This weeks topic introduced me to the world of Ed Camps, which are referred to as the ‘un-conference’. These are driven by the participants, and although there can be pre-determined options, the specific topics are decided by the group. It is a collaborative way to focus on learning and education. To connect this week with our last week’s topic, I decided to create a quick sketchnote when preparing for the class. ↓ ↓ ↓
In Class Ed-Camp:
“Screen Time” → I sat in on an ed-camp relating to screen time. As a group, we discussed what we could think of relating to pros and cons. It was interesting to sit down with people and hear multiple points of view. The one problem that I had with this process is that none of us were experts on the situation. I was hoping we would be able to sit down with somebody who knew a bit more about the topic to share their knowledge with us. Instead, it was a group of like-minded individuals who went around on the topic without really coming to any conclusions.
One of the people who came through our group about halfway through has spent time working as an EA in a middle school and is a parent of two middle school aged kids. I brought up how it has been mentioned that some parents are upset if teachers take phones away for safety reasons (which makes me laugh a bit because that was never a worry before cellphones…). However, this group member said that as a parent when she outweighs the pros and cons, she likes if the students do not have cellphones on them in class.
I think it is important as a teacher to first go with what the schools overall guidelines are. However, I also think it could be beneficial to talk with parents about what your class rules are and most importantly why. This can be collaborative in order to promote the best learning experience for students.
