Edcamp Co-Founder Kristen Swanson did an absolutely PHENOMENAL job sharing the story behind Edcamp at TEDxPhillyEd on Saturday, June 25th!

Kristen made it look easy as she told the audience how the first Edcamp came to be, paying homage to the events that inspired ours:  BarCamp Philly, TeachMeet and of course, EduBloggerCon. We are, as she so aptly put it, ‘standing on the shoulders of giants.’

She passionately explained that it’s TIME FOR US TO TAKE CONTROL OF OUR OWN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING – by working with our districts to embrace and integrate the Edcamp model into district PD. Several forward thinking districts are already doing just that!

Here is Kristen’s complete TEDxPhillyEd talk:

Many of you may have already seen the incredible promotional video made at the inaugural Edcamp Philly in 2010. It was brilliantly shot, directed and produced by Christoph Gelfand, founder of True Life Media.

In less than two minutes, Christoph conveys the energy, enthusiasm, talent and power of the event participants. When is the last time you had a professional development experience you RAVED about?

The Edcamp Foundation is grateful for this powerful short film. It has undoubtedly been used in countless meetings to explain edcamps conceptually to thousands of educators, administrators and event sponsors.

We honestly would not be where we are today without Christoph Gelfand and True Life Media. Thank you, Christoph!

Have you seen the Edcamp Map (http://bit.ly/edcamps) recently? (A full list of all upcoming edcamps is available here on the edcamp wiki.)

Yes, it’s true – edcamps have gone INTERNATIONAL. Back in April, Edcamp Vancouver was the first edcamp held outside the USA. The Canadians will be at it again with Edcamp Toronto (October 15th), Edcamp Montreal on November 1st, and Edcamp Edmonton on November 5th.

Later next month, Edcamp will leap across the Atlantic Ocean and all the way to Sweden for Edcamp Stockholm on October 31st.

We created the Edcamp Foundation to encourage and fuel the growth of edcamps worldwide … which will continue with your help!

NSTA reporter Lynn Petrinjak recently interviewed a number of educators experienced with unconferences including Dan Callahan, Ben Wildeboer, Andy Marcinek and Adam Taylor. In Meeting Outside the Conference Box, Petrinjak does an excellent job capturing the ethos of the unconference movement, highlighting the history of edcamps and teachmeets in the United States, providing an overview of the organizational model used during unconferences, and identifying some of the reasons why the unconference model is so attractive to schools and school districts. Click here for the full article in printer-friendly format.

Editor’s Note: for more about the technology behind unconferences, learn about Open Space Technology on Wikipedia.

The Coalition of Essential Schools plans to incorporate an UnConference into their 2011 Fall Forum. Quoting from their announcement:

“On Friday, November 11, educators attending Fall Forum will have the opportunity to participate in an afternoon that will introduce them to unconferences, a rapidly growing form of open space professional development. Fall Forum will follow the popular Edcamp model. ”

and

“On Friday during lunch, any Fall Forum attendees who wish to lead a session during the unconference afternoon will be able to sign up for a time on the blank schedule board. Sessions can be on any topic related to education, and participants are encouraged to share their professional interests and passions, powerful lesson plans, and new resources.”

Dan Callahan, Edcamp Philly co-founder and Edcamp Foundation board member, will be assisting with the design & organization of the UnConference portion of the Fall Forum.

It’s great to see an organization like the Coalition of Essential Schools embrace the UnConference model!