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Research Questions 1. What are educators' perceptions and reported behaviors associated with participation in informal, online professional development networks? 1.a. What motivates educators to participate in informal professional development networks? 1.b. What types of informal professional development networks do educators report they use to connect with other educators to enhance their practice? 1.c. What specific informal professional development networks do educators report they find most useful in order to improve their practice? 2. Do educators' perceptions and reported behaviors associated with informal professional development networks differ based on current assignment, years in education, or age? "

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license. These resources may be used free of charge , distributed without restriction , and modified without permission. In 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2337 that directed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create a collection of openly licensed courseware aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and conduct an awareness campaign to inform school di stricts about these resources. The Legislature saw this as an opportunity to both "reduce the expenses that districts would otherwise incur in purchasing these materials" and "provide districts and students with a broader selection of materials, and materi als that are more up - to - date." As a part of th is legislative mandate , OSPI conducted a review of OER in high school mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) that built on the work of the 2013 WA OER R eview . Teams evaluated full - course Geometry/Integrated Math 2 and units in 9 th - 10 th grade ELA. In addition, an OER Algebra 1 course unavailable for review in 2013 was examined. The review process, conducted durin g February and March , 201 4 , made use of existing review instruments designed to gauge alignment with the C CSS and overall OER quality . Minor revisions to the 2013 process were informed by feedback from the first cohort of reviewers. The results from this r eview enable educators and content developers to tap into the most powerful feature of OER : the ability to freely adapt and redistribute materials ."

"Using a Conversational Tone in your eLearning Courses Thursday, 02 October 2014 14:50 Written by Ruth McElhone In my last blog post, I explored the Modality Principle from the book Elearning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard Mayer. In this post, I've decided to examine another principle in the book - the Personalisation Principle in Chapter 8. The chapter examines 3 types of personalisation principles but I'm just going to review the first principle. The first Personalisation Principle in this chapter supports using a conversational style of writing in our online modules. Using a conversational writing style can help explain the content in simple, plain English. "Based on cognitive theory and research evidence, we recommend that you create or select e-Learning courses that include some spoken or printed text that is conversational rather than formal." (Clark and Mayer, 2011) There has always been some debate that if we put content in a conversational or informal style, this can 'detract from the seriousness of the message'. Just because you are using an informal style does not mean that the content should be sloppy or use slang terms. It's all about keeping things simple. It should feel like a conversation, not a lecture while still feeling professional."

Teaching Channel is a video showcase-on the Internet and TV-of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools. We have a rapidly growing community of registered members who trade ideas and share inspiration from each other. With the help of the Tch community, our mission is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all K-12 students across America. In order to accomplish this mission, we have three simple goals, all of them reliant on input from teachers: * Build professional learning resources that teachers want * Deepen and improve opportunities for teacher learning * Elevate and celebrate teachers in our society Share This Video Our videos are produced by a unique team of professionals-a collaborative effort between video production experts, education advisors, and the classroom teachers themselves. We should point out that Teaching Channel does not determine or influence the content taught in our videos. Our video library offers educators a wide range of subjects for grades K-12. The videos also include information on alignment with Common Core State Standards and ancillary material for teachers to use in their own classrooms. Teaching Channel Presents, a weekly one-hour program featuring Tch videos, airs on PBS stations in nearly 75 million homes across the United States. A non-profit organization, Teaching Channel launched publicly in June 2011."

"Knowledge knows no boundaries We're a global online learning community where educators collaborate, share resources and showcase accomplishments. Project Share is a collection of Web 2.0 tools and applications that provides high quality professional development in an interactive and engaging learning environment. Project Share leverages existing and new professional development resources for K-12 teachers across the state and builds professional learning communities where educators can collaborate and participate in online learning opportunities. The mission of Project Share is to provide an interactive and engaging learning environment that offers opportunities for: Communicating and disseminating information from state, region, and district levels. Creating or joining common interest networks to increase teacher-to-teacher collaboration, conversations with experts, and communication with students in a secure online environment. Accessing state-adopted and approved materials, including electronic textbooks and other materials developed through TEA partnerships. Accessing educational resources through McDonald Observatory StarDate, PBS Digital Learning Library, Texas PBS, and many others. Accessing Texas Education on iTunes U to explore the history and cultures of Texas, view educational tutorials, and download resources for personalized learning. Collaborating on the development, dissemination, and evaluation of online professional development sessions and courses. Highlighting individual accomplishments through the development of ePortfolios. Developing and sharing ideas and resources."

"This guide is organized in two main sections. Section I provides our working definition of distance education and anatomizes its many modes and models, dissecting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of instructional quality and effectiveness. Section II focuses on methods, collating best practices and lessons learned about teaching and learning from successful global distance education models. The guide also contains a glossary of terms, a reference section for further Web-based information on distance learning programs and approaches, and an extensive bibliography of the sources cited within the guide. Where available, we provide website addresses for every program discussed here. We also provide the URLs of websites that offer free content, but not those of commercial websites, which can typically be accessed online by searching for them by name."

Ensuring that you've crossed off every item, this "to-do" list will allow you to create and implement successful, effective, informative, and practical eLearning courses for learners in both educational and professional settings.

Yowza! Great resource, Betsy.