Today in our EdTech class, one of the things we looked at was Edcamps. I wasn’t aware of these until today but the basic idea behind them is similar to a conference but with a twist. Rather than there being topics that are decided in advance and instead of attending talks by speakers who have Power Point Presentations and speeches all neatly prepared, the idea is that the participants all write down topics they would like to discuss. These are then displayed for everyone to see and participants then votes for the ones they think are the most useful or the ones they would like to talk about the most. The ones with the most votes are then used as discussion topics and attendees go to the one or ones that they’d like to take part in. In addition, everyone is encouraged to slip in and out of different discussions as they see fit (called the ‘rule of two feet’ because you can walk two feet in any direction and join another discussion), with no pressure to stay in any one group.

Personally, I find this to be a great way of setting up a conference as it allows the attendees to really go deep on topics that they would most like to hear others’ opinions on. Our instructor mentioned how these are often referred to as ‘unconferences’ and I can see what is meant by that. In a way, they are the antithesis to the traditional type of conference as it puts the focus on the attendees needs rather than the attendee trying to somewhat superficially find the one that may or may not be directly applicable to them.

After learning about what they were, we were prompted to write down our own topics and put them up on a small whiteboard for everyone to see. Here’s what we all came up with as a class:

The initial topics as written by the students of EDCI 336 for our Edcamp simulation

As can be seen, we collectively came up with some pretty interesting topics. Next, we were given three little sticker dots each and were told to put the dots on the one(s) we found the most interesting. After that was finished, the three topics with the most votes were selected as the three topics that would be used for our ‘conferences’. Those can be seen in the top row of the image above but I’ll write them here anyway. They were: the importance of nature-based learning, the importance of social-emotional learning, and should students be able to opt out of certain “core” subjects. The latter topic was actually the one I had written down and I was pleasantly surprised to see that so many people thought it a worthy topic of discussion.

We then separated out into three different groups and began discussing them. Naturally, the larger topics then led into other sub-topics that were adjacent to the main one. I started out by taking part in the “core” subject discussion and then moved over to the nature-based learning one, where well over half of the class had congregated. Apparently, the social-emotional learning discussion group had dissolved so I never got a chance to take part in that one.

Overall, I found this to be a good exercise and it’s definitely one that I can see being useful in a classroom. So often, young learners aren’t interested in the topics being taught and so this gives them the opportunity to have a say in what they discuss. This also ties in quite well to one of the main themes we’ve been discussing throughout the whole Teacher Ed course, which is to make classes more student-centric, and to incorporate more inquiry-based learning practices into the classroom. This seems like an effective and even fun way to get students involved in the class, particularly students who are often on the fringes and tend not to participate or speak up.

I do see some potential downsides to using it in a classroom though. Because we are all adults, getting it organized was fairly quick and easy; set-up from start to finish took fewer than ten minutes. I suspect that a group of teenagers might not be as efficient. Furthermore, we all put down interesting, thoughtful topics and took the activity seriously. I can already see how teenagers might try and put “funny” or inappropriate topics on there instead, which would slow down or possibly even derail the whole lesson.

Still, if managed correctly, and if expectations are made clear, I could see this being quite effective. If given the opportunity to do this in a grade 11 or 12 class, I think I would be able to do it effectively as long as I’m prepared to pivot or adjust on the fly. I think I would probably opt not to do it with a group of younger students, however, as they may not be able to focus well, as mentioned above.

Click here to take a look at the website for more information about Edcamps. I also put a YouTube video below so that anyone who is interested can see a little more about what Edcamps are all about.