122 Int. J. Innovation in Education, Vol. 3, Nos. 2/3, 2016 Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The design and development of an online tool to strategically support knowledge acquisition for improved educator practice Matthew A. Easter* Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, 16 Hill Hall, Columbia, MO 65601, USA Email: easterma@missouri.edu *Corresponding author Ioan Gelu Ionas Walden University, Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA Email: ioan.ionas@waldenu.edu Abstract: With recent push for teacher accountability in education systems, there has been a clear need to develop effective professional development tools to assist teachers in meeting these standards. Here, we discuss the design and development of a technological tool called EdHub, which seeks to create a strategic knowledge sharing community in order to effectively promote growth and improvement in teachers’ pedagogical skills. EdHub helps users with identified practice needs connect with others of similar needs, access materials to support knowledge acquisition, get feedback from supervisors on self- reflection efforts, and ultimately contribute strategies to curated repositories of resources. This was done utilising a closed, nested social network with affordances for communication with experts, supervisors, and other learners seeking similar knowledge to improve practice. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical background, design principles, technologies utilised, developed tools, and considerations for similar design and development efforts. Keywords: community of practice; educator accountability; social networking; strategic knowledge sharing community; technology design and development. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Easter, M.A. and Ionas, I.G. (2016) ‘The design and development of an online tool to strategically support knowledge acquisition for improved educator practice’, Int. J. Innovation in Education, Vol. 3, Nos. 2/3, pp.122–135. Biographical notes: Dr. Matthew Easter is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri in the Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Department. Dr. Easter teaches courses in statistics, human development, and motivation. His research interests include motivation, conceptual change, and applications of technology to improve learning outcomes. He has worked on projects to design technologies for the US Department of Labor, US Department of Energy, US Navy, and several private companies.