The experiences of organizing and participating in Edcamp Tokyo in 2014 and 2015 have been so inspirational, I wish to share them with all of my colleagues and teacher friends. The best way to do that is to organize an event.
Last Fall, I approached my administrators about empowering teachers within the elementary school to self organize one of our own professional development days. Strictly speaking, the event was not Edcamp, because it was a limited to our own staff. However, we followed the Edcamp model and the results were fantastic.
‘Creative Connections’ group at Edcamp @ KIST via Instagram
The only logical step was to offer to host the next Edcamp Tokyo here at my school. The process began as usual with assembling an organizing team, surveying the local community for optimal dates.
One change we made was to move the organizing team away from seemingly endless email threads to Slack. Slack is a slightly ironic update to the ‘chat room’ circa 1994. However, for facilitating communication and collaboration in a team, it is far superior to email and has the potential in my opinion to supplant social network ‘communities’ as a space to organize around events, ideas, and movements.
Community involvement
Industriousness is one of the hallmarks of Edcamp, so I utilized Twitter’s polling function to gather votes for this year’s theme. The initial ideas were gathered from the organizing team and then put to a vote.
Cast your vote for this year’s #EdcampTokyo theme! All opinions welcome, even across oceans. #clmooc #edcamp https://t.co/WUeshunu0X
— Bart Miller (@BarMillEDU) February 8, 2017
The winner was ‘Make learning personal’. As an organizer, it is also heartwarming and exciting when the #EdcampTokyo hashtag begins to warm up on social media.
Free PD for educators at EdCamp Tokyo. Unconference style. Blog here: https://t.co/jHK3TCo1eR Register here: https://t.co/FYWWSt45Xh pic.twitter.com/hQTzEMAnGZ
— Nate Gildart (@nathangildart) February 18, 2017
Unconferencing fan? Dig #edtech ? Join this free #EdCampTokyo event at KIST on Apr 8th. https://t.co/3KbhnKrel0 @BarMillEDU #EdCamp pic.twitter.com/xIgz4dfPOJ
— Andy McGovern (@andrew_mcgovern) March 5, 2017
Not fake news nor an April Fool Joke: #edcamptokyo is 1 week away. Register now!!!https://t.co/tM8WHen4Db
— Greg Feezell (@g33f33) April 1, 2017
Astounded that I hadn’t made it sooner, I created an @EdcampTokyo Twitter handle, which can also be integrated with Slack to stimulate interaction and ‘buzz’. This will be useful in the future, as the login details can be easily shared with other organizers and hosts.
Announcing the next #EdcampTokyo on April 8, 2017! Free and participant driven professional learning for educators. https://t.co/losuvhsBiR
— Edcamp Tokyo (@EdcampTokyo) March 2, 2017
Given the current global political and social climate, it was also heartening to read an announcement of a new anti-harassment policy from the Edcamp Foundation.
Updated the #EdcampTokyo website to include the @EdcampUSA anti-harassment policy. https://t.co/WUeshu5SCn
— Bart Miller (@BarMillEDU) February 27, 2017
The day arrives
Hosting and Edcamp has plenty of joys and the greatest among them is meeting curious and passionate people. Our event attracted approximately fifty participants from thirty different schools and other organizations.
Student panel
One fantastic idea this year was to include a session with a panel of KIST students to provide perspective on issues from bullying to technology in and out of the classroom.
Student panel session is proving to be enlightening. Discussing using online resources for learning outside of school. #edcamptokyo
— Bart Miller (@BarMillEDU) April 8, 2017
What most surprised me about the students’ perspective was how unenthusiastic they were about technology, as though only Generation X and older people are excited by carrying a supercomputer in our pockets.
Critical thinking
I was happy, in between relaying messages and ushering late arriving guests, to stumble into a Critical Thinking session which I would characterize has having a theme of ‘making the complex simple, but not simplistic’.
Be wary of visual models for complex concepts because they can limit independent, critical thinking. #edcamptokyo
— Bart Miller (@BarMillEDU) April 8, 2017
The most stimulating feature of Edcamp is diversity of perspectives. When many points of view focus on a conceptual topic like critical thinking, the conversation is certain to be enlightening.
Critical thinking at #edcamptokyo: Engage with complexity through physical modeling and role playing.
— Bart Miller (@BarMillEDU) April 8, 2017
Viral On Twitter
It’s a fact that Edcamp itself was born on Twitter, as was Edcamp Tokyo. Consequently or coincidentally, it’s also our favorite social network and the #EdcampTokyo hashtag hosted a fair amount of chatter around this event.
Battle of OS at #edcamptokyo pic.twitter.com/0BIP5CstF9
— Mr Towse (@MrTowse) April 8, 2017
K-12 and university educators are having great discussion on e-Portfolio in education! #seesaw, blogs, student’s ownership… #EdcampTokyo pic.twitter.com/3DLRadRNqk
— Kaori Sensei (@kaoatwork) April 8, 2017
some diverse book suggestions for your collection development #edcampTokyo pic.twitter.com/zUDbqJLSCY
— Leslie Ann 🏳️🌈 (@tokyolibrarian) April 8, 2017
EdCampTokyo参加者による発言 – Togetterまとめhttps://t.co/OkifYXdXmr #EdCampTokyo
— Murakami,Yoshifumi (@Midogonpapa) April 8, 2017
Keeping our classroom environment a positive place, helping students to solve their problems with humanity and empathy #edcamptokyo pic.twitter.com/uhGeBaOGQe
— Anna (@AnnaEDU_IB) April 8, 2017
This kind of backchannel interaction is fun and provides another channel by which people, including those not necessarily in attendance, can participate.
Looking ahead
Hosting or organizing professional development is usually a different experience than participating in it. Fortunately, this year I had such a helpful organizing team and KIST hospitality team that I was able to engage in discussions without being overly busy with logistics and problem solving.
In the future, I would like to see Edcamp Tokyo grow into a community which includes more local Japanese educators as well as more enthusiasm from the international schools.
In terms of the organization, I would like to see our function transform into an advisory role empowering teachers to organize and host their own Edcamp Tokyo events with the support of our expertise and promotional tools.