HomeTeams

=Home Teams= A conference/institute/workshop structure that allows for more focused conversation of "new learnings".

Example:
Conference attendees are each assigned to a "home team." For a local conference, these "home teams" are usually "school teams". Each team member attends different concurrent sessions and at the end of each day the "home teams" have time to meet and share their learning. Here is a typical conference schedule that includes this structure:

8:30 - 9:30 Welcome & Keynote 9:45 - 10:45 Concurrent Sessions Period 1 11:00 - 12:00 Concurrent Sessions Period 2 12:00 - 1:15 Lunch 1:15 - 2:15 Concurrent Sessions Period 3 2:30 - 3:45 Home Team Meetings
 * Day 1:**

Each day of the conference or institute includes time at the end of each day for home team meetings.

Home Team Meetings are structured (using protocols) so that all voices are included and that everyone has the opportunity to share what they learned in their separate sessions during the day. The home teams share information and then discuss the implications for their organization/site. In other words, the conversation covers "Here is what we learned" and "Here is how it applies to our school or district" -- and hopefully ends with the discussion of plans and development of solid action plans.

Educon 2.0 Home Teams
We wouldn't have whole school teams, so in what other way could these be structured? Here are some ideas:

This could work, but not sure yet how this would differ from the conversations that might occur in each session -- since the sessions will most likely be topic specific. Any ideas?
 * By Interest Area (SL, blogging, podcasting, advocacy & policy, etc.)**

This would allow for discussions at the end of each day around the implications for new learnings at specific education levels. For example, everyone who is associated with secondary education would share what they have learned with each other and then discuss how it applies to the secondary school level.
 * By Level (elementary, secondary, college/univversity, community, central office, etc.)**