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Features

Avenues to Professional Learning Online
Technology Tips and Tools for Professional Development in Gifted Education
Catherine A. Little1 and Brian C. Housand2

Abstract: The use of online methods for professional development activities is on the rise, with more schools exploring creative ways of providing teacher learning opportunities. Online professional development offers a promising direction for providing increased learning opportunities, promoting professional collaboration, and supporting teacher facility with technology resources. In gifted education, online activities may present effective ways of connecting gifted education professionals across multiple schools and districts and providing professional learning experiences in gifted education for colleagues in general education. In this article, the authors discuss key features of professional development and considerations for applying them in an online learning context. The authors emphasize the importance of coherence with the curriculum, active engagement, sustained attention, and administrative support. They then discuss five avenues or approaches for implementing online professional development, representing a range of interactive elements and opportunities for blending live and online components. Within each avenue presented, the authors share specific resources that would support implementation in the professional learning context.

“

Online activities may present effective ways of connecting gifted education professionals across multiple schools and districts and providing professional learning experiences.”

Keywords: professional development, technology, gifted education E

very day, our opportunities increase to use technology to inform and entertain ourselves, communicate with others, and manage details of our lives from paying bills to scheduling meetings to archiving family photos. Technology is also slowly increasing its integration into

schools and classrooms. Teachers are gaining access to an array of instructional resources; parents can learn more about what is happening in schools and districts through online communication; and students are leading the way with their ever more digitally driven lives. Nevertheless, education tends to lag somewhat behind other professions in technology integration, partially because of funding and resource issues, but also in part because of the limited time available for teachers to learn about and practice with technology resources for the classroom. Professional development funds and time are limited. Goals for professional learning must address a broad range of school and district initiatives since organized technologyrelated professional development is often limited. Online professional development activities offer one promising direction for providing increased professional learning opportunities across a range of topics and initiatives as well as for promoting professional collaboration and teacher facility with technology resources. The use of online methods for professional development activities is on the rise, with more schools exploring creative ways of providing teacher learning opportunities and more researchers investigating promising approaches for supporting positive change in teacher attitudes,

DOI: 10.1177/1076217511415383. From 1University of Connecticut and 2East Carolina University. Address correspondence to: Catherine A. Little, 2131 Hillside Rd., Unit 3007, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-3007; email: catherine.little@uconn.edu.
For reprints and permissions queries, please visit SAGE’s Web site at http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermission.nav. Copyright © 2011 The Author(s)

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learning, and practice. Frequently, online professional development methods are used to promote teacher integration of technology, merging the content of the professional development activity and the delivery method (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). The options for content to be explored in an online environment, however, are far more extensive than just technology integration in the classroom. For example, given that gifted education is already an area somewhat limited in dedicated professional development time because of other school and district initiatives, online learning opportunities have the potential to open many more possibilities for teacher professional growth around working with gifted learners. Online professional learning may be an effective way both to connect gifted education professionals across multiple schools and districts and provide professional learning experiences in gifted education for colleagues in general education. There are many different types of online professional development options, ranging from informative websites and self-paced tutorials to live or recorded podcasts and webinars to longer term engagement in productive, collaborative activities in online professional learning communities. Depending on the format of the professional development offering, teachers may be able to access it from work or from home, at scheduled times or at their leisure. Some of these professional development activities may also use a “blended” approach, meaning that they combine faceto-face meetings among a group of teachers, such as in a more traditional workshop, with online discussions or other activities either as a follow-up or in between multiple face-toface sessions. In the following, we will discuss some recommendations for application of critical professional development features to online professional learning initiatives. Then we will share some specific tools and resources useful to educators responsible for selecting, planning, or conducting professional development in gifted education.

· active engagement of teachers during professional learning activities and opportunities for teachers to work together collaboratively with colleagues; · sustained attention to professional learning activities, including follow-up at the school and classroom levels beyond initial learning experiences; · support from school administration. These elements are important considerations across all professional learning initiatives, whether the delivery model is to be online, face to face, or blended. Some of the particular details of these features as they relate to online delivery methods are described in the following.

