This is ALL it Takes to Create an EdCamp

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hakluyt/

       The following items were accomplished in 5 to 10 hours over several days.  Feel free to use this template for your own edcamp.  My last blog post will also tell you my perceptions of what it takes to run a good edcamp.  It was written as I attended a very successful edcamp in Plano Texas.

     Things that have to happen: (1) find a venue, (2) make sure there is sufficient wifi, (3) make sure there is a good date, (4) create a webpage, (5) create a Facebook page, (6) get people involved to help you, (7 - ???) whatever else might head your way.

     Finding a venue:  For EdCamp Manor I decided that I wanted the have the name Manor in the title and that, pretty much, required me to hold the event at our school.  But, there needs to be a place where a couple of hundred people (with wifi-needy tech) can congregate.  This meant that we need to use our cafeteria.  So, I took care of checking off (#2) wifi, by sending an email to our asst. superintendent for technology.  I let her know that what we would need and that it would be on a Saturday and I am still waiting to hear back from her.

     Get a good date:  For this, and for anybody with a major university in town, I needed to make sure that the University of Texas Football schedule had an open date that didn't conflict with any other important dates.  I literally got October 22nd as the only good date from the beginning of school to the Holiday Break in December.

     I've looked at several of the edcamp webpages from the original (Philly) to Plano's and I decided that I liked the idea of creating a wiki.  So, I opened Plano's wiki and set mine up just like theirs.  There was a couple of reasons on this.  First, I was familiar with it, having looked at it off and on since the beginning of the year.  And, second, I wanted to learn how to create a wiki.  As a high school teacher I never thought about creating a wiki but I know many elementary teachers who use wikis all of the time.

     On my wiki home page I decided, like Plano, to have a link to a facebook page.  This meant that I needed to set up a facebook page.  It only took a few minutes and I had something to link to.

      The remainder of the time spent was dealing with crossing t's and dotting i's.  But, through this process I learned how to embed a widget for a twitter hashtag feed and a widget for a Wall Wisher page (to allow people to submit ideas).

     Now I just need to hear whether I can have the date and wifi.  If I get that answer then I'll go live on the wiki and the facebook page.
  
     Hope to see you in Manor, in October.