Edcamp unconferences: Educators' perspectives on an untraditional professional learning experience

Edcamps are a free, voluntary, and participant-driven form of unconference professional development. This article reports on survey data gathered from 769 Edcamp participants. Beforehand, these educators indicated diverse motivations for their attendance, including anticipation of what, how, and with whom they would learn. Afterwards, respondents overwhelmingly gave high ratings to their Edcamp experiences, and expressed interest in participating in future Edcamps. Qualitative comments suggested that the combination of how learning occurred and with whom appeared to be the salient strength of participants' experiences. However, most participants also identified areas for improvement in the Edcamps they attended.