In the midst of a growing storm of new technology-induced learning concepts such as flipped learning, blended learning, personalized learning (to mention but a few) , teachers are left with no other alternatives but to enhance and accommodate their professional development efforts to suit the changing educational paradigms. Edsurge called this "personalized professional development". This is the kind of life-long learning that involves the integration and leverage of digital media and technology (and offsite resources) for expanding one's field of expertise. Image source: EdSurge The web now abounds with all kinds of resources, tools, materials, and know-how to help teachers grow professionally. EdSurge has this wonderful guide featuring a set of different tools that teachers can draw on to expand their professional development. These tools are selected in such a way that they address different areas : They support how teachers engage with colleagues They help teachers learn or find support for implementing fresh strategies and approaches They measure how that learning impacts practice in the classroom. To better evaluate how these tools help teachers grow professionally, EdSurge created a "framework of a continuous cycle of learning." This framework is composed of 4 stages: engage, learn, support, and measure. Under each of these stages is featured a collection of web tools to help teachers get more out of that stage.

"More importantly, it happens in K-12 classrooms all the time.  I know because when teachers relate stories of engaged students using technology, their students all ask the same question: "Can I have more time to work on it?" The ingredients for cooking up engaging activities vary, but certain elements are constant. For one, the activities are challenging and expectations high. There's no "click-along-with-me-and-do-what-I-do-kids" passiveness in these classrooms. Instead, it's more like: "This is hard. And I'm not going to show you how to do it. But I expect what you create will be excellent." There's also an authentic audience. Tell students you're going to present their work at a conference, or submit it to a state publication, and then watch the heightened focus in their eyes. Yet, the audience doesn't necessarily need to be outside the school walls. Just tell them you're going to show their work to other classes and teachers. As one teacher noted: "I didn't realize how little I mattered, until I told my students that I was going to publish all their work to an audience." And great teachers figure out other ways to make kids care. They personalize the content - drawing connections to kids' lives - and help students understand why what they're doing is important."

"Project RED conducted the first and only national study of education technology to focus on student achievement and financial implications. In our research of nearly 1,000 schools, we discovered a replicable design for successfully introducing technology into the classroom- one that leads to improved student performance and cost benefits. "

"Clarity is an online platform that helps schools determine the impact of their technology use on student learning." See: http://www.brightbytes.net/

"Moving a campus to one-to-one is a huge change for schools when properly implemented. It can and should change the ways that teachers teach and students learn. The technology allows for lessons to be enhanced in ways that are nearly impossible without the use of it. But before any of this can happen, there should be a lengthy period of discussion and research, and certain questions must be answered by all involved. Here are some of the questions to consider."

""The big point -- it comes up over and over again as crucial -- is the importance of quick and detailed feedback. Students overwhelmingly report that the single most important ingredient for making a course effective is getting rapid response on assignments and quizzes. ... An overwhelming majority are convinced that their best learning takes place when they have a chance to submit an early version of their work, get detailed feedback and criticism, and then hand in a final revised version. ... Students improve and are engaged when they receive feedback (and opportunities to use it) on realistic tasks requiring transfer at the heart of learning goals and real-world demands.""

"Change Your Gradebook into a Logbook Only list things in your gradebook that students and parents can Google. If the search of that assignment title doesn't bring up the beginning of the breadcrumb trail you intended, then you need to word it better. I used to list things like "Quiz 1" or "Homework from Chapter 3" in my gradebook. No one has any idea what those are, and if those scores are low, no one has any idea how the kid can improve them. This is opposite of how psychology shows that humans work. We want to be shown our mistakes so we can fix them. Student grades need to fluidly move up and down as kids show learning, retention or lack thereof. So, start listing the big ideas from your course as your assignments. "

"With more and more schools going paperless or migrating to the "cloud" (storing files on the Internet), student work has become more easily shareable, accessible by many, and more easily organized. Many teachers have turned to digital portfolios -- or "e-portfolios" -- for their students. These digital portfolios have caused a huge shift in how teachers assign, collect and assess student classwork and projects."

"The Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model offers a method of seeing how computer technology might impact teaching and learning.  It also shows a progression that adopters of educational technology often follow as they progress through teaching and learning with technology.  "

"I also learned effective ways to track student progress toward learning goals that will inform the feedback I give students. While my effectiveness as a teacher has grown exponentially, I still have a lot to learn. ... These are some of my experiences, ideas and resources for using technology to provide meaningful feedback to students -- and making the process more streamlined for everyone."

"When teaching online, you have the option of using an asynchronous delivery method, a synchronous method of delivery, or both.  Making decisions on how you deliver instruction impacts your design, as well as your teaching practice. "

introduce five key features of blended learning, from the learning-centric perspective on instructional interaction between teacher, student, and digital content.

"For those of you intent on employing this flipped learning model in their instruction, I have curated a set of important web tools to help you create the appropriate flipped classroom environment for your students. Check them out below and as always let us know what you think of them. Enjoy"

"Last year we published a list of 60+ blended learning articles. With the extensive use of blended learning in classrooms and lots of shared success stories, we doubled that total.  Following are 125 blogs by category."

"As my students worked with me to invent our own version of student-centred learning, we realized that the three questions every student in our classroom had to answer were: What are you going to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to show me your learning? This became our mantra - our framework for learning.  This is what it means to give students "control over their education.""