Individualized Professional Development Plan

Professional development is the acquisition of skills and knowledge that prepare an individual for future professional growth.   Developing an individualized professional development plan allows professionals to identify goals and devise a plan to reach those goals.  Below, I have shared four components to my own professional development plan that I am currently implementing for my professional growth and to prepare me for moving forward in the career goals that I have set for myself.

 

1.      Sabbatical Leave

I am currently taking a year of sabbatical leave to complete my graduate study.  This has been a valuable opportunity to focus on my own development and redefine my professional goals.  Without the responsibilities of my job, I have been able to take on a heavier class load and complete my degree in a much shorter time.  This is allowing me to achieve my goals at a much quicker pace and opening up professional opportunities that may not have otherwise been available to me.  

2.      Professional Learning Community

Recently, my colleagues have started organizing professional learning communities to research and discuss educational topics.  I currently know of three PLC’s that are meeting regularly in our district.  One of the PLC’s is focused on developing writing in struggling students.  As part of my individualized development plan, I have decided to participate in this PLC to build my skills at writing instruction and to stay informed of both state and national curriculum changes in the area of English Language Arts.   

3.      Coaching

Our district currently has coaches working with all secondary level math and ELA teachers.  Coaches partner with teachers as mentors and serve as sources of information for other professional development opportunities such as serving on educational committees, attending conferences, or out of district training.  As I return to work from my sabbatical, I want to arrange to meet with the ELA coach on a regular basis to stay abreast of opportunities to continue my own development in my field. 

4.      Professional Research

One of tools that I have found to be invaluable during my graduate study is the FeedDemon RSS feed.  It has allowed me to follow educational blogs that report on the most recent developments in the field.  I have found that a lot of my own exploration in my field has come from reading and sharing on the educational blogs that I follow.  However, many of the blogs that I have followed up to this point have been focused more on my specific graduate study in instructional design then on my profession as a whole.  I hope that as I return to school in the fall, I will be able to use my RSS feed to continue to expand my knowledge of the field and find new strategies and techniques that I can use to better meet the needs of my students.  

Beyond Wikis, Blogs, and Tweets

            Technology has become the new trend in training and education.  Blogs, wikis, and social networking are familiar tools in the instructional design world and can have multiple uses.  However, the truth that technology should never be used just for technology’s sake should not be under emphasized.  Technology must serve a meaningful purpose in instruction for it to be effective.  Strategic implementation of technology can ensure that the tools being utilized enhance the learning experience, not only for the learner but also for the trainer.  Before you can strategically utilize technology, you must understand what is available and how it can be used to enhance instructional design.  Below are five tools that are having, and will continue to have, a huge impact in the field of training and education.

1.    Social Bookmarking   

Social Bookmarking is a tool that allows you to save a webpage to a public domain while also giving you the ability to tag the page with keywords.  If another user searches for a tag associated with the saved site, the URL will be shown in a list of other sites that also have the same tag. This tool is extremely useful when conducting research on a specific topic.  It allows you to create folders for saved sites (as you would when bookmarking to your computer) and write notes for individual bookmarks.  The benefit of social bookmarking over bookmarking to a computer is the ability to search what other people have tagged.  Social bookmarking tools like Diigo have taken it a step farther allowing you to highlight information on a bookmarked page and leave post it notes.  This is a tool that can be invaluable during research or self-guided study.  By providing a way to easily organize large amounts of information, it makes gathering information from the web much more efficient.  In the future, I can see social bookmarking being used to encourage collaborative learning and share ideas with learners from a distance. 

Interested in the advantages and disadvantages of Social Bookmarking?  Go to https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

2.    Gaming

With over 40% of adults reportedly playing video games today (Noe, 2013) (and I would suspect that percentage is low with the popularity of game apps on most cellphones), the use of gaming is becoming an acceptable training and educational method. Gaming provides many benefits to the learner.  First, Learners tend to become more easily engaged and motivated when interacting with a gaming environment.  Second, the enjoyment found in gaming can help to gain buy-in, thus resulting in learner retention and transfer.  Finally, gaming can allow the learner to progress at their own pace while still keeping the content consistent.  I feel that gaming will continue to evolve as a training solution in the future.  As virtual reality become more readily available, we will see training move more easily into the virtual world.  Research on gaming learning theory will give us a better understanding on how to use gaming effectively to best meet the needs of the learner.    

3.    Virtual Worlds

When most people think of virtual worlds, they may think of the popular game World of War Craft, but virtual worlds are currently being used in many training programs to give learners a realistic three-dimensional learning environment.  Virtual worlds often require the learner to develop an avatar that they then move through the online environment.  The environments can require the learner to complete simulations, interact with other characters or learners, or participate in webinars (Noe, 2013).  One advantages to utilizing a virtual classroom is that it can allows learners to deal with situation that may be too difficult or risky to create in a live environment.  The use of avatars help learners develop a sense of presence online and can help learners become more active engaged and emotional invested in the learning taking place in the virtual world.  As distance learning continues to grow in popularity, I feel that more training will make use of virtual worlds. 

Here is a great resource for different ways to use virtual worlds for learning http://www.teachthought.com/technology/20-uses-for-virtual-worlds-in-the-classroom/

4.    Shared Work Spaces

     As a private tutor, one tool that I find extremely effective and beneficial is a shared work place.  Google Docs is one example of a shared work place tool that is used by many online learners.  Shared work places allow users to share and collaborate on documents.  One feature that I feel is most intriguing is the ability for multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously.  The tool shows each user where the other user is typing by using name tags.  When coupled with a web conferencing tool, shared work spaces can make collaboration easy and efficient.  Shared work spaces have become popular in both the corporate and public education realms due to the ability to save documents to outside servers and the ability to access documents from different devices.  As shared work spaces continue to grow in popularity, I see it opening up new forms of collaboration and providing users not only with easier ways to share ideas and information, but also ways to influence the learning of others at a distance. 

5.    Mobile Learning

     Mobile learning is any learning that takes place on a mobile device such as smart phones tablets, or laptops.  Mobile learning is all about portability and instant access.   Although mobile learning can be used for both formal and informal learning, it has had a tremendous impact on informal and self-guided learning.  Many learners find mobile learning natural due to the increased daily use of mobile devices.  Learners can subscribe to podcasts, set up RSS feeds, and share information through social networking sites.  Sites like LinkedIn provide professional development articles and the ability to join discussion groups while also helping individuals to network in their field.  Mobile learning provides learning at our fingertips and will continue to encourage learners to independently explore and develop skills. 

How is Mobile Technology Effecting the Classroom? 

Watch the video at the link below to find out. 

Empowering Teachers and Student

References

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.