The great debate: Virtual versus face-to-face PLD
Channel: Hazel Owen
Date: 22/10/2013

This debate features two teams of educators. One team was tasked with arguing that the ONLY way to provide effective Profession Learning and Development (PLD) is face-to-face (includes enhancements such as smartboards, data projectors, clickers - but not any form of synchronous or asynchronous collaboration or discussion with anyone who is not in the room or school). The other team had to argue the stance that Your group is convinced that the ONLY way to provide effective PLD is 'virtually' (where PLD that is purely online and has no face-to-face i.e. physically in the same room sessions at all, but could use any synchronous or asynchronous forms of communication and collaboration they could think of e.g. virtual worlds / augmented reality, mobile devices, global 'games' etc). The ensuing debate was good-humoured and entertaining, and the discussion that followed thought-provoking.