Edcamp with a Side of Encore

Chattanooga, Tennessee had its 6th annual Edcamp GigCity in January. Every year, at the end of the edcamp, participants are asked to give feedback in order to qualify for the door prizes that will be given out next. The planning team has always taken that feedback seriously. Due to feedback, the entire event was moved to January instead of May two years ago. Due to feedback, the edcamp changed a bit. Every year there was always a bit of feedback that attendees wished there were some choices to just attend led sessions to learn things. Our team has always held tight our desire to truly model the edcamp philosophy of participant-driven discussions. We realized that many edcamps also have people truly "presenting" but we liked the simplicity of everyone being seen as an equal in sessions and didn't choose to have sessions with presenters.

That being said, if you truly value feedback, then you must consider what it suggests. Hearing 3-5 people each time we had edcamp say "I wish I could have learned more about (blank)" or "I didn't know enough about a subject to take part and I wish someone could have just presented" kept blaring through to me. I was less concerned with the feedback where people just wanted the opportunity to be presenters and more concerned that some of the attendees wanted to be presented to. We talked back and forth about what we could do to accommodate this request and finally, I reached out to Hadley Ferguson of Edcamp USA and had the following conversation:

Julie Davis <jdavis@ccsk12.com>	Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 10:00 PM
to Hadley

Hadley,

I have been the lead organizer for Edcamp Gigcity for the last 3 years and today we had our fifth annual event. I’m currently sitting here reading responses from the feedback form we asked attendees to fill out and I wanted your opinion on something.

It was always my understanding that Edcamps were to be organic in nature with facilitators but not presenters. We have some other area Edcamps that have adopted the model of having presenters/leaders but we have stuck with the more organic sharing model. Is there a right or wrong way? What’s your opinion on this? 

As I read over the responses I see requests for sessions that are led as well as requests for being allowed to lead sessions. I see the benefit of both ideas but I just wanted an Edcamp opinion. 

And FYI, it was an amazing day with 80+ educators attending and an overall positive response about it. I’m thankful to be a part of the unconference movement! 

Julie Davis

Hadley Ferguson <hadley@edcamp.org>	Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 4:33 PM
to me

Julie,

This is such an interesting issue, and one that happens all the time. The longer edcamps go on, the more this is an issue. It is behind our strategy of having Encore Days as well as Edcamps. The Encore day provides a time for those with specific knowledge to share it with people who are interested in the topic, which has surfaced during the Edcamp. Perhaps there is a way to combine them, so that part of the day is organic and then part of it is targeted. 

I worry about becoming too much about people presenting their slidedecks, though if the Rule of Two Feet is firmly in place, then teachers can choose. My guess is that people are going to do it both ways. 

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on it,

Hadley

Well Hadley, here are my thoughts! We sat down as a committee and we decided that part of the day would remain the traditional edcamp but the last session of the day would look like the Encore model. While it wasn't necessarily organic in nature because who knew what people would actually want to know more about, it seemed to work! Several members of our planning team volunteered to lead sessions for the last time slots of the day. That way if edcamp purists wanted to leave after lunch, they could. The feedback seemed to lend itself to positive in nature. Perhaps next year we will even change it to the last 2 time slots of the day and open it up to all attendees to have the opportunity to truly present on a topic? The truth is that with the rule of two feet, one doesn't have to worry if it isn't worthwhile or not. Attendees will decide by their actions. 

Does any other edcamps do something like this? 

What kind of PD makes teachers smile? And on Saturday? EDCAMP

Year five of Edcamp GigCity is in the books. It was in a fabulous location- Red Bank Middle School in Chattanooga, TN- and it had fabulous attendees. According to the feedback form most left as very happy campers! (pun intended).

Things I learned:

