Technology considerations for online professional development.

1. Technology for Professional Development
for Educators

2. Know Your Audience
Innovators
Imagineers
Early Adopters
Me first!
Laggards
Change resistant
Majority
Ready when
you are
When deciding on the
deliver mode for
online professional
development, it is
helpful to understand
the technology self-
efficacy of your
learners. Technology
adoption is a spectrum
that ranges from
individuals who are
innovators to laggards
(Rogers, 2010). If the
majority of your
learners are late
adopters, it can be
more effective to meet
them where the
socialize online.

3. Connecting Teachers and Learners
Consider time, efficacy, distance, interests, readiness, and
commonalities, and badging when connecting content, teachers,
and learners (Educause, 2017, .

4. Mode of Delivery
Choose among various LMS, social media, RSS feeds, podcasts,
etc. based on the needs and interests of participants to
improve frequency and depth of engagement.

5. Social media brings authentic audience and engagement to
digital learning (Edutopia, 2015; Thompson, 2018).

6. Delivery Engagement
Curation
Decisions

7. Twitter is a form of micro blogging. It is a form of social
media used by individuals and organizations to share
information in the form of "tweets". Check out Using
Twitter to Promote Learning.
Schools and school districts have been successfully using
Twitter to support the continuing professional
development of teachers by connecting teachers to
content and other professionals (Edutopia, 2015).

8. A blog (web log) is an informal and conversational
website regularly updated and hosted by an individual or
organization. Typically, blogs are set up to allow reader
reactions and comments to maintain a rich and engaging
dialogue.
Blogs can support teacher to student as well as peer to
peer dialogue effectively promoting student engagement
and the sharing of knowledge. Blogs provide an authentic
audience for sharing student work and soliciting feedback
(Thompson, 2018).

9. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) are courses available to anyone for free
online that generally engage an extraordinarily high number of participants.
The most common use of MOOCs is for professional development either initiated by
employers to keep employee skills current, or by the employees themselves in an
effort to learn or maintain their own skills (Radford, Conningham, & Ford, 2015).

10. Facebook is a social networking site that allows friends, family, and others to
connect and share information online. Facebook groups and pages can be used to
host content and discussions. The social media site provides an authentic
audience and feeds participants related content based that can support their
learning.
Instructors who use Facebook report that participants are socially motivated to
engage in discussions and value peer insight. Through these online conversations
students develop a deeper understanding of the associated content (Walsh, 2010).

11. Pinterest is an easy to use curating tool that can host content from both
instructors and learners (Whiteman, 2015). Click the image above to
watch a short video on using Pinterest in education.

12. References
Educause. (2017). Microcredentialing/digital badging. 7 Things You Should Read About... Retrieved
from: https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2017/7/elir1704.pdf
Edutopia. (2015). Using Twitter to promote learning. Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/practice/social-media-making-connections-through-twitter
Radford, A. W., Coningham, B., & Horn, L. (2015). MOOCs: Not just for college Students—How
organizations can use MOOCs for professional development. Employment Relations
Today, 41(4), 1-15.
Rogers, E. M. (2010). Diffusion of innovations. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Thompson, M. (2018, April 23). Why your students should blog: 6 powerful benefits.
EmergingEdTech. Retrieved from: https://www.emergingedtech.com/2018/04/why-your-
students-should-blog-6-powerful-benefits/
Walsh, K. (2010, August 11). Facebook as an instructional technology tool. EmergingEdTech.
Retrieved from: https://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/08/facebook-as-an-instructional-
technology-tool/
Whiteman, J. (2015, March 2). Using Pinterest in education [Video file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=TOx_hmrWFJw