Reflection on “Building a Yardstick for PD Success: Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Web 2.0 Personal Optimized Learning Environments” by Sharon Peters and Vincent Jansen

Reflection on “Building a Yardstick for PD Success: Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Web 2.0 Personal Optimized Learning Environments”
by Sharon Peters and Vincent Jansen (K12Online07)

This is an incredible workshop by Sharon and Vince that really challenges long held beliefs about “professional development.” I completely agree with the idea that there must be a measure and assessment of the outcomes from such “PD”, and that this is an area of weakness for most schools. I was astounded when Vince said that 5-8 billion dollars is spent a year on PD! We must not only have something to show for all that, but it must be training that turns into implementation that can be sustained.

Thinking of the “K12 Online Conference” one wonders why we don’t seek out more amazing opportunities like this that are free and can be digested over longer periods than most conferences allow. It’s hard for me to actually go to one-day workshops now, due to the amount of workshops and PD that I get online that I can revisit, take my time with, connect with others about in a global setting.

I think K12 has made some excellent advances in providing CEUs and graduate credits for the workshops and we need to be bringing more of these opportunities into our districts. I also agree with the presenters when they questioned why we go outside of the school for PD when there are many qualified people within the school to lead us in training.

Listening to this presentation has encouraged me to try and establish a Prof. Development “learning circle” in my school next year to carry out the K12 2008 Conference as a group.

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