Coherence
Birman, Desimone, Porter, and Garet (2000) defined coherence as the connections between professional development activities and teachers’ classroom practices and professional goals, as well as the standards that guide curriculum and instruction in schools. In other words, an emphasis on coherence in professional development supports the relevance of professional learning activities to the needs and goals of teachers and the schools in which they work. One of the ways to help to ensure coherence is to establish specific, meaningful goals for professional learning; another is to examine carefully the vertical alignment between student learning needs and teacher learning needs. In addition, ensuring coherence requires gathering data on needs and goals through a variety of needs assessment approaches, including examining student and teacher evaluation data as well as simply asking the teachers to provide input on professional development planning. Furthermore, existing state and national standards within content areas and around the needs of special populations of students are important sources for considering goals and directions for professional development initiatives. In gifted education, over the last several years, the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) have collaborated on the development of a set of professional standards for educators of the gifted (NAGC & CEC, 2006). These standards may serve as the starting place for considering plans for professional learning activities in gifted education. Online environments may serve as the context for providing professional development across a wide range of topics, issues, and learning goals. In addition to the specific content goals a school or district may be trying to achieve, online professional learning can also support technology integration goals in conjunction with other content. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has established standards for students, teachers, and administrators regarding technology integration in education (see http://www.iste.org/NETS). The teacher standards are a good place to start in thinking about integrating goals for professional development into an online environment. The overarching National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS•T; ISTE, 2008) are as follows:

Key Features of Effective Professional Development
Although research efforts to determine features of effective professional development have often been limited by the challenge of demonstrating direct connections between professional learning activities and desired outcomes for students, a growing literature base is demonstrating key features to consider in promoting teacher learning and changes in classroom practice, which ultimately have important influences on student learning (e.g., Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Richardson, 2003). Some of these key features that have emerged from the literature follow: · strong coherence of professional learning initiatives with teachers’ work assignments and with content standards; · acknowledgement of teachers’ existing beliefs and practices, along with efforts to encourage and develop participant buy-in for new initiatives;
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1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, 2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments, 3. Model digital-age work and learning, 4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, 5. Engage in professional growth and leadership. In an online professional learning environment, even if the learning objectives are not specifically or primarily related to technology integration, aspects of some or all of these standards may still be addressed. By using digital media to find and use information and to communicate, interact, and collaborate with one another, teachers are engaging in activities that relate to each of these standards. Vavasseur and MacGregor (2008) examined the use of online professional learning communities in two schools. In each school, teachers were beginning to implement a new state curriculum that required technology integration, and they participated in face-to-face sessions and online discussions to support and learn from one another throughout the process. They responded in discussions to some specific prompts, including a focus on developing interdisciplinary activities that integrated technology (Standard 2). Their conversations also extended into consideration of key issues such as methods for appropriately guiding and monitoring student use of the Internet (Standard 4). In addition, teachers’ active engagement in the online community to discuss and support one another’s implementation of the new curriculum reflected aspects of both Standards 3 and 5.

Acknowledging Beliefs and Practices
Beyond seeking coherence with standards in the planning and design of learning initiatives, professional development leaders must also consider the best ways of ensuring that the connections with teachers’ daily work are clearly evident. They must also ensure that teachers have opportunities to reflect on and engage in discussion around the connections they perceive to their own environments, as well as the concerns and questions they may bring. Teachers’ appraisals of the feasibility and meaningfulness of professional development activities are important factors in their levels of participation in those activities (Kwakman, 2003). Differentiation principles guide us to understand that learning occurs most effectively when facilitators recognize and respect learners where they are and help them to grow from that point. In professional development, this requires recognizing that teachers may be approaching the learning initiative with widely varying levels of readiness and openness and trying to meet teachers where they are, within a climate of professional respect, to help them to engage with the content and grow as professionals. Such considerations, combined with sustained attention to the professional development initiative over time, are important for supporting changes in teacher attitudes and practices. Guskey (1986) has argued that professional development activities alone

