«
»

EdCamps: Best. Professional. Development. Ever.

EdCampMSP

I made the 8 hour drive from Winnipeg to be part of this amazing event. Since the last camp this past June, many of us maintained contact on Twitter, so returning felt like coming home to dear friends. EdCamps differ from traditional professional development in that the agenda and the content is set by the participants who make invitations to a particular space to share with, learn from, or talk about topics of interest. People with particular learning needs are connected with those possessing those skills. Everyone in the room is both teacher and learner.

Technology Adds Value

The professional learning here is amazing, and the level of tech integration is exemplary. The QR code on the back of my name tag took me to the GoogleDoc with the day's agenda. The backchannel hashtag was busy throughout the day, and session participants collaborated on notes in a shared document. We connected via Twitter and Google+ to EdCamps taking place today in Kansas City, Baltimore, and Ottawa and had virtual hangouts with educators in Oregon, Ohio, and Brisbane.

Gaming in Education

Seann Dikkers (@sdikkers) joined us from Ohio University to discuss gaming in education. The complete 45 minute session is available on YouTube. We explored Minecraft as a shared learning space for modeling concrete situations, and also suggested that interactions within the virtual world can reflect even more complex social structures and allow for engagement with different political structures.
[embedplusvideo height="388" width="640" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/WHMHkBQ1CRo?fs=1" vars="ytid=WHMHkBQ1CRo&width=640&height=388&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep3684" /]

Connected Learning

Later several of us hung out with Amanda Rablin (@ackygirl) to talk about connected learning.
[embedplusvideo height="388" width="640" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/nbthctCC4Ys?fs=1" vars="ytid=nbthctCC4Ys&width=640&height=388&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep4881" /]

Flipping the Classroom

Carolyn Fruin (@cfruin) shared how sophia.org gives her a framework for content and student participation in a flipped classroom. She also shared her Moodle experiences.

Creating eBooks with Students

Andi Bodeau (@awbodeau) and Jen Legatt (@JenLegatt) responded to a participant's request to learn about digital publishing and eBooks for students. Over the course of the 45 minutes together, we looked at different apps for developing epub and pdf books and shared experiences.

EdCamp Professional Development

Engagement is an active thing: having a say in the agenda, participating on equal terms with others in the room, contributing while receiving. EdCamps are uniquely designed to optimize engagement; when everyone is engaged, amazing things happen. Look for an EdCamp near you - or, organize one!

Posted by milesmac on November 12th, 2012 Posted in Pedagogy Tagged as: ,,,,,,,,,,,

1 Comment

  1. #Edcamp Chile: #EdcampSantiago queda solo 10 cupos disponible | Edcamp Santiago says:
    January 16, 2013 at 9:42 PM

    [...] @milesmac: EdCamps: Best. Professional. Development. Ever. milestomes.com/?p=1269 #teaching #learning [...]

    Reply

What do you think? Share you thoughts below...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: