Today, with the explosion of the Read/Write Web, Professional Development as we know it, the old “sit and get” model, is quickly being supplanted by a vibrant, interactive network of relevant and informative blogs, wikis and podcasts.
Unlike traditional professional development sessions which are usually confined to one room, for three hours, with a sprinkling of ten minute breaks throughout, web based professional development is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Today, professional development is light and cool. It moves and has sound. It’s portable. It can be time shifted, fast-forwarded and rewound. Couldn’t make the Learning 2.0 conference two weeks ago in Shanghai, China? Not a problem. Today, anyone can download lectures, keynote addresses, videos, slideshows and bookmarked links from conferences and workshops directly to a flash drive or to an MP3 player. That means you can study and learn from your peers and from experts anytime and anywhere - while driving, while jogging, at the auto garage, on the train, aboard a jet, at the supermarket, anywhere.
I personally have learned more through subscribing to blogs, wikis and podcasts than I have learned in all of my graduate classes combined! I remember more. I can apply the material to my pedagogy better. I can rewind and repeat sections of a video or podcast if I feel the presenter is speaking too fast and I can share that content with my colleagues and with my students. And here is the best part – most of these web based conferences and workshops are absolutely free compared to the thousands of dollars in book fees and tuition fees I’ve spent over the years for graduate courses, seminars and workshops, most of which is but a mere blur to me today.
I hope to spend more time on this important topic in the future, but until then, here is a list of links that you all may find useful.
Edugloggers: Moving at the Speed of Creativity, EdTechTalk, Read/Write Web, Learning Is Messy, Weblogg-ed, Practical Theory, In Practice, 21st Century Collaborative, Effective Teaching, Quality Instruction and Professional Development, The Four Eyed Technologist, The Cool Cat Teacher, Mr. Mayo, Blogs on Educational Blogging and many more.
Productivity (free, web based office suites and personalized start pages):
iGoogle, ZOHO, OpenOffice, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Voicethread.
Audio Production: Audacity
Video Creation Tools: Jumpcut, Eyespot
Photo Storage and Share Sites: Flickr, Photobucket
Tagging and Social Bookmarking: del.icio.us, Furl
Uploading Files, Web Hosting and File Conversion Tools:
Senduit, Zamzar, Divshare, Keepvid
Internet Video: PureVideo, TeacherTube, Miro,
Mapping: Live Search, Google Earth, Google Maps
Slideshows/Movies: Did You Know, Me, The Machine is Us/ing Us. Learning The Guitar
More links to come later.
H. Songhai
9/26/07
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