Reflections of EdCampAccessNJ 2105

Yesterday was the big day, after a couple of months of planning with my co-host Mike Marotta, EdcampAccessNJ held at the College of St. Elizabeth was off and running. It is always such an exciting day for me and the participants as we share our skills and talents.

Mike and I have had this philosophy since we spoke about running an Unconference "build it and the will come" and they did. Yesterday we had over 150 dedicated educators  spend their entire Saturday with us to learn about new ways they can bring assistive technology into their classroom. Using Twitter, Facebook and word of mouth we had teachers, directors of technology, speech therapists, occupational therapists, special education teachers, directors of special education, college professors, assistive technology specialist, and parents attend and contribute to the days event. As Mike and I know putting the agenda together the morning of the event is a "leap of faith," but some how everyone steps up to the plate and within a couple of minutes the schedule comes together. We had sessions on Chrome Extensions, iPad, Using Robots, Professional Development, Using Word Prediction, Using OfficeMix,and many more. 

We started the day in the Dolan Auditorium to go over the logistics for the day and finished off the session by interviewing to students who have been using assistive technology at school and at home. It is always so exciting and refreshing to here how students are taking advantage of the various technologies and what a difference it has made in their lives. Leaving the auditorium all of the participants were off to their first session which worked like clock work. The day was running rather smoothly, but about half through the second morning session we lost power and the rooms went dark. Like troopers that they are the learning continued and despite the loss of WiFi and power the speakers all were able to finish their sessions. A quick huddle ensued and we learned that one of the other buildings on campus had power so we were able to have lunch in St. Joseph's Hall and continue the sessions there. The Academic Computing Department, Events Planning & Media Services support staff were there and within minutes we were up and running in a new venue. This is probably the first Unconference with a power outage- something to talk about when we get together with our colleagues. In any case everyone stayed calm and conference went on as planned.

For those of you have not participated in an Unconference there is a special karma that ensues that makes this a very special type of event. Everyone attending is there to learn and participate and to be fully engaged. The results of the process and the fact that participants self select to be there makes for an incredible learning event and synergy. Topping off the day we had a Smackdown which is always informative and fun. We ended the day with give-a ways which were provided by so many companies that supported the event. Once again it was a pleasure and honor to host this event and we are looking to build ing a bigger and better EdCampAccessNJ 2016 event which is scheduled for March 5, 2016 at the College of St. Elizabeth - hope to see you there!





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