Today we participated in EDCamps. Students in our class presented ideas for potential EDCamp topics and we broke up into groups to have valuable and engaging discussions about various topics. For example, one group talked about implementing student presentations in classrooms and using them for formative assessments. This included discussions about the purpose of presentations in the classroom and the different mediums that can be used for student presentations. Other groups discussed topics such as how to implement outdoor education into classrooms.

The idea of EDCamps was interesting to me because I had never heard of these before so I decided to look into them some more to learn a little bit more about them. I learned that they are open access events, often called unconferences. They are participant-driven, and little to no planning is required for them because topics are chosen on the day of the unconference based on common themes or topics that attendees would like to explore. It encourages discussions between fellow educators which can be very important because our colleagues in education often are able to share their experiences in order to provide new strategies and valuable information that other teachers can find to be extremely valuable.

Photo from Edutopia

I also learned from the EDCamp website that up to 70% of EDCamp attendees report learning at least 4 or more ideas that they can implement into their classrooms, and nearly 97% of attendees say that they developed beneficial contacts with other professionals in the field. I thought this spoke to the usefulness of this type of discussion format.

Overall, I think EDCamps are a really interesting, cost-effective, and easy way for teachers and educators to be able to support their professional development and I hope to be able to engage in more EDCamps in the future!