Online Professional Development Through Virtual Learning Communities

Sonja Hollins-Alexander - Sage, USA

Other Titles in:
Designing & Evaluating Staff Development | Professional Learning Communities | Technology

May 2013 | 120 pages | Corwin

Powerful collaborative learning—anytime, anyplace!

Online learning seems like a perfect solution for cost-conscious districts and busy teachers, but can these programs also deliver high-caliber professional learning? Using one district’s success story as a model, this timely book shows you how to combine well-designed online instruction with the energy of peer-to-peer collaboration. At the heart of this book is a model that supports powerful professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for every student.

Sonja Hollins-Alexander writes from her own experience building a successful online professional development (PD) program for a large urban district. Readers will find

Research-based support for online PD and the author’s original Learner-Learner model
A thorough planning guide and ten action steps for program development
Best practices for managing staffing and resources
Strategies for establishing a true community of learners online

Discover how to create a sustainable online PD program that promotes collaboration and growth!

“This book provides district and school leaders with a practical guide to shifting professional learning from more traditional ‘sit and get’ models to technology-enhanced models that foster collaboration and co-creation.”
—Catherine Huber, Principal
Northwood Elementary, West Seneca, NY

Watch Sonja Hollins-Alexander's webinar, Professional Learning Through Virtual Communities, hosted by Learning Forward

Available Formats

ISBN: 9781452276663	Paperback	Suggested Retail Price: $37.95	Bookstore Price: $30.36
ISBN: 9781452276687	Electronic Version	Suggested Retail Price: $35.00	Bookstore Price: $35.00

Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email sageheoa@sagepub.com. Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html.

Preface: The Evolution of a Design

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Contributors

1. The Learner-Learner Model

2. Getting It Started: A Planning Guide

3. 10 Action Steps to an Online Virtual Learning Community

4. The Process: Transitioning a Face-to-Face Professional Learning Community to an Online Virtual Learning Community

5. Getting It Done: What Structures Support the Implementation of a Virtual Learning Community?

6. Building Capacity and Sustainability: School-Based Virtual Learning Cohorts

7. Pitfalls Don't Hold You Back

8. Summary: My Reflections

References

Index

Key features

Provides a cost-effective alternative to face-to-face professional learning that is much-needed at a time when PD budgets are tight and districts continue to increase in size.
A practical, hands-on guide to creating and sustaining Virtual Learning Communities that lead to enhanced teacher effectiveness and increased levels of student achievement.
Reality-based: tells the story of a successful initiative that was enacted across a large, complex urban school district.
Grounded in a social-constructivist framework for professional learning -- the Learner - Learner Model.
Includes an indispensable planning guide for use by districts as they begin to undertake similar initiatives.