are unlikely to change teacher attitudes and beliefs; rather, such changes result after teachers try out something they have learned through a professional development activity and see the effects on their own students. Clarke and Hollingsworth (2002) also theorized that results with students, as well as other salient outcomes, are influential in changing teacher attitudes following professional development, along with a complex collection of other factors across several domains of teachers’ experience. These perspectives highlight the importance of demonstrating respect for teachers’ existing perspectives and beliefs, as well as ensuring that teachers will have opportunities to try out what they have learned with support and follow-up. Particularly when engaging with new technologies, facilitators should encourage teachers to reflect on or share their perspectives and beliefs from the outset. Dede (2006), in reviewing emerging findings about online professional development, noted that sometimes teachers need to “unlearn” some of their unconscious beliefs and attitudes that may be affecting their willingness to adapt to a more technologyintegrated approach. The range of readiness and attitudes among teachers about technology use is one of the challenges of engaging teachers in online professional development activities (Dede, 2006; Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). Online professional learning experiences must be designed in such a way that they respect some teachers’ apprehensions about technology use, provide technical support, and ensure a supportive context in which teachers may feel comfortable expressing their concerns and frustrations. On the other hand, these professional development initiatives must also build in sufficient pacing flexibility and differentiation to allow those teachers who are more comfortable with the technology to move more quickly or explore more thoroughly. Online professional learning communities (Schlager & Fusco, 2004) represent a promising approach to professional development in an online context, particularly since they provide opportunities for teachers to interact with and support one another as they implement new practices in their classrooms. Given the notion that teaching is often a solitary profession and that teachers have limited time in which to collaborate, share, and reflect with one another, the purpose of the online professional community is to engage teachers in the kinds of reflective and productive interactions that they often cannot manage in the hours of the school day. In Vavasseur and MacGregor’s (2008) study (described in the previous section), the researchers observed that teachers provided moral support and encouragement for one another in the online discussion, including using humor about the shared experience, commiserating on how much more skilled the students were with technology tools than their teachers, and offering suggestions and praise to one another. For gifted education teachers, particularly those who serve in some kind of schoolwide resource capacity and may be the only ones in their schools directly responsible for identifying and guiding gifted learners, the online community may be a particularly

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attractive option; teachers who are separated by distance can be much more easily connected in an online environment.

Active Engagement and Collaboration
The National Staff Development Council’s (NSDC) Standards for Staff Development (NSDC, 2001) highlight the importance of considering what we know about learning when designing professional development activities—specifically, ensuring that teachers have opportunities for ongoing engagement with the content they are learning, quality teaching guides them in their learning, and opportunities exist for reflecting individually and collaborating on their work. Teachers’ active engagement in professional learning, particularly when that engagement includes collective participation among colleagues, is an important factor in promoting teacher learning and changes in practice (Garet et al., 2001). The community aspect of professional learning is significant in promoting overall school goals and collegial support for implementing new initiatives. Online resources for professional development provide a wide range of opportunities for teachers to be actively engaged in their own learning, often at their own pace and from the comfort of their own home or classroom. Collaboration may occur in real time or asynchronously, and teachers who may have limited opportunities to interact in person during the school day have the chance to engage in longer, reflective conversations about their practice. In addition, some research suggests that teachers show greater participation in those professional learning activities that result in a product that will be useful for their teaching (Kwakman, 2003); online environments may provide teachers with the context in which to work collaboratively on specific products useful for classroom implementation. Schlager and Fusco (2004) suggested that online professional communities are most likely to be successful when they build on existing professional learning communities, within which certain cultural norms have already been established, noting that online communities will have unwritten rules and perceptions about behavior just as other kinds of communities do. As noted earlier, teachers may provide each other with suggestions and ideas for responding to challenges or pursuing further learning, as well as providing each other with moral support, particularly when they feel comfortable enough to share their successes and difficulties in a climate of professional respect. Active engagement in ongoing online professional learning is likely to be increased through expert facilitation and directive prompts. Vavasseur and MacGregor (2008) emphasized the importance of ongoing direct facilitation in the development of online communities, including specific prompts for discussion and technical support. Russell, Kleiman, Carey, and Douglas (2009) noted that in some content areas, the involvement of a content expert as the facilitator may be particularly important. A number of other studies have argued for the importance of directive prompts to encourage reflection and engagement in discussion. Indeed, a meta-analysis examining various studies of online learning across a range of ages and contexts
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demonstrated positive effects of tools or features promoting reflection (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones, 2009). Facilitation and prompting encourage active engagement and also provide direction and redirection when a group of participants gets off track or demonstrates misconceptions. In professional learning in gifted education, a gifted education expert should facilitate online communities to help address misconceptions and guide the collaborative learning of teachers who may not have extensive background knowledge about gifted learners. It should be noted that just as in live professional learning activities, some teachers will participate more actively and more regularly than others in an online context. Joyce and Showers (2002) have emphasized that among participants in professional development, there will be not only a range of readiness but also a range of willingness to engage. Facilitators can encourage engagement through directive prompts, support from administrators, and efforts to incorporate differentiation to address a range of interests and preferences; however, teachers will continue to make their own choices about their level of participation. When possible, facilitators may choose to build different formats and options for teacher participation to respond to varying preferences. Some research has demonstrated that teachers who engaged in online experiences across a wide range of facilitation and support, from selfpaced with limited interaction to a highly interactive cohort experience, demonstrated growth toward key learning and practice outcomes across all groups (Russell et al., 2009).

