~Online+Sources+for+Content+Area+Professional+Development

=**__ WEBINARS: Online Sources for Professional Development __**=

Classroom 2.0 LIVE is a website that offers webinars that are “real-time events,” complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing, and sometimes even video. Every Saturday Classroom 2.0 hosts a webinar or as they like to call it, “a show” with a topic that usually revolves around technology in education. However, they also have a long calendar of other webinar events from programs in education.
 * = [[image:Classroom_2.0.png width="324" height="62" align="left" link="@http://live.classroom20.com/index.html"]][[image:2.0.png width="104" height="73" align="left" link="@http://live.classroom20.com/index.html"]] || Voted 1st Runner up for webinars in the 2010 Edublog awards.

This website seems to offer a great deal for educators and also is very user friendly. It is easy to navigate through the various pages. It is very easy to use and they also have tutorials on how to participate in the sessions. || media type="youtube" key="fKQZM4slwzA" height="222" width="268" align="center" || The Global Education Collaborative is a social networking site for the education community that currently has 5,225 members from around the world. In terms of webinars, t here is no apparent link on their main page for the webinars. And the home page is a bit cluttered with information. I had to type “webinars” into the site’s search bar and that led me to some options. After doing a Google search, it appears there are even more webinar options that the site offers, but I could not find a central location where they were all laid out and offered.
 * [[image:Global_education_collaborative.png width="327" height="71" align="left" link="@http://globaleducation.ning.com/main/search/search?q=webinars"]][[image:#1.png width="93" height="73"]] || This site was voted the BEST by the Edublog awards however, I am ranking it below the one mentioned above. However, this opinion is based only on the ease of navigating the sites and finding the information. It is not based on their webinars alone.

It is currently unclear if you need to register for the site in order to register for a webinar. When I went to register for one I had to click on a link for “ePals.” Here they asked me questions about which sate I was from, which school district and my name and phone number.

While navigating through their site is not the easiest, their topics seemed to be the most interesting to me, with many focusing on Global Collaboration. || || This site also offers many great FREE webinars. Anything from “Strategies for Maximizing Student Memory” to “The New Teacher Toolkit” there certianly appears to be a wide range of topics that these webinars cover. During the summer months they are offering their “Summer Boot-camp Webinar Series.” While this site also seems easy to navigate and user friendly, there are no tutorials on site that introduce you to their format for the webinars. However, it was very easy to register for one and judging merly from the website alone, I would gather that this site offers a quality service. There is an area for members to sign in, but I did not have to become a member to register for the webinar. The site offers different levels of membership, however the webinars are free. ||  ||
 * [[image:ACSD_Webinars.png width="341" height="146" link="@http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/webinars.aspx"]] || =ASCD Webinars =
 * [[image:PBS_Webinars.png width="344" height="86" link="@http://www.pbs.org/teachers/webinar/"]] || I found this site to be a great resource for teachers, not only in terms of their webinars, but for other content as well. There is a LOT of free material that can be used in all kinds of classrooms and I found the entire site to be a good resource for professional development of various kinds.
 * [[image:PBS_Webinars.png width="344" height="86" link="@http://www.pbs.org/teachers/webinar/"]] || I found this site to be a great resource for teachers, not only in terms of their webinars, but for other content as well. There is a LOT of free material that can be used in all kinds of classrooms and I found the entire site to be a good resource for professional development of various kinds.

To participate in their webinars, you must first sign up to be a “PBS Teacher.” For this you must simply provide your name, email and what grade/subjects you teach. Once you are registered, you will receive an email with an invitation to that weeks webinar.

The subject matter of the webinars are fairly wide. Anything from the Humanities, to Science and Technology are covered. Each session begins with a tutorial on how to navigate the webinar platform, so that the user is comfortable participating. ||  ||
 * [[image:itunesu.JPG width="159" height="125" align="center" link="http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/"]] || **iTunes University** This is a branch of the iTunes software distributed by Apple. With[| iTunesU] you can access lectures and content (both video and audio) from numerous credible institutions like Oxford and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, all for free through the iTunes software which is free to download and compatible to both PC and Mac. Beyond using iTunesU for accessing information, institutions can set up custom sites on iTunes to distribute content and information a powerful tool in helping with professional development. ||  ||
 * [[image:Ted.JPG align="center" link="http://www.ted.com/"]] || **TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design)** TED is an organization best know for providing free online '[|TED talks]'. These talks have experts and front runners in various fields speak on a given topic. This may not sound dramatic but their motto "Ideas worth Spreading" is dead on. Each speaker brings new insight to topics you thought you knew or makes you aware of something you had never heard of or considered before. While these talks may not all address education directly, many of the topics and themes apply to education, technology, leadership, and being part of the global community of the 21st century. ||  ||

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