Education Speakers and Professional Development

One of my favorite education blogs is Dangerously Irrelevant by Scott McLeod.  He is a professor of Education Leadership at Iowa State University and just all around great questioner of the way we do things in education.  Please read the posts Beware Outside Consultants part I, II, and III.

I am not aware of the first person but have attended workshops by Ruby Payne and the DuFours and share many similar concerns with education speakers.  Ideas are oversimplified for audiences and made to seem easy.  We are always searching for silver bullets and wanting quick fixes to our problems.  And last but not least, it is rare for education professional development to use quality instructional techniques in these type sessions.  In these tight budgetary times, I hope systems spend less on outside speakers and consultants.  Thanks to Scott for starting to question these people "on the circuit".