The changing landscape of CPD for teachers

This paper explores a different approach to CPD for teachers. Vital is a £5.6million DCSF funded programme, being developed and delivered by The Open University and e-skills UK. Vital is aimed at staff in schools across England, and provides courses, more informal CPD activities and peer-peer interaction. It is open to other providers, including those in ITE who are able to host or signpost their own courses, resources and activities. At a time of changing work practices teachers face reduced opportunities to attend traditional CPD courses yet employees are required to be more competent and creative in their uses of IT, and IT in society becomes more complex and varied. Vital aims to reshape the organisational landscape of CPD by creating new ways of communicating, sharing and developing CPD collaboratively by providing a national community supported by the Open University’s technical and learning infrastructures. Traditionally CPD has mainly focused on face to face interaction, courses written by external ‘experts’ or shared only within local communities. The philosophy underpinning Vital is that of collaboration, with teacher as both owner and consumer of knowledge. Collaboration is both between individual participants (i.e. teachers) and between CPD providers. Using the participant researcher model, teachers are encouraged to share expertise through online forums and the creation of wiki spaces. Vital aims to meet the needs of learners through encouraging them to take control of the direction and choice of courses. It aims to respond to employers needs by transforming the uses of ICT in schools and it creates a more open approach to learning in the face of possible charges for web searching