Embracing the professional development opportunities in lockdown.

It has been a long day, I've taught a few classes online and have had meetings via "Zoom" as well.

I've had a shower and I am sitting here in all my fluffy-dressing-gown-glory waiting on the #TM6 'teachmeet' to start via Youtube.

I have been lurking in this #edureading group for the last year, doing their readings and following their twitter feeds. But haven't managed to get to any of their 'teachmeet' sessions in the evenings. Sometimes it seemed all too hard; family, sickness, school responsibilities.

But tonight I am embracing the the flexibility that has been a side effect of us going into Covid19 Lockdown for the second time this year.

ALIA Schools Webinar [source]

Flexible Professional Learning

Teaching associations and professional development providers have all "gone online" to continue to provide professional learning to teachers. The side benefit to this is that the price has dropped, so as a department leader, I can sometimes afford to send the whole team, where as before it would have been just one person. Professionally, this is fabulous as it engages the whole team in discussions afterwards.

If I had attended the 'teachmeet' in person, I could have interacted with my network and partaken in those serendipitous discussions that often spark ideas and innovation. But at home, the environment was much different.

The platform for the 'teachmeet' was youtube, and it worked quite well. We could chat in real time on the youtube page and then there was a twitter back channel where people posted pictures of screen shots and links to articles that were mentioned. I had two computers going, the stream and then my desktop linked up to twitter and google.

With my bluetooth headphones in I could continue to listen to the session even if my son needed a drink or a hug.

Reflecting on this flexibility of web delivered content, I "attended" a webinar a few weeks ago and listened to half of it while driving home. In the past I wouldn't have attended the event because I needed to be home at a certain time, but now I can listen and sometimes participate irregardless of my location.

What I am missing?

I am missing the discussions over coffee at break time. I am missing the exchanges of business cards and conversations about possibilities and ideas. I am missing the collegiality and the sense of community that comes with meeting familiar people at professional development events. If it is Zoom session you can see who is in attendance, but other streaming services don't allow you to see the participants.

What are your views on online professional development?

Something we should keep when we slowly move from Stage 4 to Stage 1?