How Do You Design the Perfect, Most Impactful PD Experience?

Dean reunites with retired Ontario educator Rodd Lucier (“the Clever Sheep”) to unpack seminal professional-learning experiences that shaped their work, from early networked learning and the unconference-style Edcon to the creation of Unplugged in 2012. They describe gathering about 30–39 educators from across Canada (and later beyond) to travel from Toronto to an offline retreat at Northern Edge Algonquin, where participants—self-selected, like-minded, and already leading without titles—built relationships, collaborated in small groups, and wrote and published a book in three days using pre-work and story videos. They discuss why the setting, disconnection, shared responsibility, and informal “hallway” time made it transformative yet hard to replicate, note resources like photos, blog reflections, and a facilitation guide, and reflect on today’s fragmented online spaces, AI, robotics, and the enduring need for human connection in education.00:00 Leaders Before Titles00:22 Writing A Book Together01:03 Seminal Learning Moment03:19 First Meeting At Edcon05:54 Rodd The Clever Sheep09:00 Edcon Joy And Tribe12:13 Unplugged Origins13:20 Designing The Retreat17:49 Measuring Long Term Impact21:26 Shared Moments Matter21:52 Six String Nation Metaphor26:25 Facilitation Guide Takeaways30:26 Allstar Team Professional Learning38:09 AI Raises Human Stakes39:08 What He Reads Now42:33 Advice to Teachers Try Stuff43:12 London Hidden Gem Nature Walk