My Day at EdCamp Dallas

My Day EdCamp Dallas 2013

This was the first EdCamp I attended outside of El Paso, TX.  An EdCamp is a free, unconference.  The educators in the room determine what the sessions will be and what they would like to share.  If you walk into a session and the conversation doesn’t feed you, it is understood that it is not an insult to leave and find a session that is right for you.  YAY!  You get to be in charge of what you want to learn.

The Meeting Room

Each participant received a blue and a yellow post it note.  You could write down a topic that you felt confident facilitating on the blue note, or a topic you wanted to learn more about on the yellow note.  

For those who wanted a digital version of a schedule, Guidebook, sponsored the event by providing access for free. We just downloaded the app and scanned a QR to get the schedule.

Tweep Board

Flipped Classroom with Shea Regian Forney ISD

Homework has never been the same.  With a flipped classroom, students learn the basics and mechanics at home by watching a video and do the work/practice/projects in class.  Shea shared her experience and how the flipped classroom works in her 8th grade math classes. Read more about this session here. 

Build your Own App 

Yapp Box is a free app that can be used to create your own app for the classroom.  It could be an app for a tech tips.  You can add buttons on the bottom for pages to twitter feed or a photo gallery.  It’s definately an app I will explore.

Hacking the Classroom

I snuck into this session so I missed the beginning.  Aimee Bartis was sharing how her class is hacking the tech apps classroom.  You can read her student’s blog and experiences at http://hackingtechapps.blogspot.com.  They love comments.  If you have time, leave one for her students.

Genius Hour

Martha Lacy shared what Genius Hour looks like in her classroom.  She said it’s important to decide when and how often genius hour would be.  To me, genius hour in her classroom seemed like a time to for students to create and integrate technology.  I loved Martha’s student examples, how well her elementary students collaborated with Google Docs and how excited she was about the students progress.  My favorite take away was the keynote story her students created.

Leadership and 1:1  with Greg Gardener

Greg facilitated a discussion to see where everyone was with 1:1.  I decided to attend this session because I work with a campus that will be going 1:1 iPads next school year.  I feel that not enough conversation is happening and not enough planning and preparation is in place. Read more here.

Teaching with AR

Todd Nesloney and Matt Gomez shared the Augmented Reality (AR) Apps they use in their classrooms.  He had Drew Minock and Erin Klein Google Hangout in to share their ideas.

Two Guys and Some iPads Blog

Kleinspiration Blog
Todd Nesloney's Blog 
Matt B Gomez' Blog

Apps Todd Shared

There were a lot of "ooooohs" and "ahhhhhs" during this session.  

AR Flashcards

ColAR

Daqri Elements (they haven't been release yet)

Aurasma

App Smash or Smack Down
Click on the link to view the list of things shared during the Smack Down.  It was awesome!  Tellagami is one of the free apps that were shared.  I created one very quickly.