• Oops on the schedule. We accidentally used the schedule from 2 years ago instead of last year so the sign up said 9-2 but the day was laid out as 9-3. We also had adjusted times down to 45 minutes last year but the old schedule had the sessions at an hour. Our bad! We apologize for that oversight and promise it won't happen again.
• Many hands make the burden light. WOW! What an amazing organizing committee we had this year. Being the lead for the last 3 years, I am finally learning how to delegate and trust the team. I was not disappointed. Sure am thankful for a wonderful group of fellow educators. What many people probably don't know is that this is all volunteer led and run, and Edcamp Gigcity is unique in that the organizers represent higher ed, lower ed, public, and private school sectors. I love that about our edcamp! This uniqueness opens the door for collaborative thinking way beyond the walls of the school house, the district, and even the city! I can't even begin to say how much I appreciate the following organizers that planned along with me this year:
• Dr. Karen Adsit, Education Professor at The University of Tennessee of Chattanooga
• Greg Bagby, Principal at Barger Academy
• Jim David, STEM School administrator 
• Kimberly Elbakidze, Computer Science Instructor at Red Bank Middle School
• Evonne Hackett, Technology Teacher at Lakeview Middle School
• Julie King, Middle School Librarian at The Baylor School
• Arthur Williams, K-5 Instructional Technologist at Lakeside Academy
• We need to make sure we explain how edcamps work a little better for new attendees. Often people are a bit overwhelmed by the "no presenters" and "rule of 2 feet" if it is their first edcamp. We need to make sure we provide more insight on how edcamps got started and why it is so organic in nature.  
• The EdCamp philosophy makes people smile. All day long I watched as people moved around from room to room at EdCamp Gigcity with smiles on their faces. I couldn't help but ask myself, "Is this what you see when you lead PD at school?" And I answered myself (because I'm weird like that) "Not usually." So why do educators like edcamps? I have 3 theories:
• Choice- Educators are at least college graduates and sometimes/often even have advanced degrees...they love Edcamps because they get to choose what they learn about instead of being forced into a PD that may or may not interest, help, or pertain to them. 
• Voice- Educators get to ask questions and share their concerns and fears in a safe non-threatening environment. The beauty of our edcamp is that it isn't "district led" so the voices they are in a room with aren't necessarily the ones they usually hear from so it adds a freedom to learn from others. The value of being heard is important to everyone, the nature of edcamps is active participation no matter what your level of understanding. 
• Free- The event is free, the food is free, and the door prizes are both awesome and free. How does that make an educator feel? VALUED. For some educators, they rarely have the opportunity to learn outside of their school building because of cost or time. Edcamps show teachers that they are appreciated and important by creating platforms for them to learn without other things hanging over them- like lesson plans for subs and money.
• Being an #EdcampGigCity organizer make me a more connected educator. This is year five of our edcamp and every year I walk away with new edufriendships, knowledge, and ideas that I know I have a safety net for if I have more questions. Like all conferences, you get what you put into it. Allowing yourself to connect with others and hear what other schools and districts are doing brings value back to yourself and your school/district. I'm thankful for the opportunity to connect in such a big way to the Chattanooga are. #CHAedu

Educational "Air Time"

Over the last couple of weeks I have really started looking more deeply at the way technology can enhance different learning theories and instructional practice. I realize that has made me hypersensitive to critiquing teachers and teaching styles in a way that I don't want to be. Needless to say, I'm trying to look at methods from a non-marginalizing approach and make the assumption that every teacher is trying their best to meet the needs of their classroom goals and individual students.

That being said I am currently feeling a little overwhelmed with some things that have played out lately regarding academic roles. Believe it or not I was a quiet high school student that rarely would have added value to group discussions unless I was point blank called on because of my shyness. (I  know...you are wondering where that girl is and wanting her to come back occasionally). I mostly made A's and B's as a self-motivated student in above-average ability grouped classes. I was a listener and got what I needed to make the grade but I did not really enjoy high school. High school did not feel relational to me for the most part.

As I have been looking at teaching methods I find myself wondering what are we doing to pull out students like myself. I know there are strategies for pulling in the outliers but do we use them? Is there a reason our students feel like outliers? Is it a perceived intelligence issue? Language issue? Apathy issue? Shyness issue? You have to know who your students are to fill the needs. And of course for me, I'm wondering if digital discussion boards in an LMS might be a solution to give the "quietest student a voice" a quote about technology I often requote from Jerry Blumengarten.

On top of all this I helped lead Edcamp Gig City this past Saturday and when I'm looking at the feedback I can't help but think...even teachers don't truly understand how to best engage in group discussions. The overwhelming majority of the feedback from the 125+ attendees of  Chattanooga's 4th annual educational unconference was positive but the complaints all had to do with people taking up too much "air time," being dogmatic about their views, leading instead of facilitating, and griping about their world instead of speaking about disadvantages with hopes to find a solution by sharing. If educators themselves aren't good at this, that worries me a bit. When someone feels marginalized they shut down. That is the worst thing to happen in education. What skills can we use to prevent this from happening without seeming condemning and causing the opposite person to feel marginalized? And of course, as an instructional technologist I am digging and wondering how can educational technology best support the socratic method, small group instruction, lecture classrooms to best meet the needs of all students, or can it? What are your thoughts?