Sunday, April 28, 2013

Edcamp Boston Enthusiasm

Edcamp Boston is right around the corner. I'm really looking forward to this event as it is a chance to connect with many dedicated educators I confer with online related to educational thought, exploration, and questions.  I'm also looking forward to meeting new invested educators and hearing about their ideas.

Dan Callahan, one of the edcamp founders and team members, wrote a post about edcamp philosophy and practice. The post was a great reminder of the people-centered, idea oriented nature of edcamps.  Edcamps serve as innovation incubators, connection centers, and support meetings. Educators gather with their questions, ideas, experience and effort to engage in dynamic conversation, grow their work and intersect ideas, strategies and processes.

I like to prep a bit before attending an edcamp because the experience is an event filled with multiple learning, sharing and discussion opportunities.

I want to start the day by just taking it all in. I want to look around and notice all the educators who are there, those I know and those who are new to me.  I want to listen carefully as the edcamp Boston team introduces the day.  Then I'll take a close look at all the offerings on the session board to see what sparks my interest and curiosity.  I'm fairly open minded at this point because we've got a lot of positive efforts in the works at my school right now. We've hurdled a number of obstacles and new learning endeavors in the past year, and although there are new challenges on the horizon, I'll be attending edcamp ready to listen, learn and share.

If the board's offerings don't spark me, I have a number of topics I'm curious about right now and may start a session on one of the following topics:
  • Tynker
  • STEAM
  • The New Science Standards
  • Socrative, Evernote
  • Animation Projects and Tools
  • Multimedia Literacy Studios
  • The intersection of music with multimedia composition and STEAM
Last year I really wanted to learn more about blended learning so I started a session.  I learned a lot and tried to follow up with a weekly chat, but that didn't work out mostly due to scheduling issues.  I also had the chance to work with a great young teacher in a session about overcoming obstacles related to new practice, and I spent a considerable amount of time chatting, thinking and writing about ed ideas.

Will you be at edcamp Boston or another edcamp soon?  If so, what do you hope to learn and how will you approach the event?  I hope to attend a number of edcamps this summer and next fall to continue the learning.  Thanks once again to the innovative edcamp founders and teams who started this invigorating, dynamic professional exchange.