EdCamp Boston: Using the Unconference Model for Professional Development

EdCamp Boston, held at Microsoft's offices in Cambridge this past Saturday was, as expected, just great. I seemed to be following a "professional development" track through the schedule (Google Doc).

"Sharing strategies to get kids GLOBALLY connected" focused on a process to slowly introduce students to understanding other cultures via engagement from clicking on videos, to actual conversations to impacting the world. If anything, the leader talked too much about her work before letting attendees team up and brainstorm ideas to engage students. To my dismay, her introduction included no maps at all! My groupmates immediately told me of the great National Geographic maps but didn't seem familiar with any other resources they might explore. On the other hand, they were quick to whip out iPad apps including one called simply "cultures." I'm wondering if some content, if not in an app, will be invisible in some teaching environments.

"Getting Faulty to Innovate (How do we reach every teacher?)" was about the successes of professional development for reluctant technology adopters. One school awarded "cash" in the form of wooden chips for innovation that could be used for tech (iPad mini's are the hotness just now). Another used 21 minute mini-classes, before school, after school and online to teach new technology. There was a lot of interest in this topic; some 40 people squeezed into the 25 person room.

"What's working for Professional Development" was a sort of continuation of the previous session, but the topic with the most questions was implementing an in-school EdCamp for professional development. Stories were told of two hour and full day offerings. Some hosts primed the pump by listing topics ahead of time and finding session leaders, while others trusted the traditional process (organizing the sessions and leaders on the fly at the beginning of the event). Some invited administrators for the first iteration, other suggested waiting until the attendees (not just teachers, but support staff, bus drivers and others in some schools!) were more experienced with the model. No matter how these EdCamps started, the feedback was the same. The attendees loved it and got more out of it than "traditional" professional development (what some educators called "sit and get" or "death by PowerPoint").

Since I'm attending Esri's EdUC and its part-day un-conference planned for Sunday, I asked about the challenges of that event:

• the size (1000-ish)
• the mix (administrators, educators, students, facilities people)

The responses from those in the group were unanimous:

• Big group? Get a bigger grid for the schedule!
• Split up attendees by title? No way - the mix is key!

"Edcamp in the Classroom" refers to using the unconference model within a class period, in this case, for English literature. Students pick the topics, lead and manage the discussions (they are required to lead so many as part of course requirements) and this is the best part: they get to use these discussion to develop their paper topics!

The leaders of the session I attended included both the educator and one of her students who participated in what they call "Ed Cafes". I love the idea and the implementation in English class seemed to make sense. I discussed how to implement EdCafes with a Spanish teacher and a tech teacher; we didn't see a simple way to use the technique. Still, we were intrigued.

"Defining the vision of what students today should know" was a bit of selfish exercise by the leader. She was looking for a simple form to basically "market" a vision of education within her school and administration. She started with this vision (complex, but most of us like what we saw, a vision of problem based learning or perhaps the scientific method) and asked us to simplify it. It was a challenge - my group came up with the tic/tac/toe board answer which I explain as:

• find a problem that worries/bothers you
• take action and investigate it
• show and tell a solution (to make change)

We wrapped up with a Smackdown (where attendees show off cool tools). I confess none of them were important enough to me to write down for later exploration (but here's a list). But, those around me were writing furiously and asking for the names over and over.

All that said, I did win a door prize: a 1 year GlogsterEDU License. Since I don't have a class just now, I'm happy to share it with any educator who can use it. Just shoot me an e-mail!

My First Edu UnConference

I attended EdCamp BLC this past Monday at the Park Plaza Boston. It was set up to precede the official Building Learning Communities event starting later in the week. I think about 89 registrants were noted, but about 60 people seemed to be around most of the day.

We got to know one another by playing "musical chairs." We circulated around the large round tables until the music stopped, then we sat (or stood) at the closest table and introduced ourselves. After a few rounds you got a feel for who was there, even if you didn't actually meet everyone. I seemed to be the only geographer and the only college educator in attendance.

An unconference is organized by the attendees pretty much when they appear at the venue. Those who had topics they wanted to explore wrote titles and their Twitter handles on large sticky notes and stuck them to the wall in the main session room to form an agenda. You can see the empty grid here. We had one big room and two smaller rooms to use for the day. After about 15 minutes the grid was full of about 16 sessions (some rooms included two sessions at a time). We basically had two blocks of sessions in the morning and two blocks after lunch. At 10 am we promptly headed off to our first session.

The title "You have 60 minutes to change the world, go!" intrigued me, so I went into that room. The idea was that in 60 minutes we'd come up with a measurable way to change the world. We broke into groups to brainstorm. During that time I learned that some attendees had not heard of Khan Academy and others hadn't heard of Cain's Arcade. It was a good reminder that plenty of people who are passionate about education have their hands full in their local pursuits. We all came around to the idea of addressing not a first world problem, but a second or third world one. Then one participant remembered that new sign-ups to microlending website Kiva got $25 "free" to donate to any project that they wanted. What if we could capture energy to use as much of that "free" money, along with donations, to do some good?

We honed in on projects that were nearly fully funded that addressed kids and education. After a few more moments we had a name, Flashloan, got the URL Flashloan.org, set up a webpage and put our first project over the top! (The projects are real, but are basically already funded; we are essentially funding the next set. Still, this gave us a measure of our success.) Neighboring rooms wondered why they heard cheers from our room. We started tweeting about the effort and by noon Flashloan was trending on Twitter in Boston. Pretty cool. 

