geek.teacher

It’s almost spring, and that means it’s almost Edcamp season. While Edcamp has really become a year-round thing, Spring is definitely our most prolific time of year.

I don’t think I really talked about this on the blog but somehow I find myself in the position now being the Chairman of the Board of the Edcamp Foundation. The foundation exists in order to provide some sort of national organization to help all the local groups with some knowledge and funding. We’ve already secured our first donor to the foundation, Evernote. I’m honored by the trust placed in me by my fellow directors and I will do my best to further our efforts for more participatory professional development for teachers around the country and world.

With all that in mind, I’d like to offer some advice to people organizing their own Edcamps. You should of course consult some of the obvious sources like the wiki, Mary BethHertz’s blog series, Chris McGee’s ridiculously detailed checklist, and the Simple K12 guide put together by some excellent local organizers. But there’s stuff you only learn by talking with people or putting on some events yourself that might be helpful, so here it is.

Inclusivity
Have you seen Shelley Krause’s page on the wiki about inclusivity? I think it’s simultaneously the most important and most ignored page on the entire wiki. You should really read it.

I’ve recently been in email contact with a parent who attended a recent Edcamp and had a very dissatisfactory experience. While I would be the first to argue that Edcamps are not necessarily for everybody, this is a person that I know and trust and, I think, has the right sort of mindset for an event like this. Edcamp should be for anybody who has a strong interest in education, not just teachers. Are you doing everything you can to make everybody feel welcome? At an Edcamp all voices should be valued equally, which is one of the reasons that I argue most strongly against having keynotes.

Set expectations
In your advertising, leading up to the event, and the morning of the event you really must do your best to set expectations for your Edcamp. One part of that is certainly that people really have to know what they’re getting into. At the same time, people may think they know what they’re getting into, but they don’t really. In your kickoff, there are certain things you must explain to the people in attendance. First, they need to know how to build the schedule. A good schedule should see some negotiations, as people try and make sure the sessions are going to work for them, and also as they realize that some sessions are going to work better together and should be combined. You will need to help them with this. Second, they need to know what a good session should look like. A session should be almost all conversation or hands-on activities. Symptoms of a bad session include:

• Lots of lecturing
• PowerPoint with lots of bullet points
• Conversation between two or three people when there’s a room filled with lots of others

There’s a reason that we like to call people who are attending a Edcamps participants. They should be participating in the sessions they’re attending.
Finally, they need to know and understand the rule of 2 feet. If a session isn’t meeting their needs, they need to leave. If a session has the symptoms of a bad session, they need to leave. You should also have some sort of open space where people who haven’t found a suitable session can meet with each other. If my experience is any indication, they won’t have any difficulty finding something to talk about. They may want to alternatively use the space for some quiet reflection time. As an introvert, that’s something I know that I highly value.

Sessions
There are a few perennial sessions which are always very popular at an Edcamp.

• Introduction to Twitter. Chances are you found out about Edcamp because of Twitter, but you have invited some friends who has not been used it yet. If these people like Edcamp, they will probably like Twitter too. Encourage somebody knowledgeable in the ways of networking to run a session talking about what the value of Twitter and showing the basics of how to use it.
• Things That Suck. I’ve described this session in plenty of detail in the past, and all you really need to know is that lots of people attend the session and they will leave saying that they really enjoyed it. It’s a great way to get some conversation started. They’ll probably want to continue them outside of the session.
• The Smackdown. I don’t care what it is you’re sharing. It can be apps, Web 2.0 tools, or lesson ideas. Whatever it is people really enjoy sharing lots and lots of ideas very quickly in a large group. This is generally a great way to end your day.

My final piece of wisdom is this: Edcamps are educational events not technology events. We need to start encouraging people to talk about more than just pieces of technology in different tools that they’re using. As soon as we pigeonhole ourselves like that we make it much more difficult to invite other people into the conversation. Technology is a piece of what we do in education, but I really sure hope that it’s not all that we do. My favorite sessions I’ve attended have had little to nothing to do with technology. As teachers, students, and parents, we have huge questions of policy, content, and pedagogy ahead of us. We may be a small community, but we should be starting grand debates and discussions about these things. Then we should invite more people in to the discussion. It’s our duty to light the way ahead, because it seems like lots of people these days want to drag us in in 1 million different directions, many of which will hurt our students, teachers, and communities. And that sucks.

Light the way.

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