PD | ISTE 2014 Coverage

KDS Unveils Cloud Teacher Professional Development Platform

• By Leila Meyer
• 07/02/14

Knowledge Delivery Systems (KDS), a provider of professional development for K-12, has debuted its new Professional Learning Platform at the ISTE 2014 conference in Atlanta, GA.

The cloud-based platform lets teachers access on-demand resources, interact with other educators through social collaboration tools and access online professional development courses. According to the company, PLP combines formal learning with informal, self-directed and collaborative learning, and it aims to help educators connect with each other, encourage each other and transform their teaching practice. KDS plans to use the platform for all of its future strategic professional development solutions.

Key features of the KDS Professional Learning Platform include:

• Library of more than 600 curated videos and other professional development resources about effective teaching practices and subject matter;
• Integrated access to third-party content providers and district-sourced content;
• Sharable, user-generated content for knowledge sharing;
• Synchronous tools for groups and virtual communities of practice to connect, share, communicate and collaborate with other educators;
• Web-based meetings through high-definition video conferencing, screen sharing and instant messaging
• More than 225 compliance courses;
• Online and onsite coaching tools, including scheduling and tracking;
• Reporting and analytics, including key performance indicators with drill-down capabilities to demonstrate compliance, history towards completion, content usage and overall professional development performance; and
• Support for mobile devices.

The School District of Philadelphia and several districts in New Mexico are already planning to implement the KDS PLP.

Further information about the KDS Professional Learning Platform can be found on the company's site.