Many English language teachers worldwide have upcoming holidays or a summer/winter break. These breaks provide educators the opportunities to engage in fantastic online professional development that is inspiring and motivating! Tweet with some of your favorite ELT authors, attend a webinar with teachers worldwide, or read some great English language teaching blogs. Social media provides us with incredible opportunities to choose the way we want to develop professionally. You can choose the topic, the medium, and who you want to learn from. You can choose the way you like to learn, because social media provides us with several multimedia experiences, such as webinars, LMS, live video, and more. The experience is usually dynamic and motivating because you are learning with others around the world! Additionally, you will be developing your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN).

Don't know where to start, well here are a few ideas:

Free Programs

The 30 Goals Challenge - Over 5000 educators have participated in the 1st and 2nd editions of this global challenge for educators with the premise of getting you to complete 30 professional development goals by 2012. These are short-term goals, such as guest posting, changing your classroom environment, providing effective feedback, establishing an online presence, and more.

Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL) - provides free online workshops on Moodle for Teachers (Orientation, Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced), Professional Electronic Portfolios (PEP), WebQuests, Facilitating Online Classes, Grant Writings, TESOL, Integrating Technology and using Web 2.0 in the classroom.

Real-Time Events

You can attend several free conferences, webinars, Twitter chats, and presentations online with your PLN! These usually last one hour, but many conferences also offer free all day live streaming of their keynotes.

The Educators’ PLN Ning Live Chats with Guest Experts - The Educator’s PLN is a great place to interact and learn from other educators. Join us for free live chats with various authors. In the past we featured Alfie Kohn, Howard Rheingold, Diane Ravitch, Chris Lehmann, Steve Hargadon, Jim Burke, and others.

Future of Education - Join Steve Hargadon live as he interviews some of the greatest minds in education. Past guests included Sir Ken Robinson, Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch, and more!

Classroom 2.0 Live Events - Every week, attend a free webinar with an expert in a field or listen to some great authors speak live and ask them questions.

Attend Second Life Live Events - Second Life has several educational groups that meet weekly for free conferences, talks, workshops, and more. Download the software and register for free.

#ELTchat - Join several language teachers every Wednesday to discuss various topics you get to vote for and suggest.

Education Chats on Twitter - Find out the dates and times of educational conversations that occur on Twitter.

What are your favorite ways to learn online? Did I miss any other great professional development opportunities?