In the Ed camp activity, I entered in the integrating phone use BYOD (bring your own device) conversation that had some excellent stimulating conversation. We opened up the conversation with playing kahoot, an online trivia game that can be incorporated into any subject. We suggested that there should be away to enter in your own questions and answers to allow for students to educated on the topic from a pure knowledge standpoint. Kahoot can a nice online activity as an ice breaker, or something for students to end the day off after a nice work block. Some students will definitely struggle with the activity, but some will definitely succeed, overall the activity is a nice way to incorporate technology with learning. Another important point brought up by a professor in the group is that they did some research on sports technology use, and they found that in many different sports, when the game mattered, players were way less likely to be on their phones and their was no found conflict between coaches and players. During practice, that looked a little different in terms of working on basic skills which meant that players were found to be on their phones a few more times. The professor suggested that in a classroom, it is important to allow a break with phones. There was another research driven topic brought up in the conversation, with regards to students given autonomy with their phones. The teacher had a rule of a twenty minute work period with three minute phone breaks, but if the students were on their phones during the work period, then that time would get taken off during the break period. The teacher found that when the students were breaking the rule, other students would hold each other accountable and tell them to get of their phones because it would wreck it for everyone to get their phone break taken away. This can be something I consider with regards to my own classroom. I found this mini Ed Camp to be extremely useful, allowing me to see the different learning opportunities and pick some topics that interested me the most. I feel like we talk a lot about allowing for student freedom and flexibility in learning, and I found this activity to be similar to what that feels like, just as a student teacher. I would find another ed camp would be useful to my learning as a student teacher in the future, creating more opportunities to learn that I have interest in and something that I hope to continue to do to keep learning in my profession, much like the podcast ways of learning from the professional development day.
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