I have spent many an enjoyable afternoon and evening with colleagues around Scotland and beyond.  I always promise the participants a copy of the presentation and a note of the online CPD links we explore in each session.

Here is the presentation

And here are the links

CPDFind, CPDReflect summary, CPDScotland, CPDConfer home page, Information on Glow, Don Ledingham’s blog.

I am delighted to be able to join you here today at the 2nd Scottish Government International Summer School on School Leadership.  The excellent turn out during the summer holidays is a clear indication of the significance that this event has for educational leaders.  I am pleased to see that we have wide representations from within schools (headteachers, deputy headteachers, principal teachers, chartered teachers and classroom teachers) and from local authorities and other stakeholders.  I am also glad that the summer school has again been able to attract interest from abroad.  I am sure you are all enjoying your week - it certainly looks an interesting, varied and challenging programme. I want to do two things as I speak to you this afternoon. 

Ma tha sibh a’ tabhainn cothroman CPD ann am foghlaim na h-Albainn, ‘s docha gum bitheadh ùidh agaibh a bhi air ar n’ainmeachadh anns an t-seirbheis ùr - CPDFind - a tha an Sgioba Naiseanta airson CPD a’ cuir air adhart.  Tha an sgioba nàiseanta airson CPD stèidichte aig Ionnsachadh agus Teagasg Alba.   ‘S e stòr-data de cothroman CPD a tha ann an CPDFind.  Faighibh tuilleadh fiosrachadh no coimheadaibh fhèin air mar a tha e ag obair.  A thuilleadh air an seo, tha na planaichean leasachaidh againn taiceil agus bu choir gun cuidicheadh seo gus deanamh cìnnteach gum bi cothrom aig luchd-teagaisg air feadh Alba an t-seirbheis a chleachdadh.  Thuige seo tha 28 a-mach as na 32 roinnean ionadail air ceangal a dheanamh eadar an làrach lìn CPD aca fhèin agus ri CPDFind.  Thoiribh sùil air an làrach aig Roinn na Gàidhealtachd agus chì sibh dhuibh fhèin.   Feumaidh sibh a bhi clàraichte airson ar cothroman CPD a chuir air adhart air CPDFind.  Airson clàradh:   

• Tadhail air raon luchd tabhainn CPD  
• Sgriobh thugainn aig cpdregister@ltscotland.org.uk 

CPDFind, the ‘CPD Search Engine’ from LTScotland and the National CPD Team, passed the magical 1000 opportunity mark recently. In one short year (it went live in May 2007), it has grown from nothing to being an important tool for educators who are looking for CPD.

The 1000th opportunity was entered by Vetaid,  Vetaid is a member of the IDEAS forum and  works with agricultural communities in east Africa who depend on animals for their survival and provide CPD opportunities in global education as part of their work. A suitable token of our appreciation will be winging its way to Sarah Brown, the CPD manager for Vetaid as soon as possible.

The CPD Team would like to thank all the CPD providers on the register, and colleagues at LTScotland and Successful Steps for their hard work in achieving this target.

Onwards to 10,000!

I was invited by Bob McGowan (CPD manager of Stirling Council) to work with a group of secondary CPD coordinators on Tuesday. The topic was online CPD.

We concentrated on how CPDFind will help colleagues identify CPD now that there is a link from the Council CPD site (CEBAS) to the national database. It was also good to hear that Stirling have started to pilot Glow at Balfron High School.

I was joined by a colleague from LTS (Linda Christie) who is heading up the ‘Leadership for Learning’ courses that have been running for several years at Stirling Management Centre. Linda is keen that the online tools such as CPDFind, Glow and CPDReflect are part of the debate at these events.

As a result of my visit to Inverness (see blog post innovatively titled A visit to Inverness) we now have some of the HVLC titles described on CPDFind. I am grateful to Highland Council for their support in this (particularly Kevin Logan) and to Anne McGhee for the actual creation of the CPDFind entries. It was heartening to see colleagues from Stirling adding these to their wish-list of CPD opportunities at our workshop recently. It brought home to me the real power of CPDFind to share practice.

You can see the complete list of HVLC opportunities here. Just click on the View Opportunities button at the foot of the page.

On Friday of last week, my colleague Anne McGhee and I hosted two workshops for registered CPD providers on how to make best use of the CPDFind system. Both workshops were over-subscribed and went down well with attendees. It was a pleasure to work directly with CPD providers and we came away with some excellent ideas for improving the system and the access to information about CPD opportunities.

Here are our top 5 tips for CPD providers using the system:

• less is more! Remember the average visit to a web page lasts 1.5 seconds!
• write for an individual. Have a specific person in mind who you want to attract to your CPD
• use your website to host the more detailed information and hyperlink to that from the CPDFind descriptor
• don’t forget to use http:// before any hyperlink
• don’t forget to add at least one occurrence or your opportunity will not be made live.

I spent a very illuminating day with some of the EIS learning reps who came from all over Scotland to learn about our online CPD project, CPDScotland.

The 24 reps who attended over 2 sessions looked at, and discussed, the various aspects of the project, including the use of CPDFind and how Glow may become an invaluable tool for CPD.

In turn, I found out the variety of ways that EIS learning reps contribute to CPD in their local authorities. This varies from being an independent sounding board on CPD matters for their members, to the management and delivery of key aspects of CPD, including the role of professional recognition. I look forward to the day when EIS learning reps feature as providers of CPD in CPDFind.

It struck me that many of the EIS learning reps are well advanced in online CPD skills, given that some act as tutors for the Chartered Teacher programme in the University of Paisley, which is delivered online.

You can find out more about the work of the EIS learning reps on the EIS website.

The 1st part of the afternoon session of the meeting was given over to an update on CPDScotland,  the CPD team’s online CPD project.

Some of the key points to emerge:

• there are over 150 CPD providers on the CPDFind system and many such as The University of Glasgow, the Open University and LTScotland’s - Learning about Learning are committing heavily to populating the database with their CPD resources
• Finding CPDFind will be all the easier as almost all of the local authorities in Scotland have installed a magic button to CPDFind on their local sites (the CPD Superheroes as they are now to be known!)
• the CPD team are hoping to try out the CPDConfer tool from mid-Feb with a  occasional paper on coaching and mentoring.

We started the second part with a game of ‘PRD Fortunes’! “We asked 100 colleagues what they reflect on before their PRD interview…” etc. It was a bit of fun to start the vital discussion on CPDReflect. CPDReflect is the online self-evaluation tool and CPD portfolio currently under development.  CPDReflect, among other things, hopes to help bring the Professional Standards to life.

The 1st workshop was on the ‘who and how’ of exemplifying the Professional Standards. This generated a tremendous amount of discussion and you can see the complete summary of points made in this document.

Lastly, and all too briefly because of the worsening weather, we considered the ‘building blocks’ needed to make CPDReflect a success.