Yes, OF COURSE we’re going to do Padcamp again this summer!

Stay tuned for more information!

If you are planning to join us at 3PM (EDT) webinar today, please head over to the BigMarker Demo room (http://www.bigmarker.com/demo) beforehand to make sure everything is good to go regarding your browser and other hardware.  Then you’ll be ready to click http://www.bigmarker.com/edcamp/live for the event! Thanks all!

So you want to host your own edcamp?

Awesome!

Join a collection of experienced edcamp organizers for a lively discussion about planning, marketing and holding your own edcamp. Discover tips, how-to’s, gotchas, resources and ideas to help make your event one that participants will RAVE about.

Point your web browser of choice to http://www.bigmarker.com/edcamp/live on Saturday, September 10th at 3pm and be prepared to learn a lot!

See you there!

Whoa … what a rush!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for making the first-ever (as far as we know) PadCamp – our tablet focused unconference – such a huge success!

Before I go any further … thank you Galloway Township Public Schools for hosting us … thank you, our sponsors, for the great prizes and for offsetting most of our meal costs … thank you, my fellow organizng team members for your general awesomeness … and thank you, Atlantic City Press for covering our event!

It was just a week ago that we gathered in the gorgeous cafetorium at Galloway Township Middle School (our gracious host) with a carload of breakfast goodies, a blank schedule wall, and the hope that enough people would show up to actually have enough to talk about for an entire DAY.

I have to be honest: we had no idea how it would go. (We had a pretty good idea, but no one knew for sure what to expect.)

When it was all over, more than 140 people – a whopping 80% of those who registered – spent the day at 32 thought-provoking sessions, all envisioned, proposed and led by participants themselves on that day.

It’s magic, I tell you. 100% pure, unadulterated, “unconference” magic!

What Went Well

1. The facility was IDEAL. The cafetorium space, the nearby classrooms, the use of the kitchen area, projection in the space, etc., it was all just perfect. Oh, and the wireless … fortunately for us, Galloway Township Schools had decided to implement an iPad initiative in the fall of 2011. Since they were expecting to need wireless infrastructure anyway, it made sense for them to host our event. We just didn’t realize they would be BUILDING THAT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR US THE DAY BEFORE PADCAMP! Not kidding. Galloway’s technology team (Gil Chapman, Gary Kirschenbaum, Tom Ortiz and Harry Davis) was OUTSTANDING. THANK YOU!
2. The people who came were the right people.  Some were experienced, having worked with tablet and iOS devices for years. Some were total newbies, never having touched one. Some had multiple devices. Some had none. All were interested in learning, sharing and exploring together. What more could you ask for?
3. Open Space Technology – the conceptual foundation for unconferences everywhere – just WORKS. As Annette Giaquinto, Ed.D., Superintendent of Galloway Township Schools put it (I’m paraphrasing), “a lot of us ‘Type-A’ people were a little concerned that the schedule would be built!” But in fact … it WAS. Thanks to the capable scheduling prowess of Kristen Swanson, and our ‘deputized’ assistant scheduling coordinator Susan Ross, the schedule came together beautifully. For more about Open Space, click here.
4. Our organizing team was fantastic.  All of us – Doug Harvey (Stockton), Betty Napoli (Galloway), Frank Pileiro (Linwood), Scott Sarraiocco (Absecon), Kim Sivick (Chestnut Hill Academy, PA) and Mike Sweeder (Egg Harbor Township) – worked effortlessly together. I said in the opening remarks that the first things you need to plan an event like ours were 1) a date and 2) a venue. I lied. The FIRST thing you need is an AWESOME ORGANIZING TEAM. Everything else takes care of itself!

What Could Have Been Better

1. The “App Smackdown” was too short. I hated interrupting everyone’s lunch, 30 minutes in, to draw their attention to the screen up front where attendees shared their favorite app or tool. We only set aside an hour for lunch, thinking that would be plenty of time. 90 minutes would have allowed more people to speak and been less disruptive. (We also forgot to do a Google Doc, but I’ll provide links to the resources shared in another post.)
2. We could have explained the event wiki (http://padcamp.wikispaces.com/) better. We honestly didn’t know how willing session leaders would be to edit a wiki page, but this could have been made a lot clearer at the beginning. We also could have included instantly-collaborative “iEtherpad” pages for participants to create collaborative session notes while together.
3. We should have raffled off the iPad separately. We wanted to keep things simple, and a “one person, one ticket” solution surely was that, but let’s face it, everyone wants the big prize! (I mean, the Lava Lamp is pretty cool, but it doesn’t compare to the iPad 2).  We could have another method/system to determine the winners for “everything else” and used the raffle tickets just for the iPad.

All things considered, at the end of the day, we all agreed that PadCamp had gone exceptionally well – and as one organizer (who shall remain nameless!) put it – shockingly well!

Where do we go from here?

While there is already talk about our next event – which may come sooner than 12 months from now, we’re not sure yet – PadCamps are already springing up in other parts of the country, like Dallas, Long Island, Upstate New York, and San Francisco. Stay tuned – follow us on Twitter!

But there is something much larger at stake here. Something we, the organizers, are passionate about. Something we feel is necessary, important and achievable, and that is for UNCONFERENCES to REVOLUTIONIZE traditional DISTRICT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

Consider this: of the 140+ attendees, several schools, including Somers Point, Linwood, and Galloway – sent entire TEAMS of people to our event. One district – Perth Amboy Schools, under the direction of Superintendent  Janine Caffrey – went even further, giving their team EIGHT HOURS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDIT for attending PadCamp:

So why don’t more districts adapt / adopt / implement the unconference model? Unconferences (PadCamps, EdCamps, TeachMeets, etc.):

• Are FREE
• Leverage and showcase internal talent
• Organize THEMSELVES
• Provide participants with THE LEARNING THEY WANT, when they want it
• Can have any focus, not just technology

• It’s time for K-12 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT to EMBRACE the UNCONFFERENCE MODEL.
• It’s time for DISTRICTS EVERYWHERE to put TEACHERS IN CHARGE OF THEIR OWN LEARNING.
• It’s time for ALL OF US to WORK FOR THESE CHANGES in our districts.

C’mon, folks! You know what we need to do!

-kj-

To view the article, click here or on the photo above.

Photo of the front page (courtesy Jennifer Dare):

The latest pics in this set are the ones I took today – to access the Flickr Padcamp Group and contribute your own, click here!

Today’s the day! Thank you for being a part of this adventure. We start at 8:30, will enjoy breakfast and conversation while we build the session schedule through 9:45, then we’ll have a few introductory words. Our first session will be at 10:00 am. It’s going to be an incredible day of sharing and learning! Here are some quick links:

Click here for the Session Schedule (opens in a new window)

Event wiki (session details, if discussion leaders care to provide them!): http://padcamp.wikispaces.com/

Here is our Lvestream channel (click here to open it in a new window). Once we start broadcasting, the video should appear!