I confess to being a skeptic when the whole "do something in 60 minutes" idea came up. What got me involved was the belief of my fellow participants that this was possible. Moreover, if it took a little longer than an hour, so what? I'm proud to have contributed to Flashloan. I'm still sorting out how the exercise might transfer into the classroom. My biggest takeaway, I think, was the benefit (learning) I got by dropping my cynicism at the door and diving in. Educators need to remove cynicism daily!

The next session I attended was on digital workflows, that is, how you manage your digital assets, e-mails, tweets, bookmarks, pictures, etc. The biggest challenges for educators seemed to be around images. School libraries would love to host school pictures in the cloud, but privacy issues make that impossible. No one had found a good tool to tag images with ease, either. We had a number of librarians at the conference, which was just great! Among the tools cited in the session were If This Then That and Evernote.

After lunch I attended a session on "Bring your own tool," the idea that schools not assign devices to students, but rather have them use what they already own - iPad, phone, etc. The big takeaway here was about trust.

1) Schools and educators need to trust students to use the devices responsibly.
2) Schools and educators need to trust that they can manage the technology even if they are not experts in all the different devices and software packages.

A culture that prohibits (or even limits) the devices you use the rest of the day from their use in school really makes no sense. It also makes no sense in the workplace. (See Stopblocking.org) I always felt that way about software - that students should not use special edu software, but the real thing. I never made the link over to to hardware. Now I get it.

The final session I attended was on digital storytelling. We talked about storytelling tools and the lack of tools for storyboarding. There are plenty of tools for making the videos and such, but few to help craft the story. After a while we were asked to break into groups and make a video based on our own six word stories about what we'd learned at the event.

My group chose this story: "Must get iPad, Go Shopping Now." The author fleshed out the story by explaining that she'd  sat feverishly trying to use an old slow Android tablet while watching all the iPads in use around her. We used Videolicous for our two minute story - a mix of stills and video. It was truly fun and the leader of our session even played it at the closing session!

I found myself keeping my laptop closed much of the day. I learn better, especially in these interactive, engaging and high volume electronic communications type sessions (lots of tweets, URLs, Google docs, etc.), by paying attention to the conversation. I operate very differently when I'm in a lecture/PowerPoint presentation. My laptop will likely be open and I'll be multi-tasking. I do that at the Esri User Conference. I didn't do that at EdCamp. This observation brings me back to the idea of bring your own tool. While others brought a mobile device, paper and pencil, or whatever, I brought my brain.

We wrapped up with Smackdown, two minute "ads" by attendees for (mostly free) tech or ideas that folks wanted to share. The resources suggested are detailed here courtesy of Innovative Educator. I had a great day and was most pleased to have dropped my cynicism in the first session. Otherwise, I'd have missed out on quite a lot.

Why are our Conferences Structured just like the Educational System We Want to Change?

I’ve attended probably a dozen geospatially focused conferences in the last six or eight months. I spent probably 70% of my time at these events listening to people talk while they flipped through PowerPoint slides. The presenters mean well. They put together their slide decks and for the most part speak to the topics they promised to address. But, they rarely asked the audience a question beyond “Can you hear me ok?” Further, they rarely looked up at the assembled audience at all. I wonder what their goal was in presenting the material?

My very favorite high school teacher, Mr. Marks, who taught me both 10th grade and AP chemistry, pretty much taught that way. He stood at the board and wrote equations. He spoke in a very metered way. He pointed to the giant periodic table to his right. He did ask us questions though. “And the charge on sodium is...?” And he looked into our faces to see if we were lost or following. I recall him saying, “I think Adena has a question,” fairly regularly. I know what Mr. Marks’ goal was. He wanted us to learn chemistry. He wanted us to do well and get into college. In my senior year he wanted us to get 4s or 5s on the AP exam. We did learn chemistry and I even went on to major in the subject, alongside geography, in college.

And, as much as I loved Mr. Marks, it pains me to suggest that I learned as much despite his efforts as because of them. It was tough to sit through four hours of chemistry lectures per week. We had labs and tests, but mostly Mr. Marks spoke and we watched, listened and took notes.

Spin back to today and I’m plunked down, in the dark, watching and listening to a variety of topics, some more interesting than others. Back in high school I could not be disrespectful, nor disobey my parents so I grinned and bore it. Besides, I wanted to go to college. It was not until graduate school that one of my professors, and I confess I do not recall the context but he was not angry, explained that if you are in classroom and are not learning anything you should leave. You should not waste your time. “Wow,” I recall thinking, “Really?”

I’ve attend a few “unconferences” in the past few years and there the “law of two feet” is in effect. It pretty much says the same thing Professor Gould said back then. (Peter, not Michael, for those who may be confused.) But we don’t do that at “regular” conferences. No. We sit politely and count the minutes until we can get up, stretch our legs, get coffee and maybe, just maybe, learn something by chatting with others at the event. Why do we continue to allow ourselves to waste time at conferences pretending to watch and listen to un-engaging speakers drone on while we learn nothing and are not invited to contribute in a meaningful way?

Today’s educators are looking to exorcise boring lectures from classrooms for the young (K-12) and old (college and grad school). The move in education is away from the instructor as “sage on the stage” spewing out knowledge, toward the instructor as “guide on the side” enticing students to learn from one another or via hands on activities they tackle. “Boring lecture stuff” is being cut to a bare minimum or pushed out of school entirely in what’s called “the flipped classroom.” Lectures are watched on video at home for homework and fun group learning with hands on projects and collaboration are done in class. Are we ready to have at least some of our sessions at our conferences mimmic this model?

I am. I’ve already suggested that one geo conference scrap its traditional lecture keynote for some group learning.