ABSTRACT

It is commonly accepted across the world today that education is one of the most important aspects of human life in the rapidly developing world of technology and information. The paper asserts that teaching and education relies greatly upon the quality of teachers entering primary and higher level education systems and then discusses how continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers is becoming obligatory in educational institutions. The most effective way of spreading and updating professional development for teachers can be done with the use of virtual learning environments. They provide ease of delivery, flexibility for usage of resources, technology to support collaborative work and emergence of learning/teaching communities that can further help each other in their common tasks. Technology use is a basic feature of online professional development, since it provides the technology of delivery as well as effective means of learning. Therefore, professional development has to consider the use of information and communication technologies as its main priorities when transforming teacher education into an effective process. Education also has to take into consideration the change in the forms of learning, turning away from more formalised school settings into various forms of informal modes of learning, thus the design of learning objects have to satisfy a more flexible use of materials within different contexts.