As Director of Education, of one of the ten largest Catholic School Boards in Ontario, I was concerned that our professional development activities were not focused as directly on teacher development and student performance as they ought to have been. I was cognizant of the fact that my program consultants and curriculum coordinators we sometimes inclined to climb on the bandwagon and run with the popular themes of the day. Their workshops, seminars and presentations were always delivered in a professional manner, but were not necessarily tied into our strategic plan for staff development.

I discussed this matter with my superintendents, who in turn met with our consultants and coordinators. It was a worthwhile process that resulted in the creation of an annual program of staff development that has some sequence to it, and reflected much more accurately the objectives we had identified in our strategic plan.

We gave some thought to setting out this program of activities in a colourful booklet and mailing a copy to each employee. We elected not to do that for two reasons. First of all, we knew that within a week or two most employees would have lost or misplaced the booklet. Secondly, there would be some criticism of the costs involved.

In the final analysis we decided to do what needed to be done online. Our information technology department examined a number of software packages that would meet our needs. They recommended that we go with PD Place™. I was quite amazed by the product. I started out looking for something simple that staff could login to at anytime to check what was happening. I ended up with a total professional development system that handles all of the logistics related to the delivery of programs. It does just about everything with one click that previously tied up both clerical and development staff for days. This is our seventh year using PD Place™. One of the most surprising results and certainly one we had not anticipated at the outset is the fact that our annual savings related to printing and human resource time are quite significant.