My Experience in a New
Learning Environment
By: Glen S. McKay,
Principal
As a school leader, I have learned that principals set
the tone and vision for their schools. Furthermore, a principal’s ability to
lead responsive professional development is becoming more paramount toward
creating a 21st century learning environment. Principals’ technology leadership
cannot be measured solely by the resources and budget allocated to educational
technology; technology vision and a commitment to professional development play
an important role. In an era of rapid educational technology advances,
principals must support a culture of collaboration, innovation, and meaningful
technology integration for pedagogical changes to take place on a broad and
sustainable scale. As a leader I came across a new professional development
model titled EdCamp that intrigued me as a scholar and showed promise as a means
to improve my professional practice.
I recently attended my first EdCamp “unconference.” As a learner, I was not sure what to expect
from an event with no agenda or planned breakout sessions, but I was excited to
hear from various educators about what is important to them right now. EdCamp
is an "unconference", also commonly called "Open Spaces."
It is professional development for teachers, by teachers. The expertise in the
room fuels the conversation. The EdCamp model is based on the international unconference
model, BarCamp.
Despite its name, BarCamps have little or nothing to do with alcohol. Rather,
computer hackers conceived them as a way to come together to share ideas.
According to the BarCamp wiki, a
BarCamp: “BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to
share and learn in an open environment. BarCamp is an intense event with
discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of
the event.”
In order to begin to develop a greater understanding of the
innovation, one must realize that the purpose of EdCamp is to “empower
educators to honor their own expertise. It is designed in a way that encourages
peer learning, sharing, and collaboration.” EdCamps are organic,
participant-driven professional development experiences created by teachers,
for teachers. They invite and encourage personalized conversations and spirited
debates. They emphasize internal motivation, choice, and interactivity. Based
on the tenets of open space technology, EdCamps are derived from the belief
that a group of people, given a purpose and freedom, have the ability to
self-organize, self-govern, and produce results. Conversations, not
presentations, dominate the learning at an EdCamp. Every participant has an
equal voice and personal expertise is honored.
My Experience:
Based on my observations, some of EdCamp’s major
strengths are that the participants, in this case mostly principals and
teachers, set the agenda and provide the content. They come up with the ideas
for sessions based on what they want to hear about right now. Then it is up to
participants to take charge and facilitate each session. Anyone can be a
presenter. Teachers who have never met before may end up leading a session
together. Principals from schools in opposite ends of the state may be facing
the same challenges and can develop their own session. Each participant is able
to choose sessions that meet their individual needs. EdCamps derive their value
from what every participant brings to the table on that day, and these thoughts
and experiences can be much more useful than any handout or planned
presentation. This was a highly engaging experience for me and I hope
that everyone has the opportunity to participate a learning experience similar to
this one.
