Professional Development

"Professional Development" has many different meanings among different groups of educators. University educators may not think about their own professional development as an activity apart from the professional organizations, conferences, and networks in which they participate. K-12 educators, in contrast, typically have fewer valuable opportunities and resources for professional development within the normal course of their work, through their day to day contacts, and within their overtaxed schedules. In this sense, the web could be a major resource and influence on the ways in which professional development is made available for K-12 educators. The subsections here reflect the range of audience goals and needs among secondary, jr. college, and university educators.

Research and Funding

• Internet Resources for Institutional Research, developed by John H. Milam, Jr. of George Mason University, discusses and provides links for web-based institutional research. The site is also informative for a general orientation to Internet-based research through its review of the basic types of available web resources, and through its link to case studies of how the web has been used for actual work projects.

• For research grants of all kinds, including dissertation research, consult the Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS). Includes links to international funding sources.

• Grantsweb, the Research Administrator's Resource Center, contains information on government and private funding in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well as a whole host of other resource information of interest to researchers and administrators.

International Scholarship and Study

• The Digital Education Network gives information on international conferences, seminars, distance education, and study abroad, with an emphasis upon Teaching (or learning) English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
• NAFSA: Association of International Educators provides information on opportunities for international study and scholarship, including an online version of their International Educator and links to international education exchange organizations.

Continuing Education

• In many respects, the boundaries between "distance education" and locally situated education are becoming blurred as resources and practices of both forms are shared. For those interested in graduate study in Library and Information Science, the LEEP3 program at UIUC is an interesting hybrid, involving initial face to face community construction and the development of this learning community online.
• The College Guide by Lycos is a well-organized resource for finding out about traditional and distance education programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
• Global SchoolNet offers a number of different ways to earn graduate credit through learning about the web and developing student-centered projects.

• Heritage OnLine offers continuing education courses for K-12 educators with an emphasis on using the Internet in subject-matter learning. Credit is granted by Antioch University.

• For web-based continuing education courses on literacy issues, try the Indiana University School of Education Distance Education Program. Regular and mini-courses for K-12 teachers are offered.

• For graduate-credit science and mathematics study, NTEN, the National Teachers Enhancement Network, offers a highly interesting range of courses taught by university scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. NTEN also aims to enhance "professional networking nationwide between science teachers and active research scientists."

Other Development Resources: K-12

• Staff Room/Professional Development is a site of links to professional development resources for K-12 educators maintained by Canada's SchoolNet.

• Teachers Helping Teachers
  http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/
  Created by Dr. Scott Mandel, a teacher and in-service instructor at Pacoima Middle (Magnet) School in Pacoima, CA. The project creates a virtual space for the professional development philosophy held for many years by programs such as the National Writing Project, namely, that teachers are their own best teachers, and have a wealth of resources to share with one another when given the opportunity. The site, for both experienced and novice educators, consists mostly of lesson plans organized by subject area, but tips on pedagogy and classroom management are also available, as well as a teacher chat area.

• TEN, the Teacher Educator's Network, has host of different development resources for K-12 science teachers and trainers. See especially the "Resources" section for a wealth of links to information on inquiry-based learning, including professional development materials for workshops.

• TENET has an interesting annotated list of links to professional development resources, including categories for Action Research, Learning Communities, and Staff Development Models.

Professional Organizations

• Scholarly Societies Project
  Produced by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Users can browse 44 different subject areas for international organizations of interest, or search alphabetically for a particular site among the 1,000+ links. Also included are lists of upcoming meetings and conferences, and full-text archives of society serial publications (mostly newsletters). Importantly, this site involves careful planning and selection criteria--they even discuss sites that were rejected and why.

• Societies, Associations, and Non-Profit Organizations
  Provided by the University of Houston Libraries. Several categories of organizations of value to educators, including business, computer science, education, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

• Yahoo!'s searchable database of Education Organizations, divided by various categories, is also an excellent place to find a particular site or just browse. The Yahoo! section on Education Conferences is also a valuable, general up-to-date source for international conferences.

• American Council of Learned Societies
  Valuable as a source of links to a number of prominent (member) scholarly societies in the humanities and social sciences, for information on its own programs and grants, and for its carefully-selected list of links to other fellowship programs, archives, and research libraries.