The concept of EdCamps was introduced this week in class. The basic premise is that a group of professionals (i.e. teachers at a school) group together and list topics they would be interested in discussing. These topics are then narrowed down and voted upon until a smaller number remain. The professionals then break off into groups and are free to join whichever topic they personally would like to discuss or learn more about. It reminds me of a small teachers conference or professional development seminar put on by your peers.

I found the experience very stress free as it was an open space for sharing and discussing without a management figure telling where to go and what to discuss. This also had the adverse affect of not having a expert in the room so we had to rely on each others knowledge. When we tried this activity in class we chose four different topics that related to school and education and then dispersed into our different virtual rooms to discuss each topic. The topic I chose was mental wellbeing and effects of online schooling. While this is a common theme that we were eager to discuss and find more about, the lack of a professional or time to research beforehand led us down the path of just sharing our experiences which were often negative. We found it easy to isolate what was not working, like online classes being compounded with online homework effecting our mental rhythms making us feel sluggish and not wanting to sit down infront of a blue screen but wanting hardcopy homework to change our environment. Finding helpful solutions was a bit harder. Still naming these problems and having a space to see others were in the same boat as you was comforting.

I could use this Edcamp approach in my future classrooms to encourage classroom discussions about different topics such as what are some things you learned from this piece of music we played? Breaking into different groups to discuss different facets of the lesson could be beneficial (i.e cultural context, rhythm, harmony). Where I see discussion model  being most effective is in a school professional development day. Teachers coming together to discuss problems and find solutions that they have found.