Train Online To Be In The Frontline!

There is nothing more satisfying to any student that obtaining their degree and being able to mount their ‘experience’ on a wall in a fancy frame. Especially after years of assignments, studying, blood, sweat and tears! In today’s day and age, a degree is unfortunately not enough to keep up with the trends considering the fast-paced development of the various industries. Education is an ever-evolving system and it is of the utmost importance that teachers continue their development while on the journey of educating the leaders of tomorrow and there is no other feasible way than doing so online.

When it comes to the older generation teacher that has been around the block and are absolute masters in their field, the whole online technological approach to their development might be an intimidating prospect, but there no longer needs to be a stigma regarding this method of professional development.

Online teacher professional development (OTPD) has many potential benefits for teachers, schools, districts, and countries. Its greatest potential benefit should be the improvement of student learning, as is the case for all forms of high-quality professional development. “Online professional development, when it is done well, has the opportunity to change teachers’ practice,” said National Academies Teacher Advisory Council (TAC) member and planning committee co-chair Lyn Le Countryman of the Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Iowa, “and we know that teachers’ practice is the most important factor impacting student achievement.” Rose concurred, saying “Experience is the encapsulation of practice. I believe that those data, collected by a whole bunch of folks, suggest that teacher practice is probably the most important thing that we can improve to improve kids’ lives.”

Other potential benefits of online professional development include:

Flexibility and Versatility:

Compared with the one-time workshops and face-to-face sessions that are characteristic of most current professional development, online programs can take a very wide variety of forms, with concomitant advantages of convenience, scalability, and adaptability. Different teachers have different needs, depending on such factors as the schools in which they teach, the students in their classes, their career stage, their previous experiences and their individual preferences and learning styles. If properly structured, online programs can be customised and tailored to meet these varying needs. For example, modern information technologies make it possible to store and tag huge amounts of data so that people can access them in different forms, edit them, comment on them, share them, interact with them, and acquire pieces to create their own lesson plans or resources.

Community of Professionals:

Teaching, which is one of the most social of activities, can also be very isolating. According to TAC member Deborah Smith, a 2^nd grade teacher at the Woodcreek Magnet School for Math, Science and Engineering in Lansing, Michigan, “Sometimes schools are deserts for teachers, if there is really not anybody there you feel you can talk to about your passions in teaching and about kids in the way that you would like to talk about kids.” Online technologies in general and some kinds of online professional teacher development programs in particular can help build the community that is so often missing from the daily lives of teachers. Teachers can interact with each other online in real time or asynchronously, offering them time to reflect on an ongoing exchange. One great benefit of online professional development is that it can provide teachers with a common language to communicate about teaching and learning. Online technologies also can build community between teachers and other groups. According to David Zarowin of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, another benefit is that, “in sharp contrast to the typical workshop, where you sit for three hours and you get a whole bunch of really good ideas, but you are left to your own devices as to how to integrate this into your practice, (courses taken online) are courses where you learn something, you get a little bit, you try it out in the classroom, you reflect on it, and then you develop your practice.”

Accountability:

OTPD offers more opportunity and scope for assessment and accountability of participants than does face-to-face professional development. OTPD also offers opportunities for assessment that go beyond what can be done with face-to-face programs. When someone is working at a computer, the software being used can capture all of the information exchanged through a keyboard, mouse, video camera, or microphone. Remarkably, instructors typically claim to know their online students better than their face-to-face students.

Retention:

Increasing numbers of young people who are considering becoming teachers are likely already to have experience with new information and communication technologies. If they see teaching as a profession that employs these devices productively, they may be more likely to make a commitment to teaching. Online technologies are not just for new teachers. Teachers at any stage of their careers can benefit from the new ideas and new connections made possible through them. Because teachers at different points of their careers have different needs and interests, some may see current professional development offerings as a waste of their time. Another group of teachers who can benefit are those who serve as mentors to less experienced teachers in online networks.

By providing teachers with professional development programs, they are able to continue their own education, gain vital skills not learned while taking university courses and stay current with new techniques. Not only is it critical for teachers to know their material, they must also be able to help students in order for them to truly succeed. Online courses like these at The Eduvation Network, provide just that, educating teachers on the best ways to instruct and motivate students for the best possible outcomes!