Sustained Attention
Perhaps the most universal recommendation to have emerged from the professional development literature over the past several decades is the importance of sustained attention to professional learning, as opposed to a focus on “one-shot” workshops with no follow-up. For example, throughout the NSDC Standards (NSDC, 2001), there is an emphasis on continuous learning, ongoing engagement, and an understanding that one-shot workshops are unlikely to result in achievement of professional learning goals. Sustained attention helps to maintain a focus on the goals of the professional learning initiative, allow consideration and discussion of emerging questions as teachers begin making changes in practice, and facilitate differentiation of ongoing learning as teachers progress. Online professional learning provides excellent opportunities for follow-up to face-to-face professional development activities as well as for professional learning that may occur over a longer duration, thereby becoming more job embedded. Online discussions reduce or remove the need for scheduled face-to-face meetings, which may reduce costs as well as the challenges of complicated schedules. In addition, through online discussions, teachers have the opportunity for nearly immediate sharing of their experiences, questions, and concerns with a community of peers; and they can also return to earlier discussions throughout an implementation period

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to revisit key points. Moreover, teachers may receive helpful guidance from facilitators and from one another that they can apply nearly immediately in their classrooms. Tinker (2003) noted the economic advantages, convenience, and immediacy of online professional learning activities as key benefits of this type of approach.

directions for promoting teacher content learning and pedagogical knowledge as well as changes in practice (Russell et al., 2009).

Five Avenues for Stepping Into the World of Professional Development 2.0
In this section, we provide an overview of some online tools and resources that educators responsible for professional development in gifted education might use as they strive to integrate technology into professional learning. Traditionally, professional development might be offered in a “stand and deliver” method. An outside consultant or a gifted specialist or coordinator might be asked to present a workshop on a topic related to gifted education. The use of PowerPoint was once thought of as an integration of technology, but now professional developers are easily able to provide much more. As educators enter the second decade of the 21st century, it is time that they move beyond the stand and deliver model and step into the world of “Professional Development 2.0.” The five avenues that follow offer a way of approaching increased access to and interaction during professional development. Rather than providing an in-depth tutorial for the use of each resource, we aim to provide exposure to a variety of tools that one might employ in professional development. For more specific information on any one tool, readers are encouraged to take advantage of the support and tutorials offered on the provided websites. In addition, two regularly published sources linking technology and gifted education are Del Siegle’s column in Gifted Child Today and Brian Housand’s column in NAGC’s publication Teaching for High Potential.

Support From School Administration
The support of administrators facilitates any professional development initiative in concrete and abstract ways. Administrative support may ensure sufficient time and resources will be devoted to an initiative. In addition, however, the less tangible support that emerges through administrator encouragement and direct involvement helps to demonstrate the value being placed on the learning activity and to provide positive reinforcement for teachers engaging in it. The NSDC Standards (NSDC, 2001) emphasize the role of school leaders in articulating for all stakeholders the links between student learning and teacher professional learning as well as building the policies and organizational structures to promote ongoing professional growth. With regard to online professional development initiatives, administrators can similarly help to build structures and promote a supportive, collegial climate; in many instances, administrators may demonstrate their support through direct involvement in the professional learning activity. In their study of two schools engaged in online professional learning communities, Vavasseur and MacGregor (2008) noted that the principals of both schools were directly involved in the initiative, participating in online discussion with their teachers. The two principals demonstrated different types of involvement—one was more directly engaged in the substance of the conversation, while the other seemed to focus more on providing specific praise and encouragement— but both maintained involvement over time and, in the researchers’ judgment, helped to promote positive outcomes for teachers. Teachers at both schools perceived their principals to be providing both pressure and support, although their perspectives differed as to whether principal involvement also added stress to their experience. In each case, however, the principal’s role in introducing the initiative and continuing to be directly involved was perceived to be an important factor.

