Day 85: Edcamp Barrie - A Day of Collaborative Learning

On Saturday, educators from SCDSB, SMCDSB and beyond came together for a day of conversation and connection that followed the Edcamp unconference model. Edcamp is an innovative model for professional learning that begins with the question “What do you want to learn about today?”. When participants arrived at Edcamp Barrie there was no session schedule yet because we built it together, based on interests.

Creation of the Edcamp Barrie Session Schedule:

At Edcamp Barrie every educator in the room had the opportunity to contribute to the wall of ideas by sharing their interests, passions and questions.

picture by Patrick Camire

While the planning team organized the ideas and questions by themes, participants listened to three SCDSB students share their thoughts about learning. The students described their learning environment and shared a variety of ideas, from outdoor learning to #DPAaday and how they use technology in the classroom. It was inspiring to hear them describe the journey of how they have become a community of learners.

picture by Melissa Oliver

Next, participants were asked to vote on the themes to determine the session topics. As learners approached the idea wall to vote with their stickers, you could hear and feel the excitement as new connections were made and ideas were already being shared.

Finally, the planning team organized the themes into a session schedule that reflected the choices of the participants. While the session board was being created, participants were engaged in hearing more student voice from the Simcoe-Muskoka Catholic District School Board. These innovative students shared how they are using Google tools to collaborate, how they make their thinking visible and even answered questions from the audience!

Watch the video to see the creation of the session board (that was filmed on an iPad using the iOgrapher kit and put together with iMovie).

Once the session board was created, educators chose what sessions they wanted to attend. At Edcamp sessions are conversation based, which provides an opportunity for everyone in the room to share their ideas and resources. Some learners chose to listen and share ideas in the collaborative notes or on Twitter. If you want to learn more about any of the topics discussed at Edcamp Barrie you can click the title links on the session board to read each session's collaborative notes or view the summary of #edcampbarrie tweets.

For more information about Edcamp Barrie and to hear when we announce the next event, follow @EdcampB on Twitter or visit the website.