seedlings! Thanks.
Cheryl