First Avenue: Provide Access to Websites/Resources Online
The development of a website to distribute resources online is the simplest approach to online professional learning. Many gifted resource specialists have developed such sites to share links with their faculty. Many schools offer web space in which their teachers may develop class sites through a variety of different services. This offers an important first step into the world of online learning. If your school does not offer webhosting, you may have thought that creating a website was something that was too complex and time consuming to accomplish. Google Sites (http://sites.google.com) and Weebly (http://www.weebly. com) allow anyone to create and host free websites. Neither service requires any programming skill. The interface is similar to that found in Microsoft Word, and a new website can be created in about a minute. One must simply choose a name for the site, decide whether or not to use a preexisting template, choose a theme, and then type in a verification code. At that point, a website has been created. All that is left is for the creator to fill it with content. As a professional developer, having a professional website opens myriad opportunities for the dissemination of materials.
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Ensuring Quality
Much of the research regarding online professional learning experiences is still in its early stages, and a number of the existing studies are anecdotal or primarily attitude focused, rather than exploring specific teacher learning outcomes or changes in classroom practice; those studies that do focus on learning outcomes tend to be small-scale case studies (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). Nevertheless, these studies do provide indications that quality online experiences for professional learning have the potential to support teachers in their work, promote collegiality, and provide a positive influence on teacher attitudes about technology integration. Furthermore, the case study literature in this area has demonstrated promising

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Rather than creating unnecessary copies or worrying about not having made enough materials, the 2.0 professional developer would make all of his or her materials available online. This not only is more cost efficient, but it is also better for the environment. In addition, a professional website can help to extend the information presented well beyond your original audience. For those wishing to share PowerPoint presentations easily, Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net) allows one to upload presentations and share them on the Internet. One might think of SlideShare as YouTube for PowerPoints. When uploading presentations, you are able to “tag” the presentations with keywords to allow others to search for and view your presentation. One can also browse through thousands of uploaded presentations to see how other professional developers have displayed their content. Uploading presentations to SlideShare can expand a professional development audience considerably. For example, Brian gave a presentation at Edufest to an audience of 25 people. Five months later, that same presentation had been viewed nearly 900 times on SlideShare. If one of the goals is to expand the audience of your message, then this may be a tool to consider employing. SlideShare allows presentations to be embedded on your website and for viewers to access the content on their own time. The creation of a website can begin as a small project centered around a single presentation or workshop, or it can extend to become a depository of information related to a single topic. Since 1997 the Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page (http://www.hoagiesgifted.org) has served as the information warehouse of all things gifted. Carolyn Kottmeyer, the “Gifted Information Queen of the Internet” according to the Gifted Development Center, has single-handedly created the entry point for many of the individuals who search for information regarding giftedness. Chances are, if you are reading this article, that you have visited Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page to read pertinent articles on a full range of topics related to giftedness and gifted education. While this is an extreme example, it is indicative of what one person could do with this type of technology tool. Similarly, the NAGC website (http://www.nagc.org) is an example of what a national organization can accomplish by building a website. NAGC continues to develop as the definitive information resource on the topic of gifted education. The Information and Resources page on their website provides a collection of practical resources and high-quality information. Whether it is dispelling common myths of gifted education or outlining current major issues, the site is a highly useful source for important information about the field. Also included in this section are several position papers on topics including acceleration, grouping, and identification.

