This page lists a variety of professional development opportunities and application/training materials.
If you have suggestions for additional resources, please contact Lea Ann Peschong.
Iowa Area Education Agencies: Professional development sites.
The Iowa AEAs each provide a variety of professional development opportunities. Check these links to find PD that interests you.
Central Rivers AEA Professional Development
Keystone AEA Professional Development
Grant Wood AEA Professional Development
Mississippi Bend AEA Professional Development
Heartland AEA Professional Development
Prairie Lakes AEA Professional Development
Northwest AEA Professional Development
Green Hills AEA Professional Development
Great Prairie AEA Professional Development
Iowa online professional development opportunities
AEA Professional Development Online
AEA PD Online and PBS TeacherLine Online Course Partnership
For registration information:
- Click the “Click Here to view AEA PD Online Catalog” link,
- Click on the blue, “Looking for more online courses?” link.
Webinars, tutorials and resources
- AbleNet University: Live and archived webinars on a variety of topics. Some are product oriented some are not.
Accessible Technology Coalition
- Live and archived webinars from a variety of sources, on a variety of topics. Most appear to be free.
- Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, and more. (Videos, Tutorials and Manuals)
ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association)
- Live and archived webinars on a variety of AT topics. CEUs available for all webinars. $39.00 for 1 hour $49.00 for 1.5 hour webinar (cost decreases as number of webinars purchased increases)
- High quality video tutorials on hundreds of software products, both mainstream and assistive technology. Free for Iowa educators and students. Contact your building media specialist for log-in information.
- Webinars, tutorials and training videos pertinent to accessing and using Bookshare’s collection of accessible instructional materials
CALLScotland: CALL (Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning) (“a small unit within the Moray House School of Education, The University of Edinburgh”, Scotland)
- Webinars (live and archived) around assistive technology and access (They are 6 hours ahead of us. Their 4:00 PM webinar starts at 10:00 AM here.)
- They are also the creators of the free WordTalk plugin for the Windows version of MS Word, providing TTS and a few other tools.
- Co:Writer, Read:Outloud, Snap&Read, Draft:Builder, First Author, DAISYtoEPUB, Improv, Start-to-Finish Online, & Write:Outloud (“Show-Me-How Tutorials”)
- Short and easy tutorials on specific skills in Google Drive, Spreadsheet and Gmail. Calendars & Docs “coming soon”. Sign up for daily tips.
Classes, workshops and conferences (face to face)
Most of these are annual events. The link will take you to the event website. Typically, the events are held around the same time each year. There may well be information for next year’s event.
ATIA – (Assistive Technology Industry Association) – Conference
- Sponsor: ATIA
CSUN – (International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference)
- Sponsor: California State University, CSUN
IPTA – (Iowa Physical Therapy Association)
- Sponsor: IPTA
Iowa 1:1 Institute – Conference
- Sponsors: “…collaboratively sponsored by school districts in and around Iowa with 1:1 computing programs.”
Building Bridges: Eastern Iowa Assistive Technology Conference
- Sponsors: Grant Wood AEA & U of Iowa
NETA – (Nebraska Educational Technology Association) – Conference
- Sponsor: Nebraska Educational Technology Association
ATSI – (Assistive Technology Summer Institute) – Class / Workshop
- Sponsor: U of Iowa
NEXT Conference & Exposition – Conference
- Sponsor: American Physical Therapy Association
TIC – (Technology Integration Conference)
- Sponsor: Keystone AEA
ISTE – (International Society for Technology in Education) – Conference
- Sponsor: ISTE
iPadU – Conference
- Sponsor: Grant Wood AEA
- Sponsor: EdEvents
21st Century Learners Conference
- Sponsor: Green Hills AEA
Technology Conference for Special Education
- Sponsor: EdEvents
Closing The Gap – Conference
- Sponsor: Closing the Gap
- Sponsor: AEP Connections, LLC (see the web site for additional conferences on other topics)
ASHA – (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) – Conference
- Sponsor: ASHA