About the Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List

Welcome to the Adult Literacy Professional Development (“PD”) Discussion List, a service of the National Institute for Literacy in partnership with the UT Center for Literacy Studies Program Management Special Collection and the Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers. This List is moderated by Jackie Taylor.

The PD List is an on-going professional development forum to:

• Build a network of professional developers
• Communicate fresh ideas and promising practices
• Provide professional development for professional developers based on needs or interests
• Contribute the voice of the field in shaping policy initiatives

It features information and discussion about planning and implementing professional development to address issues such as new teacher preparation, needs assessment and evaluation, using technology and distance learning, and designing professional development to support local, state and national initiatives and program improvement efforts. The PD List is open to everyone working or interested in adult literacy professional development.

Hot topics, key issues, resources, research, and professional wisdom shared on the PD List are often times archived in the Professional Development section of the ALE Wiki. These Web pages are collaboratively developed by some Professional Development List subscribers. Anybody can add materials to these pages; it is quick and easy to do. Thus, the PD List and the Professional Development section of the ALE Wiki go hand-in-hand: resources posted to the List help to grow the Wiki, and resources posted in the Wiki can serve as springboards for discussion on the Professional Development List. You do not have to contribute to the Wiki to subscribe to the List.

Community Activities

The “PD List” supports an (inter)national online community of practice in adult literacy professional development. Subscribers interact regularly in various ways to explore shared interests. We:

• Participate on the PD List in spontaneous and formal guest discussions
• Advance projects in smaller working groups through Google and Yahoo, wikis, and conference calling
• Meet in person at national conferences such as the AALPD PreConference at COABE and related conference sessions
• Build a collection of resources shared on the List in the Professional Development section of the ALE Wiki

You don’t have to be an expert to participate; just chime in! We are all learning from each other in order to advance our work and profession.

Working Groups

PD List subscribers recently formed two working groups and you are welcome to join them:

Adult Literacy Online Professional Development Work Group
This is a work group for professional developers. The work is to develop a design for online delivery of training for adult education teachers who want to learn to teach students online or in blended learning situations. Although members of this work group subscribe to the Professional Development Discussion List, the work of this group will take place within the Google forum, not on the discussion list. To join this group, email David J. Rosen at djrosen123@gmail.com   

Communities of Practice Portal Work Group
This is a work group for anyone who has (and/or wants to learn more about) using social networking tools for professional development. The purpose of this group is to develop a “portal” for the AALPD Web site that will link to tools for building Professional Development Communities of Practice. Although members of this work group subscribe to the Professional Development Discussion List, the work of this group will take place within the PBWiki forum, not on the discussion list. Visit the above link to learn more.

Conferences

The AALPD hosts annual PreConferences at COABE for professional developers. For more information, visit: www.aalpd.org .

To learn more about how the PD List is a Community of Practice and how you can use it for professional development, read the short article Tapping Online Professional Development Through Communities of Practice: Examples from the NIFL’s Discussion Lists:

Jackie Taylor can be reached at jackie@jataylor.net.

Last updated: Thursday, 01-Oct-2009 06:10:12 EDT