EdCafe Reflection

EdCafe is an interesting alternative to the usual socrative seminars and class discussions. I liked how the discussions were smaller groups. This allowed everyone to participate more and the conversation to progress more quickly than a socrative seminar where two or three question took the whole period. This allowed seven or so questions to be discussed in 15 minutes. I also liked how you got to choose topics that interested you. While in this EdCafe the topics were all fairly similar, this has a lot of potential and can lead to better discussions because people talk more when they are interested. The EdCafe can be improved by having fewer groups present at a time. Some groups only had one or two attendees, so the discussions were not as good as they good have been with more minds contributing. It also would be better if the overall EdCafe had a broader theme. This would allow a greater array of topics which would be more interesting.

I feel that I did a pretty good job presenting. I was well prepared for the discussion with plenty of questions. We barely got through half of the questions we prepared. I also think I prepared a good intro. The discussion went pretty well, but there were only two attendees, so it didn’t get very in depth. I could improve by picking a better topic next time. I thought my topic was interesting, but almost no one came so I assume it could have been better. Overall, though, I feel I did a pretty good job presenting.

I also feel like I was a good attendee. I participated frequently in the discussions and feel like my points contributed to the discussion. Both EdCafes I attended had very interesting and well done discussions. I also think that I took as good of notes as I could with still participating frequently in the discussion. I took note of most of the questions and of the good points that people made. My notes are for the post part a good representation of what I learned. However, I missed some stuff because it is hard enough to write as fast as people talk without having to participate yourself. I did a good job as an attendee as well as presenter.