e-PD: Blended Models of Sustaining Teacher Professional Development in Digital Literacies

Abstract

It is commonly agreed that professional development of teachers in the use of information and communication technologies should be sustained over time. Most professional development, however, is delivered in single or short sequences of face-to-face sessions, paying little heed to this requirement. Once the face-to-face training is completed, a large proportion of teachers seemingly succumb to entropy. Often there is limited application of the proposed outcomes of the professional development in the classroom and few (if any) opportunities to share examples of successful programs or student work examples, particularly when teachers return to isolated or regional areas. With particular reference to an Australian context, this article suggests one way within a pragmatic approach to extend the traditional boundaries of face-to-face training and sustain professional development.