Event Location

• EdCamp Philly will be held in the same place it was in 2011, Jon M. Huntsman Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The address is 3730 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106. Click here for a map of the area.

Registration / doors open at 8:00 am

• Please be patient as you see the organizing team and volunteers scurrying madly in the minutes leading up to 8:00 am … that is when we will begin checking people in!

Parking

• There is street parking in the area and a large parking facility called Penn Garage 30 at 38th & Walnut directly across the street from Huntsman Hall. Click here for a pic of the garage. Here’s a photo of the rates they charge. The garage opens at 8am.

Use either entrance to Huntsman Hall (Locust Walk or Walnut Street)

• This year you can enter Huntsman Hall either on Locust Walk or Walnut Street. There will be signs all over the place to guide you!

Bring your Photo ID! <= this is IMPORTANT!

• UPenn security has a list of all registered edcampers and will check that list and your photo ID every time you enter the building. This includes if you leave the building for lunch. Please have your photo ID with you at all times so you can enter the building when needed. (TSA-style pat-downs are optional and are available for a small fee.)

No Walk-Ins!

• We’re sorry but the list of edcampers is now final and we can’t allow walk-in or on-site registration.

Breakfast & Schedule Creation

• Once you’ve checked in, come down to to Room F95 (on the ground/lower floor, also called the “Forum Level”) to enjoy some light refreshments and coffee courtesy of our terrific sponsor, PAECT! We’ll be creating the schedule in the same room, so, if things get crowded, please move to the atrium area and find a place to sit  and relax once you’ve gotten something to eat (and proposed a session if you wish.)

Wifi

• The first 300 attendees will be provided with a unique wireless access code at registration. DO NOT LOSE THIS CODE! Also, do not SHARE your code, as it can only be used on one device at a time. So sorry! Please plan accordingly.

Stickers!

• Yes, boys and girls, we’ve got STICKERS this year! They will be available (on a first-come, first-served basis) until supplies are exhausted. One per Edcamper, please!

Session Schedule

• Once the schedule of sessions for the day is determined, it will be posted in this super-cool live updating Google Doc. Feel like bookmarking it now? Go ahead!

#Edcamp Greeters

• Interested in acting as a greeter/volunteers to direct people and answer questions? Please let us know when you sign in! (We do not have any Edcamp Philly t-shirts from last year for greeters but feel free to wear yours if you have one!)

Twitter Hashtag

• #edcampphilly

Flickr Group & Flickr Photo Tag

• http://www.flickr.com/groups/edcamp/ <= why not go ahead and join it now?
• edcampphilly

Event Posterous: http://edcampphilly.posterous.com/

• Thanks for the idea, Edcamp Boston! If you take any notes, shoot any videos, take any pictures, prepare any slides, or write up any summaries of your Edcamp experience, make sure to send them here to the posterous! We’d love for this location to be a complete record of what people saw, thought, and felt before, during, and after Edcamp! Just send an email to edcampphilly@posterous.com.

Live Streaming

• Individual session participants are invited to live stream their events if they so desire. We do not have an official conference channel. Sorry! Watch Twitter for any shared live streaming URLs.

Web 2.0 “Smackdown” at 3:30 pm in the auditorium

• A “Web 2.0 Smackdown” is a fun, lively session where people from the audience take turns coming up to the podium and are given a very short amount of time (measured in minutes) to show and possibly demonstrate a particular Web 2.0 tool. Don’t miss it!

Door prizes will be given away after the Smackdown

• We have some cool door prizes to give away thanks to our terrific sponsors! You must be present to win - we will handing out raffle tickets as attendees enter the auditorium for the Smackdown.

After party at City Tap House starts at 4:30 pm

• This year’s after party will be held at the City Tap House at 3925 Walnut St (about three blocks west of Huntsman Hall). The festivities start at 4:30 and go until 6pm. There should always a group heading that way at the end of the day, so come and hang out for some FREE food, drinks (on you) and conversation (free for everyone)! Click here for a map.

“Leave No Trace”

• Huntsman Hall is a pristine, exclusive, PRIVATE meeting space being made available to us by our awesome sponsor, Wharton Computing. Please clean up after yourself. While you’re at it, please clean up after others, too. We want to treat the facility with the respect it deserves!

That should be it! If anything changes or if new information becomes available, it will be posted here on the blog. Have a question? Post a comment!

SEE YOU SATURDAY!

How are you involved in education?

• I’m a high school Social Studies Teacher.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?

• It’s loud, it’s chaotic. Everyone is working hard, trying their best, being curious, learning independence.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?

• I’ve attended EdcampSS

Do you have a website or blog?

• http://theantiteacheroftheyear.blogspot.com/

Are you on Twitter?

• @smallbutfeisty

What is your favorite digital tool?

• x

How are you involved in education?

• I am a media specialist (7-12) at Ridgefield Park Junior-Senior High School in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?

