I was fortunate to participate in a Google hangout with such inspiring educators from the West Coast last evening about the topic of bringing the edcamp model into the classroom. This
professional development model is increasingly popular with educators as a contrasting option to conference style presentations for growth. Participants in the GHO included
+Jeremy Inscho +Victoria Woelders +Karl Lindgren-Streicher +Jann Kwasnicki and myself. What struck me was that it seemed that not only was it a good idea to incorporate elements of edcamp into the classroom, many of the instructional strategies we use have elements of this model already.
Literature Circles
This strategy was mentioned by Jeremy and I want to learn more about this! I think that it has applications in any content area, including the Earth Sciences that I teach. I loved the self paced mechanism that he described, with conversations developing in an organic way. I think that the discussions centered around the texts would make a great topic overview for a student centered edacmp experience.
App Smackdown
Victoria had this brainstorm and it thought it was awesome! Her point, being an primary grades teacher, that students would need to complete inquiry prior to the edcamp experience is well taken. Another fascinating point she made was the idea that it needs to be exciting, with an apps sessions students would immediately be hooked and interested.
Socratic Seminar
I mentioned this technique and immediately realized I was in over my head! Karl explained that he uses this strategy frequently including as a summative assessment at the end of the year- wow! His passion and enthusiasm for removing himself from the center of the conversation and letting his students express themselves re-ignited my desire to more fully utilize this technique with my students.
Professional Development
Jann started our conversation telling us that she has brought her son along to an edcamp, and he was kind enough to share his insight! His thoughts on roadblocks to the process were fascinating, and definitely not what I expected. Apparently, students may not feel empowered to
"vote with their feet" (an edcamp credo), so we discussed how modeling the process and practicing would be necessary. Towards the end of our conversation, Jann mentioned that it would be helpful to create a group of educators who could help schools and districts implement this professional development model within their scheduled days as there was various implementations we discussed. I liked this idea a lot and think there is definitely a need for it.
Moving forward
The best part of this conversation is how it is driving me forward at a blistering pace! I'm thrilled that our students will be able later this month to participate in the
ObaWorld MinecraftEDU integration beta test. After a period of implementation, an edcamp style sharing out session would fit perfectly into our program, we may even be able to tie in a blended portion. I'm so grateful to have meet these superlative educators who I hope to now call friends, this is just the beginning of allowing students to further take control of their learning.
