Hi,
Because moodle has the tools to support (not only education systems for learning and teaching) professional development for all.
Professional
development (Is there a need for it?)
Some logic:
Premise=Is it a must -do for anyone proclaiming to be an educator?
Proposition= Yes
Reason= -Why?
All professions (Education, Medicine, Business, Engineering and others) need their professionals (teachers/educators, nurses, accountants, engineers etc) to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job. Many fields require members to participate in *ongoing learning approved by the profession, sometimes as a requirement for keeping their jobs. Professionals often also voluntarily seek new learning. (Mizell, 2010).
* ongoing learning= this could mean via recognised pathways identified by the profession e.g. postgraduate study, professional body courses and so on (such as MAs and/or bespoke courses in moodle), and/or voluntarily seeking new learning-self directed activity involving new experiences, new knowledge and skills that can be 'applied' to inform, and therefore, enhance practice (MOOCs in moodle, for example).
Alternative
Proposition=No need for professional development
Reason=-Why not?
Comfortable
with knowledge that is in place, and so it can be applied as a solution as it worked
before.So, in the good old days, many
moons ago, I did this, it worked and it is what I know, why should I know anymore-I
know enough-no need to fix something that is not broken and so on-this can be in terms of old fashioned LMSs and old-style/ways of doing on an individual level.
New Premise based on the above =Yet, knowledge over time becomes obsolete.
Proposition= Is it not then, a necessity to be open to ongoing learning, whether self-directed or across approved professional courses?
Reason=-to ensure an informed voice in the very least?
Conclusion=
How? Well, a trigger for the need to learn new
stuff can often be in the guise of a gap in one's knowledge, and moodle as an LMS can be used to 'design' courses to support learning that adresses context-based, identified gaps .
cheers,
Dawn