Open professional Development
I didn’t have to go to Jamie’s session, I wanted to go – and I’m glad I did.
Jamie presented on the Open Professional Development (OpenPD) model that we were able to start working with last year.
His goal for this session was to create a community in Texas where we can pool our resources, and compensate for the cuts in our travel and professional development budgets in Texas. We can use free tools to provide PD, and collaborate/learn from people beyond our local districts.
Robin Ellis from Quakertown, PA and Darren Draper from Sandy Point , UT; the developers of the OpenPD Wiki Collaboration contributed to the session via VoiceThread and Skype.
The session was broadcasted using Ustream and ManyCam and embedded into Jamie’s wiki: magnoliatech.wikispaces.com.
People can participate in this type of professional development either from home or school. This allows everyone to receive training that may not be available in their own district.
One of the most powerful things about this type of PD is the connections that participants around the globe. Teachers that meet in these sessions have begun to collaborate in other projects involving their students as well.
ManyCam allows you to switch back and forth between your desktop and webcam. Ustream and the wiki worked really well for allowing as many people as you want to participate. These aren’t the only services available, but these are the ones that we have used for the PD sessions. You don’t have to stick with one tool.
PD can be done in Second Life also. It used to be limited to text (which really didn’t seem to hold anyone back), but now that it is voice enabled it can be even more. Folks can meet and have opportunities to collaborate with colleagues around the globe. This also is a good way to participate in free professional development from you own home.
Great session, and a lot more people showed up than Jamie expected to see.
