Earlier this week, the organizing committee met once again to sort out the details for Toronto's first Edcamp. This time, we decided to meet at a local pub and make it a more social event. We ironed out details for sponsorship, narrowed down site possibilities and formulated a communication strategy. We're in the process of implementing all we discussed in that productive meeting. 

We spent a great deal of time talking about the purpose of edcamp. There were some common threads. We all noted the changing vision of education, we spoke about collaborative learning experiences and the value of connecting learners to enhance the educational experience. We thought that it might be best to organize the day around questions and we're very excited to see the questions that the participants propose. The truth is we won't know what we'll be talking about until the actual day, when voting determines the topics for discussion, but we thought it might be nice to get some ideas in advance and to have people start to think about the kinds of questions/sessions they'd like to discuss. If you have an idea, visit our Wiki and submit your question here.

Heidi Siwak has written another comprehensive recap of the session, and more blog posts will follow. I want to thank all of the people who are making this day possible. You can see some of them on the left, but there are many others who aren't pictured here, a few of whom we have never met in person, who are also working behind the scenes. We really appreciate all of your efforts and contributions.

Every once in a while, you hear an idea that inspires you. Several months ago I heard about Edcamp, an "unconference" for teachers. It began, says co-founder Kevin Jarrett, as an idea, inspired by teachers who attended Barcamp (another type of unconference). They ran the first edcamp last year and just had their second this spring. In between this model for professional development has spread throughout North America (you can see a full list on the right side of the edcamp Wiki). I began wondering if it would be possible to do an edcamp in Toronto? I wasn't the only one. Just days later, I saw Stephen Hurley's Tweet, asking if anyone wanted to help organize edcamp Toronto. I emailed him right away and the planning committee met for the first time on June 18, 2011. The above photograph is a collage of pictures I took during that first meeting.

The planning has officially begun. We have a tentative date (October 15, 2011), a great team and a shiny new logo (logo by: Nathan Chow):

I recently completed my Media Specialist AQ course, and I can not say enough great things about the course and my teachers throughout the three parts. I was lucky enough to learn from the best (thank you Neil Andersen, Barry Duncan, Ian Esquivel and Sylvie Webb)  and I hope that my efforts in the classroom and online live up to the standards they set. I often find myself thinking about what they have taught me outside of the classroom. They changed the way I see the world, and the most obvious way is that I can't seem to help reading the street.

"Reading the street was one of the most interesting activities I did in all three parts of the course. We would take a Saturday and travel to a specific part of the city and then do an extended walk. We were asked to take pictures or record audio or video (usually in groups). We had to create a media text and really think critically about what we saw, essentially making the familiar strange. On the left are a couple of the images I captured on that walk.

I had a "teacher dream" last night. For those of you who are teachers, I'm sure you know what I mean. For those who are not, every teacher I have ever met has a version of this kind of dream. They basically dream about being back in school. The profession is such that many really don't stop thinking about it, even when they're asleep. Last night's dream was different. I was still the teacher, still in front of the classroom, but while many of my "teacher dreams" have been riddled with anxiety (I'm late for class, I have forgotten what I was going to teach etc), this one was a great dream. It was the first day of school and we were introducing ourselves. I went last and we were laughing and sharing. A student asked me a question (my academic history was a bit boring for them), and I didn't know the answer. It wasn't related to our subject, it was about an obscure comic from my old university, so I asked who had their phones with them. The students froze. I think they thought I was going to confiscate them. I smiled and pulled mine out, noting that it's faster to look the information up on my phone than it would be to wait for the ancient computer in the corner to boot up. The students were relieved and one student at the front found the information faster than I could. Class continued and I woke up.

When I go back into my classroom, I will have that freedom. My school board has lifted their ban on cell phones in the school.I'll be able to use the technology that my students already have to engage them, to take