The Virtual Professional Learning Development programme (VPLD) team is very keen to hear from NZ teachers, Principals, APs and DPs, who are interested in participating in the next VPLD intake (programme beginning in February 2012).
The VPLD programme offers flexibility of choice, time and approach, and is designed to fit in with what you are already doing as teachers and/or leaders. Each participant is partnered with a mentor, with whom they meet online using Adobe Connect (a Web conferencing tool that enables interactive synchronous communication), or Skype, once a month for between forty-five to ninety minutes. The programme also provides professional learning through engagement in the VPLD professional online Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP offers a safe environment where you can discuss and challenge alternative points of view about pedagogy and practice, across disciplines and sectors.
The literature suggests that the duration and frequency of effective PLD are important - little and often over an extended period of time being the most effective. Participation in the VPLD programme is therefore over the course of three years. In the final year, you will be encouraged to develop your own mentoring skills, and are scaffolded to work with someone of your choosing in a mentor role.
The overall aims of the programme are to raise the professional knowledge and skills of participants, while also accelerating students' achievement of learning outcomes.
If accepted onto this programme you will develop your own learning goals around projects that interest you, framed within an inquiry process.
Find out more about the VPLD programme:
- An overview of the VPLD programme.
- Selection criteria, protocols of participation, values statement.
- Recommended computer specifications for participation in the VPLD
- The VPLD online community of practice
- Hot Seat webinars
Please use this form to submit your expression of interest.
To discuss participation, for yourself or a colleague, contact Hazel Owen hazel.owen@core-ed.org, Rachel Roberts rachel.roberts@core-ed.org, or Clarrie Yates clarence.yates@core-ed.org.
The VPLD programme is part of the eLearning Professional Learning and Development programme, managed on behalf of the Ministry by Te Toi Tupu, a PLD consortium that comprises CORE Education, Cognition Consulting Education, NZCER, Waikato - Tainui College of Research and Development, and The University of Waikato.
