The rise of Edcamps over the past few years has led many to wonder about how this model aligns with the tenets of effective professional development. Well, the Edcamp Foundation has put together a brief research report that begins to qualitatively analyze the Edcamp Phenomenon.
For us, the Edcamp Phenomenon highlights the community building and self directed qualities that respond to the needs of adult learners. We encourage you to read the report and offer suggestions for future research. While we really love Edcamp, we want to make sure there’s steak behind all that sizzle. Thanks for joining us in this journey!
Click here to download the Executive Summary
Click here to download the full whitepaper
I have been to edcamp, and while I enjoyed the experience, I did not find it the transformative experience that nearly all blogs about it say it is. It had pros and cons like everything else. I didn’t want to rain on the parade, especially since I did not feel like I was an active part of the community of people posting about edcamp, often quite evangelically, so I did not share my critiques. I did not read the whole paper, just the summary, but I would be cautious about relying on blog comments as a way of judging the average attendee’s experience – I think that is an extraordinarily self-selecting and self-reinforcing group.
Thank you very much for your comment. I think that you raise several great points. The Foundation is aware of the limitations of the “research model” (I use that term loosely.) within the paper. There is a large section within the white paper that lists these limitations. We are actively thinking about better ways to elicit feedback from larger populations that have experienced the model. Because you seem thoughtful about the topic, I would love to talk with you further to learn more from you. This is a journey and we need to include all voices and thoughts. Thanks for commenting!
I attended an edCamp about a year ago in the SF Bay Area and have mixed experiences; some sessions were great others lacked relevancy (voted with my feet). One of the most interesting was a culminating session titled “What’s wrong with California?” or something similar. It did not focus on California education woes, but on why the attendance and buzz was so much lower than at other edCamps around the country. No one had answers, but plenty of questions were raised. The three of us who attended took edCamps back to the district, and the “mini-conference” professional development was born. I’d call it a first order change based on some of the principles of edCamp. The organizers (district office) did not have the confidence to allow sessions to organically define themselves at the two conferences scheduled last year. Rather, they expected a certain number of presenters. The PD was on school time so perhaps they felt that teachers wouldn’t take it seriously if it didn’t presented specifics or they were uncomfortable with the types of sessions that might organically develop. Several of us are considered a small edCamp in our town across the 8 districts locally just to try it out. I’d be interested in hearing if others have tried smaller edCamps and some of the challenges they’ve experiences and solved.
Ginny,
Many people are finding the smaller Edcamp model to be very powerful in their local areas. I believe all change is local, and the closer those groups are to your classroom, the more meaningful work you can get done. Patrick Larkin has implemented a great small Edcamp model. You might want to reach out to him. Also, feel free to join the organizers mailing list to connect with other folks. Thanks for your comment!