21st Century idea for CPD!!!
21st Century CPD
I have ideas, all the time, I’m just one of those people…
Here’s my latest idea that keeps coming into my mind!
A while ago I mentioned that as a member of Teachers TV Associates I was sent their latest innovation, CPD materials linked to their online videos.
Now at the time this sparked off an idea in my head…
Getting to the idea…
We have to start with draw backs of existing systems, and I can only talk about my experiences, but I imagine that some of this will be shared by others out there.
Draw backs:
Often in schools CPD is done via teachers choosing a topic (whole school issue) that they have an interest in & signing up to focus groups 3/4 times throughout the year. Which works well in order to stimulate conversation, and often provide a forum to vent frustrations of existing systems. This similar the country over???
I see a few draw backs to this however;
- It limits the scope of the input into a whole school issue.
- It means that any discoveries, any thoughts are confined to the size of the group who signed up in the first place.
- The group (by their willingness to sign up) has a vested interest in the issue being discussed. Now this is both a pro and a con.
So how does my idea present a solution to the existing drawbacks?
The Idea:
Teachers.tv provide the topic, for example this month its work/life balance, a school posts the posed discussion topic on their dedicated CPD webpage (password protected for staff only) as well as the link/embedded video provided by teachers.tv (or similar in house resource).
From here in you create a open blog and encourage teachers to leave their responses to the material provided!!
How is this an ‘answer’ ?
Best way to measure a solution is to look at the drawbacks which inspired it, and see how you’ve met them, so…
- Scope of input: You will have gone form ‘small focus group’ to whole school + perhaps others, like your governors, School improvement partners etc, so the input you will get will be increased significantly.
- Limitation of discovery: The number of people able to share the solutions, ideas and answers which are posted will again have significantly been increased, allowing everyone to benefit from solutions, as well as have an input in their whole school issues.
- Vested interests: Yes the issue will be the ‘pet’ of some of the contributors but it will not be limmitred to just these people, which would insure a more varied and representitive input of ideas on a given stimulus.
Example of a CPD Blog
I was further inspired when a month after the initial idea I was emailed again by teachers.tv offering a new service ’embedding’ their videos onto your own school website! Maybe they’re having the same idea as me??…
Its an idea, like any other it is at its early stages, but I would like to try and see where it can go, what do people think?
At the start I can think of some key questions…
- How do you make sure people engage with the approach?
- How do you monitor responses?
- How do you best use the responses so that they are not simply posted and then left there?
If you have any other suggestions to help develop this idea please post a comment or email me.
