Official Edubilla Blog

Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.

Teachers who embrace new technologies recognize that professional development (PD) can be achieved in part through collaboration with other educators.This type of collaborative learning is not as easily achieved through traditional professional development practices.

Professional development in the digital age should be participatory in nature, where ideas and resources are exchanged and incorporated into instruction. For decades, lofty school reform rhetoric has identified the skills and knowledge that have to be integrated into everyday practice.

A collaborative platform that facilitates resource discovery and best practices gives teachers ownership of their own professional development. As personal learning networks expand, teachers achieve more recognition in their school communities and beyond.

Teachers organically organize collaborative environments, often finding one another through one or a number of the hundreds of Twitter chats that occur in any given week, or in locally organized EdCamps that are taking place throughout the globe. Blogs, webinars and conferences are also fruitful environments where educators can share ideas with one another.

Ultimately, it's about empowerment and self-discovery through the expansion of personal learning networks, and the ability to blend in voices, concepts and tools from all over the world.