Overton
EdTech EdCamp

An EdCamp is a FREE, informal, highly-collaborative, participant-led "unconference" in which attendees build the day's session schedule from scratch at the start of the day. This model allows the EdCamp to be highly relevant and serve the immediate needs and curiosities of the attendees. ALL participants are on equal footing at an EdCamp - everyone has valid experiences and ideas worth sharing! Relaxed networking opportunities at the start of the day and in common areas between and during sessions help refine session topics, encourage strangers to collaborate on a session or project, and provide yet another chance to learn and grow.

A common experience at a professional development conference looks something like this:

You register for a convention and pay an exorbitant fee. A schedule of hour-long sessions is released. Most sessions look like they are cookie-cutter talks from vendors selling a product or service, but a few look interesting. When the conference arrives, you sit through a keynote from a big name that is inspirational, but not very relevant to you. You are bombarded in the exhibit hall with offers and demonstrations. At your first session, someone asks a question that piques your interest, so you make a point to reach out to that person in the hallway. You have a stimulating conversation, but the next session is coming up, so you agree to follow each other on Twitter and continue the conversation. You don't.

An EdCamp flips this model on its head. The hallway conversations are the most important feature of an EdCamp. Imagine if you two had met earlier in the morning and decided to offer a session together in which you hash out the similarities and differences of your approaches in front of an engaged audience that could offer their own experiences right back to you. What if you had the freedom to find a workspace with this person and spend a couple hours digging into a project - without fear that you were wasting your registration fee? This "unconference" would be meeting your needs, not the needs that someone else thinks you have.

While this EdCamp is intended to have a loose technology focus, your guess is as good as ours! The most important question is:

What will you bring to share?

Here are some formats common at EdCamps:

• Group sharing/brainstorming sessions

• Lesson modeling sessions

• Student work sharing sessions

• Collaborative project sessions (leave with something you have created)

• Game playing/educational trivia sessions

• EdTech tool deep dive sessions

If you're someone who requires some predictability to try something new, here is the best we can do for you:

• The day will start with an hour of mingling and refreshments. During this time, you are welcome to add sticky notes to the "Needs" wall. Attendees are encouraged to craft their session ideas around the immediate needs of the other attendees.

• Attendees will begin filling up the "Sessions" wall with their ideas. An "upvoting" system will be used to ensure the morning time slots go to the most popular ideas. Visit this wall throughout the morning to add and upvote new ideas to build the afternoon schedule.

• There will be two session tracks:

  • • Block sessions will be 45 minutes in length

    • Skinny sessions will be 20 minutes in length

• Once sessions begin, you are encouraged to "vote with your feet" if a session that you thought would meet your needs is actually not.

• Small group work areas and empty presentation rooms will be available for side projects and spontaneous sessions.

In order to make EdCamp a positive experience for you, we encourage you to come prepared with the following:

• 3-5 of your most immediate, relevant needs, concerns, struggles, interests, or curiosities. Sharing your needs can give other attendees the chance to reflect on how they might be able to provide a session that meets your needs. We hope that once you see the needs of others, you'll realize just how equipped you are to be that person for them as well.

• An electronic device of some kind, such as a WiFi-capable laptop or tablet

• A Twitter account to participate in the EdCamp backchannel at #OvertonEdCamp

If you already have an idea for a session to present, great! Feel free to throw it up on the wall. But be prepared to be flexible! We know your idea is great, but we don't yet know if it is what the rest of the attendees need right now. So don't spend too many hours preparing something flashy. If your session does not meet the right needs, attendees will leave and your hard work will have been for nothing!

And remember - collaboration is key; you may meet another attendee that has similar ideas who you can build a session with. Or better yet, you may find someone who completely disagrees with you and you could build an "opposing viewpoints" session together!

At most, you could be prepared with a rough outline of a skill or experience you have to share. If you can clearly articulate what needs your session is designed to meet, it will be easy to match them to attendees' needs and you will be better able to campaign for votes!