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Traditional Professional Development

1. High Cost

2. Travel Often Involved

3. Set Times/Time Intensive

4. Limited “Seats”

Online Professional Development

1. Often (but not always) lower cost

2. No travel required

3. Asynchronous opportunities

4. More inclusive

How do we build organizational capacity and competencies on a

limited budget?

Harnessing technology for professional development.

Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform where participants “tweet”- write very short posts of 140 characters or less. A Twitter account can help you stay connected to leading thinkers in your field. They will often post their opinions, their recent publications, and what they are reading. This can be a powerful tool for professional development.

WARNING: In engaging with Twitter, remember that if you choose to post you are making your opinions public. Engage with Twitter as you would engage in public conversation.

MOOCs

MOOCs, or Massive Online Open Courses, offer a wide and excellent variety of online learning opportunities for professional development. Classes are often created by prestigious institutions and taught by talented instructors. MOOCs provide concrete learning opportunities, and often provide certificates of completion.

Blogs

Following blogs, typically informal web-published content, can be a great way to find out what’s trending in your professional area.

If you start a blog of your own, you can also create a positive search result for people looking to find out more about your work. Blog platforms like Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumblr provide attractive prebuilt blog set-ups.

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds are links to the blogs you are interested in. By collecting the feeds/URLs in a tool like Feedly, Pocket, or DiggReader, you can find all the blog content you’re interested in at one URL.

Podcasts

Podcasts are audio records, often presented as ongoing programs (think of radio shows). If you have a commute, podcasts may be a wonderful way for you to learn new skills and stay current on trends. Podcasts cover a wide variety of topics, and can be particularly helpful if you are interested in learning a foreign language.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social platform dedicated to networking. It can help you find and organize your full professional network, giving you ready access to the people you met at conferences or through other avenues of professional development.

For You

• Opportunity to engage with and network with a larger professional community

• Improving your employability, adding to your resume

• Making the case for raises and promotions

• Keeping up on developments in your area of expertise

• Saves money

• Saves time

For Your Institution

• Grows internal skills sets

• Improves quality of workforce

• Saves money

• Saves time

Your Technology for Professional Development To-Do List (your choice):

• Sign Up for a Twitter Account

• Start researching popular blogs in your subject area

• Look at upcoming MOOCs

• Sign Up for a LinkedIn account