In our Friday class I got to help design and participate in my first EdCamp experience. We learned that an EdCamp is a type of user-generated conference where the participants collaborate to determine topics of interest that they wish to explore. For our class, we each had the opportunity to think of a topic that we were curious about, from the class list of ideas we were all able to vote and narrow down the topics for our EdCamp (see image below). My topic, “the importance of nature-based learning”, actually ended up getting several votes so it was one of conversations that took place during our class. The other topics that were discussed included “the importance of social-emotional learning” and “should students be able to opt out of certain core subjects”.
I really enjoyed this exercise and found it to be a super effective method to creating meaningful conversations with my peers. I think that in a lot of group settings there is often a pressure to participate that detracts from the experience. With the EdCamp model we were encouraged to share, listen and float between conversations with very little structure or guidance for the discussion. This approach affords participants the flexibility to seek out conversations that are meaningful to them, and gives them the ability to discuss the topics in whatever way they feel benefits their learning and understanding.
I think this exercise would be incredibly useful within schools to promote collaboration between teachers from all subjects/backgrounds. As well, it could also be an interesting activity to try with students. Within my teachable, it could be a fantastic way to get students to express their interests , explore and discuss content relating to community and personal health, mental well-being and physical literacy.
