UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School will host EdCamp UCSB – a day of shared professional development for all educators – on Saturday, January 26, 2013, from 8 am – 3:30 pm at the Education Building. Labeled an “unconference,” an EdCamp is made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event at which anyone who attends can be a presenter. Attendees to the free event can be anyone interested in instructional methodology, technology, or professional development in education – teachers, administrators, and parents. These people arrive, propose possible sessions that they would like to lead, and then the “law of two feet” encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs. There will be four hour-long sessions available in up to 15 venues, which means the will be from as many as 60 sessions from which to choose.
“It’s very expensive for districts to pay for some outside expert to come in and provide the one right answer to solve a problem, never taking into consideration the knowledge and expertise of the teachers already there – many of whom could run a similar session, but who also have the actual knowledge of what's going on at that school,” says Patrick Faverty, event organizer and faculty member at the Gevirtz School’s Teacher Education Program. “Every session in EdCamp is made by educators for educators. This is the sort of learning that actually follows teachers back to their classroom.”
The conference will be free from corporate vendors and booths, with the focus being solely on conversations about education. Attendees will come from all over the Central Coast and will range from classroom teachers to administrators to coaches and school board members. There will be time for attendees to gather informally to share ideas as well as a variety of sessions for them to attend, run by their colleagues and fellow educators.
After the inaugural EdCamp event in May 2010, the movement has spread across the world, and over 100 EdCamps have been held since then.
For additional information about this event, see edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+UCSB