thinking. While one could simply ask them, Web 2.0 offers additional opportunities to encourage audience participation and interaction. The use of technology to encourage communication on multiple channels addresses different learning modalities of participants and helps teachers to see possibilities for technology integration into instruction. An educator fortunate enough to have an audience using computers during a live professional development session can set up a space using TodaysMeet (http://todaysmeet.com) to “embrace the backchannel.” This provides the participants with a venue through which to leave comments and ask questions during the presentation. This can encourage multiple layers of discussion to be happening simultaneously. Sidebar conversations or comments traditionally shared with a presenter during breaks could be incorporated more fully into the session. Also, this provides an additional outlet for participants who may be reluctant to share their thoughts or ask a question to become more involved in the learning community. TodaysMeet does not require signing up for a membership or logging onto a particular service. To use it, begin by choosing a name for your room. This will become the name of the URL that you will give your participants. You can also decide how long you would like the room to exist. This can range from 2 hours to 1 year. When people visit the TodaysMeet that you have created, they will be asked to enter their name and their message. All messages that are submitted will instantly appear on the screen for everyone to see. While certainly there are other tools that provide similar services, TodaysMeet provides a very simple solution for encouraging online interaction from your face-to-face audiences. While every participant may not have a computer, chances are great that every participant does have a cell phone. Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com) allows you to create a live audience poll to which participants will respond by sending a text message from their phone. Results are automatically updated on your screen as they are submitted. You are able to create either a multiple-choice poll or a free text poll. In a multiple-choice poll, you define the possible answers and a graph will display the results in real time. If you choose to create a free text poll, then your audience can text in their questions or even answer a question that you may have asked. Poll Everywhere is free for up to 30 responses per poll. For larger audiences and premium features, there are multiple levels of service for payment.

Third Avenue: Professional Development Supported With Asynchronous Online Discussion
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges and frustrations that faces professional developers is the inability to provide ongoing support after or between visits to schools. While great strides are made on the day of a workshop, often that progress falls to the wayside once the workshop is over. There are multiple Web 2.0 tools that can be used to provide ongoing support for learning and development.

Second Avenue: Technology for Interacting With Face-to-Face Audiences in Real Time
During the course of a professional development workshop, the presenter may wish to find out what the audience is
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Blogs. As a first step, you might consider establishing a blog for each professional development activity that you provide. There are a number of free blogging services available for your use. The two most popular free services are Blogger (http://www .blogger.com) and WordPress (http://wordpress.com). As with the creation of a website, this can serve as a place for you to post your materials and handouts for the participants. However, a blog will not only serve as a place to which participants can go back to review the materials; instead, a blog should serve as a place to post additional materials and reflections after the initial professional development session is over. With each new post to the blog, readers will be able to respond to the material that you have created. A potential disadvantage is that discussions are chronological and follow a single thread for each posting. This will not allow the branching of discussions to develop so that facilitating discussion in particular directions may be more challenging. Groups. Another option for promoting online discussion is the creation of an online group. Both Yahoo Groups (http:// groups.yahoo.com) and Google Groups (http://groups.google .com) are viable options. The advantage of a group over a blog is the ability to create threaded discussions. Also, these services allow users to upload and store files online. Groups tend to be kept private; therefore, within a group it is easier to moderate the content that is posted and viewed. Facebook. This social networking giant offers the ability to create private groups for users to share information. Many schools, districts, and organizations are embracing the power that Facebook has to offer. As new content is posted to the group, it is instantly shared with all of the group members. While many may be wary of sharing information via Facebook, you should be aware that group members are not required to “friend” in the group. The interface allows the creation of multiple threads and discussions. Users can also easily post photos, video, and links. Some of the disadvantages are that one has to be a Facebook user, and many schools often block the site. District-level options. Many schools and districts have options already available for you to create discussion forums and to post material. Many districts use course management services, like BlackBoard or Moodle, or web space with a service such as SharePoint. If this is the case, then professional developers may wish to use these resources to share materials and to help facilitate ongoing discussions. Other options in the cloud. A wiki is, simply put, a web page with an edit button. Like blogs, wikis may be created using your choice from many different services. Within a professional development context, you can invite participants to add to or edit the content of the wiki that you have created for them. This will allow the resources that you have provided to continue to grow and change over time. Google Docs (http://docs.google.com) allows a team of writers to collaborate in a virtual environment. Google Docs employs Web 2.0 technologies to allow users to edit a shared document simultaneously. While writing this article, we

used Google Docs to collaborate on a single document rather than e-mailing Word documents back and forth to one another.

