BloomBoard

Bloomboard tries to attract users to it by describing the program as free. But that's not the entire story. Portions of Bloomboard are free while others are fee-based. The free option allows teachers to set goals, administrators to manage observations, and access to some professional development opportunities. To get the full benefit of the program, however, a school would need to buy into the program ($30 and up per teacher) to access premium content, more tools, and online storage at Bloomboard. In my view such fees are modest when compared to the benefit derived from personalized PD versus the mass extinction events of one-size-fits-all PD.

The goal of Bloomboard, individualized professional development for teachers, is a worthy one and the company is well on their way towards doing that. The social aspect of Bloomboard in which educators can connect with one another to share success stories and provide feedback about professional development modules holds great promise.

My personal opinion is that many school districts are not very good at performing formative and summative evaluation of teachers, nor are professional development programs well-conceived or executed. Bloomboard could help that process and school administrators and teachers should jointly investigate it as a possible addition to their PD practices.