When coming to class past Tuesday, I was interested after having watched the few videos to get a better understanding of what exactly an EdCamp was.  An EdCamp is designed to break people into groups, in this case our class, to have the chance to bring forth and discuss topics we are passionate about but haven’t had the chance to talk about in relation to education.  What this does is it allows students the chance to openly brainstorm and talk about topics or issues we see as relevant that maybe haven’t had the chance to be brought forth, or we haven’t had the additional proverbial ‘hands on deck so with the support of our classmates, we can really dive into this.

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The group that I was a part of was discussing mental health and connection in a virtual world. A few of the key points that we brought forth in our discussion was just how difficult it is to make connections with each other because of this virtual world we are living in that is now school.  We found that collectively it is much easier and better for us if we are connecting with people in person to genuinely get to know them.  Additionally, we found that on top of classes being done exclusively online, we then after a day of class have to spend an increased amount of time doing homework, also online which accounts for half of our day roughly being glued to a screen.  Personally, I find this hard to handle as relationships with friends and my partner are limited due to the increased amount of time that is required being online.  The biggest takeaway we had was that it is beneficial for mental health to have interaction in person.  We think that could be why the high school students are handling some of the hybrid of online/in-person instruction so much better.  Although it is better, we felt as though if we feel this way, high school students must also feel some similarities as well, so as educators we need to be wary of our students and their mental health and check in with them.

After having completed an EdCamp, I think this would be a great strategy to incorporate into a classroom setting for a variety of different activities and things. It is a way to bring forth and openly talk about subjects or things students want to learn about, are passionate about, and want to gain a better understanding in doing so.  This is something that also can be done amongst colleagues as educators within schools as well as district wide and even provincially, two of which are already done.