Fourth Avenue: Video Conferencing
As video cameras become more and more a standard feature of computers, the possibility of conducting professional development via video conferencing has become a reality. While nothing will ever replace the experience of meeting in person, the rising cost of travel and budget constraints in general are restricting the ability of schools and districts to pay for consultants to travel to their sites. However, free tools such as Skype (http://www.skype.com) support videoconferencing between computers using web cameras. Skype allows the persons on each end to see and hear each other. If Skype is used in a professional development context, audience members can interact with the presenter and ask questions throughout the presentation. In addition, the latest version of Skype allows the sharing of computer screens between parties. This would allow the presenter to control the actions of what is taking place on the audience’s computer. The presenter would be able to display a presentation, show a video, or demonstrate how to navigate through a website. Recently at the East Carolina University Gifted Conference, this type of technology was used to have Joseph Renzulli deliver a keynote address from his office at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Renzulli was able to present slides from his computer onto the computer screen in Greenville, NC. The audience was able to hear and see the keynote presentation and to see the presenter on the screen. After the keynote, audience members were able to come forward and ask their questions in a virtual face-to-face conversation with the speaker. A post-conference survey indicated that the attendees felt that they had learned just as much from the virtual keynote as they would have from a face-to-face keynote. Also, by using a virtual presenter, conference planners reduced costs because there were no travel expenses. NAGC has recently stepped into the world of professional development 2.0 with the introduction of the Webinars on Wednesday series (http://www.nagc.org/WOW.aspx). This series brings nationally recognized experts from the field to your computer screen on an almost weekly basis. Participants are able to listen to and view the presentation, access handouts, and pose questions to the presenter. An individual or an entire staff could view these webinars. While there is a fee for each of these, the idea of having an expert present to your staff at a low cost does help to make this an appealing prospect. If you are interested in creating your own Webinar on Wednesday–type experience for professional development, the following two tools are possible resources for getting started. UStream (http://www.ustream.tv). While a service like Skype allows you to videoconference with one other computer, UStream allows you to create a video stream to any number of viewers over the Internet. Using the webcam on your computer, you are able to create a live show and invite viewers. UStream provides the option
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of making your show either completely public or by invitation only. Viewers are able to interact with you and one another in an online chat room that appears next to the streaming video. This would allow participants to ask questions and contribute to the discussion throughout the presentation. UStream offers a simple solution to live broadcasting on the Internet. BigMarker (http://www.bigmarker.com). If you wish to create a webinar with a greater level of interaction among the participants, then BigMarker may be the appropriate tool. One is able to host a free virtual conference or choose to charge admission to the online event. As the presenter, you have the ability to share display video of yourself in addition to a presentation, an interactive whiteboard, or your computer screen. The presenter has the ability to allow members of the audience to speak to the group by virtually passing a microphone among the users.

