Organisation Innovation, 'Info Flow' & the Professional Development Process

Innovation in the the Professional Development Process
The diagram demonstrates how the Professional Development Process works within an innovative learning organisation through the following key stages:

• Management identifies a need for skilling & training
• Learning Outcomes identified, recorded 
• Mentors are targeted to share skills & knowledge, and offer support to peers
• Workshops set up for training of updated, relevant, contemporary tools & methods
• Networks established for ongoing participation, support, publishing & sharing information
• Sustainability - follow up of training, network tracking
• Self actualisation achieved for teachers to implement new skills & methods

Learning Outcomes Professional Development WorkshopsFrom a Professional Development workshop the teacher will gain skilling on the below easy to use/easy to access Web2.0 tools that will facilitate personal learning and development, in addition providing the teacher greater options to now network with peers and like minded colleagues to become a part of a larger organisational network where the teacher will achieve the following:

Ability to........

• Manage email - e.g. using http://gmail.com and Outlook
• Publish & share photos, create networks - e.g. http://flickr.com
• Create, Publish & share Video & Audio - eg: http://blip.tv , http://odeo.com
• Bookmark professional & research websites, create networks - e.g. http://del.icio.us
• Subscribe to RSS Feeds using a 'newsreader' - e.g. http://bloglines.com
• Understand TAGS and RSS
• Network & gain email contacts of colleagues from the Professional Development workshop
• Post BLOGS with a blogging tool - e.g. http://blogger.com
• Use a 'wiki' to co-author and edit content - e.g. http://wikispaces.com
• Instant message - e.g. http://skype.com

The Workshop Trainer assists the teacher to create their own professional learning & teaching space which will be the central location for their body of work, and to pull together content from multiple sources with these new tools.
This captures to create a network of material from a pool of teachers/peers/references and more importantly the individual teachers contributions e.g. Published teaching resource material, Video's, Podcast's, Photo's, websites, del.icio.us, Blog posts etc...
Then end product may be an individual or group 'wiki', 'startpage' or Blog. This can then feed into the organisation's network that the teacher joins/creates/is a part of.

Group effort and understanding of carrying on the Network
To create an effective easy to access network, the teachers discuss common key words to 'TAG' materials/entries that will be published to the network eg: class , trade, 'subject area' network name ...

'Info Flow', Ongoing Participation, Networks & Sustainability
It's the ongoing participation by teachers in a learning network after the Professional Development workshop that's important to keep the info flowing, maintain sustainability, and realise benefits from the new skilling. There are some basic actions that require little effort but must be continually employed by the teacher in order to begin publishing and participating equitalby with a network. The trick is to make a habit of them in work and life by incorporating into one's daily workpractice routine. Learning the fundamentals of a new way of working in the networked world requires practice and changing habit...I'll soon put up a blog post with some suggestions in how to achieve this, with what you can do when you sit down at your desk and want to get started...
Management support
Networked learning within an organisation is easier with across the board support of managment, to support the implementation of an individuals Professional Development plans and legitimise professional Networking as a valued part of day-to day practice through mentor networks.