Education – Communication – Transformation
This “bit” has it all. It is unusual, fairly creative, involves music (singing and playing by me, actually), and is fun / funny while still making a valuable point. It has to do with the Web 2.0 mantra: Create, Consume, Remix, and Share. The question? Does that apply to learning? Or is that a recipe for plagiarism and theft?
Connect with Jeff at a conference near you this Spring!
When I was with eCollege, we always heard from integration partners which schools were truly ahead of the curve and which ones simply had a good marketing story, but were in fact awful to work with. Likewise, we would hear which companies were great to work with and which ones were not. That even translated to a company’s values or ethical practices. But embarrassingly, I did not include vendor referrals as part of my research. I solely relied on college / university recommendations. And at this point in my career, having worked on both sides of the fence as well as sitting on committees like the CWiC Executive Advisory Board, we all know that there are thousands of failed technology initiatives which have little to do with the technology and everything to do with the implementation. Yet I contacted school after school, both the solid and the weak, asking if they recommended a vendor.
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!
“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.