Fifth Avenue: Constructing and Facilitating an Ongoing Online Community
As anyone who has ever conducted a workshop, conference, or institute knows, conducting professional development is hard work. Now imagine conducting professional development in a 24/7 context. As technology expands our audience beyond only those that we are able to see in face-to-face venues, technology tools also afford new opportunities for delivering and sustaining professional development. In the world of professional learning online, the creation and maintenance of a professional learning community ranks as the most technologically integrated form of professional development. Edmodo (http://www.edmodo.com) is a free service designed for educators to create a private online social network. Edmodo encompasses many of the features and functions previously mentioned and compiles them into one environment. The creator of an Edmodo group has the ability to organize the content and to decide which tools become part of this virtual learning community. Individuals are able to join the community and are given their own page within the site that they may customize. Within Edmodo, smaller discussion groups can be formed. For example, a professional developer might create an Edmodo group for an entire school and then create content area– or grade-level discussion groups. Edmodo has a very similar look to that of Facebook, with most of the same features. However, the one advantage is that it is a private community designed for the purpose of education. Many schools are beginning to embrace this tool with their gifted students and creating district-wide Edmodo groups. This allows gifted students and teachers to remain connected with one another while they are not in class together, and it helps with extending class discussions beyond the scheduled class time. One final tool that offers an option for constructing an online learning community but that may be easily overlooked is Twitter (http://www.twitter.com). While many have dismissed Twitter as a novelty and doubted how much complexity of thought could be contributed in 140 characters or less, we encourage you to look closer to see the potential that this
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tool possesses to create a worldwide discussion on the topic of giftedness. For example, every Friday at noon and 7:00 p.m. (EST) Deborah Mersino facilitates a global conversation on Twitter at #gtchat. The online community is invited to submit and then vote on topics of discussion prior to each meeting. During a #gtchat it is not uncommon for over 100 people from around the world to contribute to the discussion. Afterwards, transcripts of the conversation are posted online for anyone to review. Perhaps what is most impressive about this grassroots effort is that is a demonstration of the positive and global impact that just one person can have with the use of technology. For detailed information on how to participate in a #gtchat, visit http://www.ingeniosus.net/gtchat. Thanks to technology resources such as these that use social networking tools like Edmodo and Twitter, we are able to connect with others interested in sharing their passion and expertise related to the field of gifted education. Many gifted children know all too well the feeling of isolation from likeminded peers. Perhaps gifted educators know that feeling even better. Many educators of the gifted may be the lone resource teacher in their building or even in their district, and they may not easily find local colleagues who are as passionate about gifted education as they are. Thanks to the Internet and many of the tools mentioned in this article, we no longer have to be alone. We have a place in “the cloud.” In considering implementing online professional development approaches, school leaders should consider all the key elements of effective professional learning, the tools appropriate to the learning goals being addressed, and strong, quality content overall. Taking poor professional development activities and putting them online so that teachers can interact more frequently will not change them into high-quality experiences (Schlager & Fusco, 2004). On the other hand, carefully planned, quality professional learning initiatives that use an online format appropriate to the content and the context have great potential for supporting professional growth.

Conflict of Interest
The author(s) declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

References
Birman, B. F., Desimone, L., Porter, A. C., & Garet, M. S. (2000). Designing professional development that works. Educational Leadership, 57(8), 28-33. Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 947-967. Dede, C. (Ed.). (2006). Online professional development for teachers: Emerging models and methods. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 915-945.

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Guskey, T. R. (1986). Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational Researcher, 15(5), 5-12. International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards for teachers. Eugene, OR: Author. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/NETS Joyce, B. R., & Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement through staff development (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Kwakman, K. (2003). Factors affecting teachers’ participation in professional learning activities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19, 149-170. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00101-4 Lawless, K. A., & Pellegrino, J. W. (2007). Professional development in integrating technology into teaching and learning: Knowns, unknowns, and ways to pursue better questions and answers. Review of Educational Research, 77, 575-614. doi:10.3102/0034654307309921 Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A metaanalysis and review of online learning studies. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/ finalreport.pdf National Association for Gifted Children and Council for Exceptional Children. (2006). NAGC-CEC teacher knowledge and skills standards for gifted and talented education. Retrieved from http://www.nagc .org/uploadedFiles/Information_and_Resources/NCATE_standards/ final%20standards%20(2006).pdf National Staff Development Council. (2001). NSDC’s standards for staff development. Oxford, OH: Author. Richardson, V. (2003). The dilemmas of professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 84, 401-406.

Russell, M., Kleiman, G., Carey, R., & Douglas, J. (2009). Comparing selfpaced and cohort-based online courses for teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41, 443-466. Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2004). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? In S. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.), Designing virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 120-153). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Tinker, B. (2003). Net courses for staff development. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Family Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.mff.org/ edtech/article.taf?_function=detail&Content_uid1=107 Vavasseur, C. B., & MacGregor, S. K. (2008). Extending content-focused professional development through online communities of practice. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40, 517-536.

Bios
Catherine A. Little, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. She teaches courses in gifted and talented education and in the undergraduate honors program in education. Her research interests include professional development, teacher talent development, and differentiation of curriculum and instruction. Brian C. Housand, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at East Carolina University. He is currently researching ways in which technology can enhance the learning environment and is striving to define creative-productive giftedness in a digital age. His website is http://brianhousand.com.

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