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"How can schools and districts provide the type of professional development that will promote teachers' effective use of technology in the classroom? How can this professional development inspire teachers to use technology to create new learning opportunities that will have a positive impact on student achievement? Two requirements help ensure the success of professional development for effective technology use. First, the professional development should be an integral part of the school technology plan or overall school-improvement plan. Second, the professional development should contain all the necessary components that research has found to be important. " This blog article goes into some detail on how to create a professional development plan.

"A professional learning network is a vibrant, ever-changing group of connections to which teachers go to both share and learn. These groups reflect our values, passions, and areas of expertise. "Teachers build PLNs the same way they build any network: by investing time to find and connect with people they trust, who have shared interests and passions. To me, a PLN includes the organizations, communities, and individuals who help me learn and grow as a professional. My PLN also provides me with a broader perspective on education-beyond my classroom, school building, state, and even nation. It is a blend of face-to-face and digital interactions with professional buddies, mentors, and rockstars. "Although technology is often the vehicle to build connections, a PLN is about relationships. To conceptualize a PLN, envision three layers like the ever-widening rings formed when a rock is dropped into still water. The smallest inner circle represents buddies and mentors; a middle ring holds niche passion groups; and the outer layer comprises professionals and rockstars. The smaller the ring, the closer that group is connected to you in your PLN." This article shows how to create your own PLN.

Lots of quick ways to enhance your own professional development through online tools, film festivals, and PLNs. All About Twitter, un-conferencing, resources, etc.

A pdf book with papers and articles describing pedagogic models and approaches to developing the VITAE e-portfolio "Chapter 1: Teacher competence development - a European perspective, Chapter 2: The VITAE Approach, Chapter 3: Exploring Web 2.0 and Mentoring as Tools for Lifelong Learning, Chapter 4: Guided course development on the basis of an e-learning patterns template, Chapter 5: Fun and Games in professional development, Chapter 6: The VITAE e-portfolio - a catalyst for enhanced learning, Chapter 7: Community-based mentoring and innovating through Web 2.0, Chapter 8: Web 2.0 - Learning Culture and Organisational Change,"

"It's as if there's a layer of conversation lying on top of the regular web," shared David Warlick at the TechForum Texas that took place on November 10, 2005. At the same time, he introduced the concept of a Personal Learning Network, or PLN. Facilitated by blogs and RSS Feeds, the purpose of the PLN is professional development within an area of interest. This idea of building your own professional development network - where you find the people from whom you can learn, ask questions of them, comment on their thoughts and links, and have them do the same for you - is one of the major benefits of blogging and podcasting. It is the art of conversation captured in digital format. This article shares how blogs enable both adult learners and students to create their own Personal Learning Networks, sometimes with unintended consequences - both positive and negative. It also examines possible solutions to address unintended consequences among student blog use.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a foundation for professional development for technology integration and a common vocabulary for talking about effective uses of technology in teaching and learning.... The newly revised TIM was launched in February 2011, and features 100 classroom video example lesson plans, revised and expanded descriptions of student activity, teacher activity, and instructional settings for each TIM cell, focus pages for each characteristic and level, new professional development resources, and indices for grade levels and digital tools. The site includes 25 videos lesson examples in each of four core subject areas - math, science, language arts, and social studies. These lessons were videotaped in classrooms across Florida. "The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells. " This is an amazing resource for teacher training. TIM is easily accessbile and recommends you look at grade levels beyond your own for ideas.

" Live TESOL webinars are presented every Friday at 4 PM EST or New York time with Shelly Terrell. TESOL Lectures are open to the public, so feel free to invite a friend. To enter a TESOL Webinar Click Here. Next, click Enter as a Guest, type your name, and click Enter Room. " Looks like a free and easy way to get online professional development live! Not part of the TESOL professional associal--this is the American TESOL Institute.

"Welcome to the first ever intercultural podcast. 'absolutely intercultural!' is its name and, as far as we know, this is the first podcast in the world to deal with intercultural issues. We'll be releasing a new episode every second Friday evening, looking at all intercultural aspects of human intercultural communication. For example, we'll be hearing from students on foreign work placements, asking how teachers can make use of intercultural exercises and simulations in their classroom and sharing with you any intercultural gossip we come across. 'absolutely intercultural!' won't be so much about passing on information but more about starting an intercultural dialogue between the makers, and you, the contributors and listeners." Award-winning podcast/blog by Anne Fox. Really professionally produced and great for professional development. A placed to find ways to intrigue your students with cross-cultural activities and stories.

This e-book is free from British Council and is quite short, but contains important chapters on secondary and adult language teaching with technology, ESP, EAP, assessment (co-authored by Russell Stannard), and professional development.

Why online professional development can be quite different from on-land meetings and pd.

"Peeragogy is a collection of techniques for collaborative learning and collaborative work. By learning how to "work smart" together, we hope to leave the world in a better state than it was when we arrived." Good reading for the teacher interested in professional development

A multi-week video course for professional development. Sponsored by NSF. Communty-college oriented but good for all levels of teaching and learning.

6 self-access video modules for the effective use of technology in classrooms. A multi-week video course for professional development. Sponsored by NSF. Communty-college oriented but good for all levels of teaching and learning.

"Technologies emerge, evolve, and sometimes become obsolete very quickly. Occasionally, a simple technology designed for one purpose is adapted to meet an array of quite different purposes, some of which may be educational. In the case of Twitter, the needs and goals of users have transformed a simple status updating software into a versatile networking and learning tool used by an estimated three million people. I became one of these many users in 2008, after hearing about Twitter from a colleague at my university who raved about how it had become her primary resource for professional development." Very extensive annotations on using Twitter for prof development.

A developing social networking site for teachers based on the electronic materials production course offered in the CALL-IS's Electronic Village Online 2010. Looking forward to seeing this site develop.

This very full crowd-sourced site, "We are Teachers," hashundreds of lesson plans in various subjects, including some especially for ELL's (ESL). Many lesson directly link to the Common Core Standards. There are also community and education directories, links to grants and contests, and a place to organize and store your professional development gear and lesson plans.

One of an excellent series on teaching techniques produced to very high standards by the University of Oregon. Great way o do your own professional development.

Webinar with dozens of ideas for using online tools to teach young learners writing. Offered at the 2012 EVO. Shelly Terrell offers free webinars every Friday at 21:00 GMT. go to tinyurl.com/ELTLinks to see a list of recent offerings. Recordings are also available for this free online professional development series.

This is a tutorial on how to get started at Learni.st, which lets you aggregate neat things you find on the Web. You can add it to your Facebook timeline (or not), Tweet it, and use images and video, while adding a few paragraphs on how to use the "learning" you added. As with a blog, others can comment on your contributions. Like WallWisher or Pinterist, items are collected bulletin board style. This tool might be useful for professional development, and for students as a means to collect Web items for a project. If being an archivist is an important part of the new Web, this might be a helpful visual tool.

This blog discusses a tool that allows you to collect data on your personal use of email, and helps you understand all the controversy over government collection of data. "They have created a new program called Immersion. It works by signing you into your Gmail account and collecting only the meta-data from your account usage history. From there you can get a picture of your emailing habits from that single account, and you will be shocked at what you see. "According to the three creators, there are four purposes to the program: self-reflection, artistic representation, privacy revelations and the ability to develop a strategy in your communications on a professional level."