Reaction to "How Teachers Can Share Their Own Learning"

 "How Teachers Can Share Their Own Learning"

This article authored by Edutopia blogger Bob Lenz focuses on the importance of professional development for educators. According to Lenz, however, it is not attending the professional development seminar that is beneficial to the teacher (and his or her students). Instead, for professional development to have any benefit or real purpose, an assessment of teacher learning needs to be conducted. Only if teachers are actually learning, evaluating themselves, and improving their teaching practices does professional development have any value.

I thought that the author's views in this blog post were valid and I could connect what he stated about professional development in education to continuing education requirements for health care providers. I am a teacher in a dental hygiene program at a community college and I have an active Registered Dental Hygienist license. I am required to complete at least 36 hours of CE every 3 years to keep my license active. In order to get my CE for several of the webinars or seminars that I attend there is a written test that you have to take to get your certificate. Since there is an assessment of learning this gives the learning experience more value in my opinion. I feel that after participating in a course of some sort I should be able to demonstrate what I learned.

References: 
Lenz, B. (2013, November 20). How Teachers Can Share Their Own Learning. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teachers-show-their-own-learning-bob-lenz.

Reaction to "7 Things you should know about... Lulu"

One of our assigned readings from this week was the Educause article "7 Things you should know about... Lulu." I was interested in reading this article because I had never heard of Lulu before and was curious about what kind of a program it was. I was surprised and excited to learn that Lulu can be used by people that want to publish original works. I have authored one article in my career as an educator, but I am interested in doing more writing at some point. I was delighted that it sounds like Lulu is an easy way to self-publish and even get an ISBN for original material. The article mentioned that there are several templates to use on Lulu and ways to personalize the product so that it is just how you want it.

I can see several applications for Lulu in my own personal and professional life. However, I feel that Lulu might also be a way for the college students that I teach to prepare professional works themselves. Lulu is definitely something I am interested in investigating further.  








References: Educause. (2008, January) 7 things you should know about Lulu. Retrieved from: https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7033.pdf