Teacher's Desk
Mr William Chamberlain introduced in this blog, a concept called EdCamps. It is an experiment in professional learning,collaborating, and sharing of ideas by developing a long term relationship online, with others within the field of teaching. The idea is to come up with innovative methods of teaching and continuous growth in this technological age.
My thoughts:
Any type of collaboration and the sharing of ideas for a common goal of teaching is a great idea.
Communicating with others who don't necessarily share an exact point of view, is in itself, a learning process.
I have mixed feelings about the necessity of an eventual face to face meeting. I'm not sure of the impact of having a social relationship would have on learning new techniques in teaching.
My intention is to look into this concept a little further. I feel I may very well be missing the point of EdCamps for all that is is really worth...I don't know.
Your questioning the need to meet face to face to learn new techniques is an important discussion. Many states are experimenting with student online learning (not unlike your EDM310 class). I believe that most of us learn best through social interaction. I know that I have learned more through online interactions than through a traditional classroom though. In all honesty, I don't go to EdCamps to learn, I go to meet people I interact with online. It is more about developing personal relationships with people I have already developed professional relationships with.
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