Powerful Learning Practice-Creating Online Communities for Professional Development

Spotlight NECC08 Session with Will Richardson
This session will describe the work done by the presenters in creating a sustainable model for ongoing professional development using 21st Century technologies.

I have to admit that we were nervous about this presentation. Not the presentation part (Will and I do this "on stage" thing together a lot) but rather the what exactly do we share part. Will and I agreed that what we didn't want was a commercial or a presentation that smacked of "hey look at us-- we are the experts" or something that tried to imply we had *the*answer. What we wanted to convey was that we are all in this together. Here is what *we* know about using community for PD from our varied experiences- now share with us what *you* know and together-- we can get this thing figured out.

The session went well (if you do not count the room being 100 degrees) in that I think we helped folks think about how they could use virtual PLCs in their schools/districts to implement change. Some folks approached us about modeling the techniques and helping to lay the framework to get them started. Others were excited to have a place to start developing their own models.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on using community as a PD methodology and a way to implement sustainable change. Ideas?

Here is a Ustream and Live blog of part of the session. If you have a recording of this session to share please link here in comments.