Educators currently have great interest in online professional development programs that promise to deliver high-quality professional learning in flexible, lower-cost formats. This interest, coupled with growing access to affordable technologies to support learning at a distance, have prompted new developments in online professional learning programs in the last year. Designing and delivering online professional learning programs presents new roles for educational technology professionals, new opportunities to integrate technology into disciplinary content, and new ways to improve teachers’ technology literacy.

Because of the potential of online learning, the number and variety of online professional development programs are expanding so quickly that it is difficult to capture the trends, issues and lessons learned in this emerging field. Educators need a common vocabulary to speak about online professional learning and current understanding of effective models. Without this knowledge, educators will continue to design and implement programs on a trial and error basis, and the practice of online professional learning will not advance.

In order to address this need, the Southern Regional Educational Board has established online learning as one of their three major focal points. This session will offer a unique “high-level” synthesis of issues, trends, and recent developments in the field. This type of synthesis will help participants establish foundational knowledge that will guide their own actions. This foundation may help participants analyze and interpret content from other sessions about online professional learning. The session may also be a best choice for participants who can only attend a limited number of sessions on online professional learning.

During the session, participants will learn about the various types of online professional learning programs that have emerged in SREB’s member states and beyond, such as the Arkansas Online Professional Development initiative (Arkansas IDEAS) and the E-Learning for Educators initiative that includes state participation from Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Participants will also be introduced to a list of resources that they can use to guide the development of their own online learning initiatives. These include SREB’s Multi-State Online Professional Development Toolkit (MOPD) and Guidelines for Planning and Evaluating Online Professional Development Courses and Programs.

Finally, participants will receive a brief overview of what research is available to guide online professional learning initiatives and what research areas are currently being explored.

Exploring new developments in the field will help educators improve their ability to manage existing programs and to design new initiatives.

Outline

Part One: Overview of recent developments in online professional learning (Arkansas Online Professional Learning Initiative, Alabama Reading First Program) and the lessons learned from these efforts. (25 mins.)

Part Two: Overview of professional organizations and resources to assist educators with the design and implementation of online professional development programs. (15 mins.)

Part Three: Review of existing research on online professional learning, how it might apply to current practice, and what type of research may be taking place in the near future. (10 mins.)

Part Four: Discussion and Questions (10 mins.)

Presenter Background

Mr. Bill Thomas is director of Educational Technology Cooperative for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). As director of the Cooperative, he provides overall leadership for educational technology policy research. Since online learning is one of the three major learning foci for the Cooperative, Mr. Thomas is a national expert on online learning. Under his leadership, SREB has published the Multi-State Online Professional Development Toolkit (MOPD) and Guidelines for Planning and Evaluating Online Professional Development Courses and Programs. He has served as a consultant to many district, state, and regional online professional learning programs. See http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/edtechindex.asp

Mr. Michael Murray is the Associate Director of the Educational Technology Cooperative. He most recently worked as a program manager for the Georgia Department of Education. He has worked at the district level for the Fulton County School System (Georgia) and was also the director of the Educational Technology Training Center at Kennesaw State University

Dr. Jo Williamson is a member of the graduate faculty at Kennesaw State University, where she teaches Technology Leadership and Instructional Technology courses to practicing K-12 educators. She both teaches in an online format and teaches about online learning. Her research interests include studying the use of information and communication technologies for online professional learning. She also serves as the associate director of the Educational Technology Training Center at Kennesaw State University.

Referenced Web Links

http://gseweb.harvard.edu/%7Euk/otpd/final_research_overview.pdf
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/%7Euk/otpd/Dede_research_agenda_final.pdf
http://www.nacol.org