Thursday, March 19, 2009

Professional Development

I loved reading about Social Camp - Memphis. Social camps, or unconferences are facilitated, participant-driven conferences centered around a theme or purpose. The idea caused me to wonder if Social Camps, such as the one in Memphis, might be the future of professional development for organizations. I rather like the idea.

Social Camps work as follows:
  1. A call for ideas is sent out to all participants. Those interested prepare a three minute introduction on a topic delivered on the morning of the conference or "camp."
  2. When the three minutes are up, the floor is transferred to the next idea or introduction.
  3. Attendees listen to the series of introductions and then vote on the topics they are interested in learning more.
  4. The topics with the largest numbers of votes are presented in the following sessions.
I think social camps could work. I like the idea of increased exposure to a multitude of ideas because even if those ideas are not selected to be presented the seed is still planted. If people are interested in finding out more about a certain topic they have an immediate contact.

I think social camps are innovated and fresh and offer a great deal of diversity to educators. Anybody in?

2 comments:

  1. I would be interested in trying it. It would definitely work for many topics, but not for all. This could be used for a Tech Fair (as we discussed). I also think it would be great for infusion ideas. The seed is planting and if they want more they have the contact.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We publish math lessons that really work in the classroom. But it's you the teacher who actually presents those lessons to students.

    professional development for teachers

    ReplyDelete