Grove City to host Edcamp conference

Grove City College will host Edcamp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 8 in the Hall of Arts and Letters on campus. The conference will center on learning and innovation as well as serve as a catalyst for spurring excitement about education. 

Students and faculty have collaborated to organize the event and lend their many unique perspectives on education to the discussion. The conference is organized by Grove City College education majors, including Jessica Mattson ’18, Mollie Carothers ’17, Katy Gibson ’17, Sydney Widdersheim ’19, Joelee Pasztor ’19, Becki Krupp ’18, Jenna Shallcross ’19 and Mack Griffith ’19. 

“I think Edcamp is a valuable conference because it provides a space for future educators to interact with professionals in the field in a relaxed setting,” Krupp said. “There are opportunities to teach and learn throughout the day and you walk away with connections and resources. Edcamps are especially valuable because they are tailored to the interests and skills of the educators who attend.”

To learn more about the conference, visit http://edcampgcc.weebly.com/. (Note: Registration for this event is now closed.)

The edcamp movement was born in Philadelphia in 2010 and the idea spread through the grassroots of the education community, with more than 700 conferences around the world in the years since. By adopting the un-conference protocol inspired by the tech world’s BarCamp model, edcamps provide access to high quality, personalized professional learning for all educators.

Each edcamp is independently organized and hosted and free to participants. The events bring together passionate educators for a day of learning and growth. The conferences are participant-driven with the sessions developed and facilitated by the teachers who are attending and leverage social media to involve remote attendees. 

Embracing the belief that fellow educators can be some of the most valuable professional development resources for their colleagues, the edcamp movement has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, Bammy Awards for Education, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, International Society for Technology in Education, TEDx program and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

To learn more about the Department of Education at Grove City College, please visit www.gcc.edu/educ.