February 22, 2014
Technology is transforming several key educational concepts and least of which is the concept of professional development. Just a decade ago, teachers were limited as to the type and number of professional development webinars available to them and school districts were virtually the main source of such webinars. Now with a device connected to Internet, you have a whole bastions of PD sessions at your fingertips and right from the comfort of your couch. It is all thanks to the power of connectedness.
There are a wide variety of ways to leverage the power of connected web to your PD needs and one important way is to attend, better regularly, educational webinars hosted online. Besides discovering new insights and enriching your repertoire of pedagogy, you also get to connect with other like minded teachers and educators whose addition to your own PLN can add value to your PD efforts.
Thinking about where to start ? Here are some great resources that provide free educational webinars for teachers. These are places I go to searching for my next webinar to attend. Check them out and share with your colleagues.
EdTechTeacher is a platform that helps teachers and schools leverage technology to create student-centered, inquiry-based learning environments. It offers keynote presentations, hands-on workshops, online courses, and live webinars for teachers, schools, and school districts.
2- Simplek12
This is definitely oe of my favourite webinar platform I often return to look for upcoming webinars. To attend a webinar on Simplek12 you must open an account with them. One webinar I am attending today from Simplek12 is on “Use Digital Storytelling Tools to Enhance Writing and Engage Your Elementary Students“.
3- EdWeb
edWeb is a highly-acclaimed professional social and learning network that has become a vibrant online community for exceptional educators, decision-makers, and influencers who are on the leading edge of innovation in education. edWeb offers a wide range of webinars to teachers, educators and shools to help them improve the quality of teaching and learning in the 21st century classrooms.
The Centre for Learning is provides a series of complimentary Online Workshops, conducted by today’s leading authors and researchers. During these thought-provoking, 60-minute live webcasts, you’ll hear first-hand from the most influential thought leaders as they share insights into their acclaimed classroom methodologies and instructional strategies.
5-School Improvement Network
School Improvement Network offers a wide variety of professional development webinars for educators and teachers. It also an archive section where you can browse through past webinars and download for free. To stay updated about upcoming webinars, you need to register with them.