Education – Communication – Transformation
I couldn’t do what my mind was screaming to do which was to yell through the rant explaining that of COURSE it hadn’t worked! The way he went about implementing it was ludicrous! He had coupled poor classroom management skills with a half-baked attempt at a learning model he didn’t even fully understand, so obviously it hadn’t worked!
I’ve worked with a lot of schools in my time. Some were progressive and poised to innovate. Many plodded along, hoping that they didn’t mess something up to such an extreme that would lose students. And a few have been dysfunctional (at best) if not just plain troubling.
A course based mostly on lecture has negative consequences. A campus where student affairs and academic affairs don’t legitimately work together has negative consequences. Schools that resist online learning have unseen negative consequences for students, just as schools who bound into eLearning without strategic considerations for quality and scale also see negative consequences. Faculty Development being left solely to the discretion of the faculty can have negative consequences. Athletics integration on campus can have negative consequences. Hiding school email addresses from the public can have negative consequences. Creating a school website for marketing purposes and ignoring current students, faculty, and staff can have negative consequences. Recruiting volunteer faculty as adjuncts can have negative consequences. And on and on and on…
He then showed a US map of social media sites trolling for young inductees which ranged from racist to anarchist. How were they finding new participants? Connection. They were working to connect these teens via social media to fallacious arguments that “felt good” to young, manipulable minds. They would find connection points with family, friends, religion, justice, and the list goes on. But the strategy was the same. Connect. Because once connected, it was very hard to disconnect.
Dr. Jeff Borden. Speaker, Educator, Stand-Up Comedian, Innovator, and all around nice guy…
“As a teacher, if I don’t know the answer, I’ll tell you I do. Then I will inform you that it’s much more important for you to find the answer yourself so as to learn it. Finally, once you find the answer, I’ll have you email me so I can tell you if it’s right…” Dr. Jeff Borden delivers keynote addresses and workshops in an unconventional manner. He actually uses what we know to be effective practices when speaking, teaching, facilitating, or consulting. What does that mean? We know that lecture is likely the single-worst form of communication available if the desired outcome is to remember and also an impetus for change. We know from brain research that PowerPoint stinks. We know from hundreds of years of learning experiments that listeners who “do” are far more impacted than listeners who solely listen. Jeff not only speaks about this very research, but actually models it in his presentations, ensuring audiences will laugh, possibly cry, but engage with ideas meaningfully and transformationally throughout.