Unconference Success

A new tool that was introduced to me was the idea of an "Unconference". I heard about these online conferences through my EDUC 515 course at Azusa Pacific University. At first, I was a little confused about the way these conferences worked. So, I started working with them.

At first, I began by following @cybraryman and followed along with #edchat one evening. The chat was overwhelming because answers kept popping up every few seconds and I couldn't even scroll far enough down in the chat to find the question that these people were answering! When I finally found the question, there were twenty more responses that were available to read. To put it simply, I was confused! I was told that the best way to familiarize myself with these chats is to simply observe and get used to the format. So I did.

After that experience, I began looking for other chats that would be helpful to follow along. My interest was peaked when I heard about #mathchat. I was intrigued by this because I knew that a lot of educators just came back from ISTE and would have great apps to share for math. The chat that I followed along with became a great and interesting resource for my future classroom. The specific resource that I found was from a program called Slide Share and was uploaded by a math teacher. This resource provided me with 15 apps that are amazing for use in any classroom. I was so excited by this post and I began following the person who shared the slides with the chat. I did not participate in the chat by adding posts, but I did participate by retweeting some of the posts that I found to be the most helpful.

I am glad that I am learning about the effectiveness of these chats. For the future, I can see an Unconference being an awesome way to discuss staff problems or school concerns as they arise. I can also see unconferences being very helpful for classrooms during back to school night for parents who cannot make it to the classroom. I hope to find more ways to use this classroom tool in my classroom!