Last Tuesday was my first experience with an online Ed Camp. I’ve been to several Ed Camps before but certainly never online. In some ways I found this style to be more efficient. You didn’t have to sit through the opening remarks that lasted an hour while everyone gathers their coffee, biscuits and makes sure they’re going to the same session as their best friend. Instead, this Ed Camp was more efficient. It allowed for us to have personal input in what we wanted to discuss. It makes me wonder, if Ed Camps send out a form to people to determine what possible options are before sending out the sign up would their be more interest and engagement? Although I enjoy Ed Camps as a style of learning, I often find that I am forced to pick at least one session that doesn’t interest me much but becomes a time filler in my time table. A possible downfall to the Ed Camp was that, at least in my group, we didn’t branch out to other discussions. It was difficult to know when to leave or how to hop from one session to another. Perhaps that has more to do with my knowledge of the program we used versus the easy capability of it. Never the less, it is something to consider. The discussion of my session was social media. This seems to be a topic that is a discussion in an abyss. What I mean to say is that there is a vast number of benefits and a dauntingly large number of down falls to using social media within the classroom. We’re in a day and age that promotes social media and yet, educators seem to be under the “public eye microscope.” One false step and immediately you’re on the defense questioning every choice you made around using social media. The over arching understanding from my group was that despite the growing interest in social media, there is still no rules surrounding how to use it. Furthermore, because there’s no regulations there’s also no security for educators. Overall, it was determined that the scale of social media usage does not easily tip from one direction to the next.
My only other EdCamp experience was our summer class. I equate them to a conference – sometimes there are simultaneous sessions you really want to attend and other times you head to the displays. I agree that having to sit through opening remarks at a regular one would be frustrating. I also agree with your point that it is difficult to leave the virtual room discretely and I attribute that to our groups being so small. Thanks for the notes from your conversation – it was another one of the sessions that I would have liked to attend!