Thing 22

Obviously, the advantage to online PD is convenience. It's self-paced and no one cares what you're wearing or if you have dragon mouth or whether you scratch something inappropriate. You don't have to re-arrange schedules, prep lesson plans for a substitute, or worry about getting there on time.

The disadvantage of online PD is that you have to show up. Knowing myself as well as I do, I find it easier to watch Burn Notice (or equivalent) than to park my body at the computer for another hour or two of an evening. The result is that I procrastinate (you may have noticed that on this course!) and sweat out getting the assignments done. Hewlett Packard offers online courses for FREE. I have signed up for several of them, started with a flourish, then walked away because I couldn't make myself put in the time. Bah.

Having to show up for a live PD presentation forces you to participate. It's also time limited, which helps me enormously. You take your notes, put the handouts in a binder, and use what you remember to improve your service delivery. That's it. You're done.

I'll probably do some of both in the future. Hopefully it'll work out better!