In class this week, we ran an EdCamp in class. Despite the name, it had nothing to do with camping at all. It was, however, a really interesting activity that I look forward to using in future classrooms.
EdCamps were created in response to professional development days wherein teachers had no agency to set the agenda or topics discussed. On a typical professional development day, educators will come together to hear an expert speak on something they are passionate about, and are ultimately expected to take that expert’s passion, and incorporate it in their teaching practice. While there are many teachers who can recall specific professional development days that benefitted them, there are also those who feel that these events are a waste of time, which in the world of teaching, is a precious commodity.
An EdCamp shares a similar goal to professional development conferences, namely that teachers would come away from the event enlightened and reinvigorated to incorporate the best new practices into their classrooms. The main difference between the two, however, is that in EdCamps the participants choose the topics of discussion.
The mini EdCamp we ran in class functions much like a regular one would among a group of educators. At the start of the event, everyone writes down a topic they find interesting and want to learn more about. The various topics are then posted on a wall (or on a Google doc in virtual environments). Participants are then able to look at the topics which have been posted, and vote for the ones that interest them the most. In order to vote, participants can simply place stickers on the topics. Whichever topics have the most votes in the end are chosen for group discussion. Facilitators of EdCamps maintain a certain degree of control because they can decide how many topics will be chosen. By choosing how many topics are chosen, facilitators can thereby orchestrate rough group sizes without assigning people to fixed topics.
Once the topics of inquiry have been chosen, participants break into groups to discuss their topic. One great feature about EdCamps is that participants are not required to remain in their topic for the entire session, they can simply get up and join another group if they desire a change of subject.
In our class this week, I simply wrote “Lava” on a piece of paper. My goal in doing so was to see the democratic nature of EdCamps at work. If other people were interested in discussing a topic as broad and random as lava, then we would do so. If no-one found this to be a topic worth discussing, then this topic would not be chosen and I would be free to join another topic I found interesting. To my surprise, people chose lava and I spent twenty-five minutes discussing lava with a small group of people. The subject of the conversation was not particularly important to me, but what I took away from this activity was that EdCamps are a tool which can literally be applied to any subject.
In light of my experience in class, I am looking forward to using this activity in future classrooms of students. I can see this being a useful tool to get kids re-engaged in class, because it allows them to set the agenda, and then requires them to facilitate their own learning as a group.
