E-based professional development (e-pd) for effective teaching and  (Page 6/8)

While there are efforts to provide professional development for school leaders, it seems to be a matter of quality vs. quantity. According to Barth (1986), principals seem to have built up“antibodies”against useless professional development activities. Instead of being told“Here it is and this is what I expect of you”, principals don’t want their valuable time wasted with a so-called“expert”speaker or another canned lecture. They want something they can take back to their schools today and really put to use. For example,“This is how you can use your Palm Pilot to record data during a teacher observation”, and“This will help with organization and time management in your supervision duties”. Or,“This is what will happen in the courtroom during a level four grievance hearing”. And finally,“Here are some suggestions for dealing with a special education child advocate in an IEP meeting”. These are real issues that principals deal with. With their input, substantial professional development can be crafted around topics like these to meet their needs and interests. And without follow-up and some link between the professional development activities and their own practice, principals will gain little–or sustain much learning - from the experience.

According to the Virginia Department of Education (2004), there are several key factors that define high-quality professional development. First is richness of content that is specifically selected to deepen and broaden the knowledge and skills of teachers and principals. Next, it is based on well-defined objectives. High-quality professional development is well thought out regarding how it is delivered, the amount of time it takes, the styles of pedagogy included, and the use of formative and summative assessments. Finally, high-quality professional development is delivered by individuals who have demonstrated the appropriate qualifications and should provide training for educators in the use of technology so that it results in improved teaching and learning.

e-Based Professional Development: Making a Bullseye

Distance education in the United States has evolved from the tradition of independent learning, where learners who did not have geographical access to a physical site studied their own materials, generally in isolation of other similar learners (Frydenberg, 2002). Online professional development includes a variety of technologies. Typically, the term“online”refers to instruction delivered via the Internet. But, other forms of computer-based courses and training exist, such as CD-ROM’s (Killion, 2000). Today, the Internet provides a virtual landslide of resources, including those mentioned previously through the national professional organizations. Universities, both the brick-and-mortar kind as well as the online ones, offer courses and continuing education courses for every content area, as well as those on leadership, instructional strategies, use of technology in education, and numerous others. Warmack-Capes (2005) reports that some other sources of online courses for educators include: Classroom Connect, IDE Corporation, Atomic Learning, and Scholastic. The Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) TeacherLine, found at (External Link) , is a premier professional development resource, delivering courses online for PreK-12 teachers, both for graduate credit and recertification. Tapped In, an online workplace for educational professionals located at (External Link) , is an e-based forum where teachers, administrators, and others can gather to learn, collaborate, share, and support one another in learning as well as in professional practice.