AM: Hack Education
#hackeducation – unconference organised by Steve Hargadon
This event is now been running for several years and its structure is as interesting as the content.
Model for the unconference – facilitated discussions, not presentations.
Step 1: Topics creation
- Organisers (or others) write topics on butchers paper – one topic per sheet, topics listed by those offering
- The sheets of paper are then laid out in a (long) line where people can see them
- Delegates vote with sticky dots on these paper sheets
Topic organisation and session creation
- Organisers then rank most popular, collapse down similar topics, Then groups are developed, and a wiki used to display the allocation eg wiki.isteunplugged.com
- Backchannel is set up eg at http://todaysmeet.com/ISTEUnplugged14
- Topics are allocated to timeslots and locations, an hour each.
Discussion
- Then people choose which to attend, discuss. Where a group exceeds 20 people it is split in two. People vote with their feet and move between sessions.
- No powerpoint etc presentations.
- NO commercial pitches are allowed.
- The day long nature means people can still wander off and attend other sessions, returning to the sessions they area interested in.
There is a lot of congratulating colleagues. Unawards are awarded via #unawards as un awards on twitter
Nominate someone for an “unaward”! http://www.unawards.com/
Smackdown
- End of day – smackdown demonstration, 3 minute presentation about the most useful things people did/learnt/said/heard, but no pitching your product, no commercial presentation
Group photo is taken part way through.