• I would love to see each child in the school with an iPad. All textbooks/notebooks would loaded on the iPad, so students would only have to worry about one item in their backpack. My library computer lab would be all Macintosh desktops, (we have PCs) and the school’s network would be F-A-S-T. The library would have seating areas, and special quiet areas for students to receive tutoring from our honor society members. Each classroom would have 10 desktop computers for student use. Each teacher would be given a laptop and each classroom would have a Proxima projector mounted from the ceiling. With no ban on smartphones, students and teachers would be able to experiment with using QR codes in their lesson plans and homework. I could go on and on, but without a FAST network, all technology plans would fail.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?

• edcamp Philly 2011

If you were to lead a session at EdCamp, what would it be about?

• The 5 Web 2.0 Tools You Should Be Using Right Now
• 7 Things I Want Everyone to Know About EBSCO
• Newbie’s Intro to Google Apps and Docs

Do you have a website or blog?

• A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet: http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogpot.com

Are you on Twitter?

• @cybrarian77

What is your favorite digital tool?

• Google Apps and Google Forms……..my list is long and I love all things digital!!!

How are you involved in education?

• I’ve taught technology to students from kindergarten through college, both online and in person. My current placement is as an 8th grade technology teacher at the Corning Free Academy middle school in Corning, NY – while at the same time teaching online computer programming and design courses to high school students.My aim is to eventually move out of the classroom and into “management” – not necessarily as a principal, but as a technology director or curriculum specialist.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?

• bright walls, low light, comfortable chairs/couches, a water cooler, a wall full of books, fast WiFi, and a dozen students who are well-fed, dressed to code, undistracted by family or societal issues, ready to learn.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?

• Edcamp Philly 2011
• Edcamp NYC 2011, 2012 (5/5)
• Edubloggercon 2009, 2010, 2011

If you were to lead a session at EdCamp, what would it be about?

• teacher burnout… how to keep energized for the long-term

Do you have a website or blog?

• http://pedagology.net

Are you on Twitter?

• @RjWassink

What is your favorite digital tool?

• board-free interactive projectors

This year, edcamp philly is adding a new layer – The Inquiry Room. This space will deviate from the hour long slot where facilitators determine the topic and manage the conversation. For the Inquiry Room, the facilitator (most likely myself) does not decide the topic. Instead, a very edcamp approach will be taken, with attendees suggesting topics and then voting on the one they find most interesting. From there, participants will partake in a deep dive around the chosen topic using the Appreciative Inquiry methodology. Rather than the hour long block, the session will last as long as needed, when the group is satisfied that the exploration has resulted in some sort of deliverable for themselves, their classrooms, or schools.

We are introducing this for two reasons. Firstly, we need to move beyond “EDCAMP IS AWESOME!!!!!” to “Edcamp is awesome and produces positive, tangible results”. Having deliverables does this. More importantly, the methods of PD are just as important, possibly even more so, than the content of the PD. The Appreciative Inquiry method models a means of building upon assets for reforming our institutions rather.

If you have a topic that you would like to explore (Ex. Standards based grading, making mobile the norm, embedding social media in the learning environment), please suggest it in the comments or bring it with you to the event.

See you on the 19th!

Image credit: Kalexanderson on Flickr

Three hundred eighty six (!) people are registered. We know that attendance will be less than that, but we’re on track for a RECORD crowd this year! MORE people means MORE conversations, MORE connections, MORE variety!

Please check out The Idea Board and consider offering suggestions for sessions.

You might want to take a look at our “Where & When” page for maps and basic logistics.

Watch this space for future blog posts with more event-day details, tips for those who are new to Edcamp Philly as well as veteran campers, and more!

We are all looking forward to seeing you in two weeks!

The Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communication and Technology (PAECT) is a dynamic professional organization offering leadership and networking opportunities to professionals throughout the Commonwealth by nurturing the exchange of ideas, information, resources, and emerging developments in current technology issues.

Thanks to Kristin Hokanson for contacting us on behalf of PAECT. We are looking forward once again to enjoying a tasty breakfast thanks to your generous donation! Make sure to read more about the goings on in the Southeast Region of PAECT on their blog - and consider joining!

Registration is now closed.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept walk-ins on the day of the event. University of Pennsylvania security team must have all attendee names on the list in advance. We are sending that list to them today.

See you in Philadelphia on May 19th!

As of this writing – 7pm on Sunday, April 29th – we have 372 registrations! (This is going to be the biggest, bestest Edcamp Philly ever!)

We’ve got to close registration soon – so we decided to give keep it open until 8:00 AM TUESDAY, MAY 2.

Can’t wait to see you all in Philly!

Watch this space for more information as we approach the big day – including posts on how to get the most out of your Edcamp experience, logistics like parking and public transportation, tips for newbies, and more!

Thank you all!