Online professional development opportunities are expanding exponentially. If you haven’t yet participated in any, check out our PD Events page. One form, webinars, are shorter sessions, like a face-to-face workshop, and usually free.
Webinar platforms include GotoWebinar, Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate and WizIQ, to name a few. English Central, Pearson, Oxford, American TESOL, IATEFL and many others have already hosted webinars for teachers. TESL Toronto is exploring the cost and interest in providing some PD through webinars. We encourage you to come out of your comfort zone (or, in fact, get more snuggly within it — webinars can be attended from your own home), attend a few and think about presenting yourself.
Nicky Hockly (Consultants-e) has written a book about webinars (via theround) and as a result of fielding advice for first-time presenters, a video produced by Vicki Howlett (EFL Classroom 2.0) gives these great tips from seasoned professionals (aside – I submitted my advice too late for the video, so I put it just below).