EdCamp Iowa

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend EdCamp Iowa in Storm Lake.  I am not sure what the total attendance was, but it was far fewer than it should have been.  If you have never been to an "unconference" then you should definitely attend one.  The premise is that the attendees choose the topics of the sessions. It is not a sit and "git" type conference but rather a full scale participation conference.  Session leaders are facilitators, not presenters, and attendees are participants rather than receivers of information.  The first session is all about setting up the schedule for the day. People volunteer to facilitate sessions based on topics they either feel learned in or that they want to pick the brains of others about.  The rest of the day is about choosing sessions, participating, sharing, and learning.  There is also a rule that if the session is not what you need, feel free to leave.

An idea that kept being mentioned was how wonderful it would be if professional development for teachers would be set up in this manner.  All too often, PD is a sit and "git" endeavor rather than a participatory activity.  My school district is currently looking at the possibility of maybe going 1:1 (is that non comital enough?). One of my caveats to a 1:1 is the need for PD that is beneficial to the staff on how to best use the technology that they will have access to.  Hosting our own "unconference" would be a great way to accomplish that. Teachers would work with each other in learning how to use technology. Those that are "experts" or more accomplished in one area could assist those who were less knowledgeable. All too often we fail to recognize the skill sets that are already available in our districts.  It used to be there was a need to bring in an expert who would dole out wisdom from on high. Of course all too often an expert was someone who traveled over 60 miles and had a PowerPoint. More recently we have begun to realize that we have staff with expertise in many areas and we need to draw upon that experience and allow them to help train our staff. The best part of this idea is that the expertise is readily available as it is most likely just down the hallway.

The idea of using this concept for PD is so encouraging to me, that I am actually going to suggest we do it at our next admin meeting. I will let you know how things go.