CPDAnswers

CPDCentral is an online community for all Scottish educators on Glow. If you’re looking for innovative CPD and want to share CPD practice with other educators, then this is the community to join.

On CPDCentral, you can:

• find and contact like-minded colleagues from across Scotland
• access interesting practice shared by CPDCentral members; videos, presentations, documents, etc
• take part in the weekly online seminars (CPDMeets) on a variety of topics
• take part in online discussions on the CPDCentral forum
• ask (and get answers to) your CPD questions

Who can join CPDCentral?

Any Scottish educator can join (teacher, adviser, early years practitioner, learning assistant, you name it!) .

How much does it cost?

Nothing at all!  However, you have to commit to a bit of collegiality before you join. You must:

• upload a photograph and introduce yourself to the CPDCentral members gallery
• agree to at least some collegiate activities over the next year. All of these count as collegiate activities:
  • uploading an item of interesting practice
  • sharing an idea, intention, issue or insight
  • starting, or contributing to, a discussion
  • taking part in, or leading, a CPDMeet

OK, how do I join CPDCentral?

1. Make sure you have a photograph of yourself on your computer

2. Make sure you have your Glow username and password handy

3. Have a look at the Terms & Conditions and pick an appropriate button at the bottom

You will find details of all the CPDChallenges on CPDFind. Just type cpdchallenge into the CPDFind search box. They are also listed in the CPDChallenges section of CPDCentral community area.

Visit the CPDChallenge area on CPDCentral …

When completing a CPDChallenge (see What is CPDChallenge? for more details), you are asked to quickly record what difference this will make to your practice as an educator. Usually, this means how will it help students learn?

There are 2 reasons for this:

1. to help spread ideas about how innovative CPD can be used to support learning
2. the CPDChallenge Glow Group is open to all staff. If we all make a contribution then we can identify who is interested in this area and start to make collegiate links across establishments

Visit the CPDChallenge Glow group …

In June 2009, Con Morris of the National CPD Team organised an event for colleagues at Learning and Teaching Scotland challenging them to use online technology in their CPD practice. Examples include:

• using Twitter to build a personal learning network
• taking part in a Glowmeet
• using CPDFind

Since then, there have been a number of events which have used the same format and drawn on the resources.

The format of a CPDChallenge event is:

• get together a bunch of colleagues
• introduce a variety of challenges (each in less than 5 minutes)
• allow a free choice and encourage collaboration
• share practice at the end
• ensure likely impact on practice is recorded and followed up.

You can find a set of CPDChallenges on the Online CPD library on CPDCentral. This approach is supported by the CPDChallenge area on CPDCentral where you will get information on all the challenges and a section for CPD leaders who want to lead a CPDChallenge event.

Visit the CPDChallenge area on CPDCentral …