teaching
A professional development workshop on creativity and mentorship.
This presentation will explore the emerging cultures of technology and their impact on childhood development, family life, and education. Technology has already become an essential feature of the landscape of childhood and adolescence (gaming, blogging, social networking, cell phone
At Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
In September I will be teaching three courses and facilitating various workshops. The courses are focused on creativity, culture, and personal development. The workshops are focused on the growing issues surrounding technology use among youth (and adults). Some of the workshops are private events (for specific organizations, or in particular schools). If you are interested in attending or sponsoring a workshop, please let me know.
The courses I will be teaching at Kwantlen are for those interested in educational experiences that are purposeful, engaging, fun, and useful. My goal with these courses is to help students rediscover the authentic joy of learning. Here are the course descriptions:
Mythological Narratives
Creative writing is a powerful, ancient, and yet delicate practice. We write -- quietly, often in isolation, in tentative and mercurial moods. We revise, and turn back upon our own narratives, and wonder about the reception our work might meet in the world. Sometimes we hide manuscripts in drawers, or take deliberate action -- as did Franz Kafka and Mahatma Gandhi -- to prevent our words from making their way to an audience. Kafka and Gandhi were both unsuccessful in preventing their writings from being destroyed; but their impulse to do so, to keep hooded the hawk of their creativity, is common among writers of all stripes. We're not sure that we have, really, anything to say; or we are afraid that if our words are not well met we might ourselves be wounded. Or we believe, as did the ancient Egyptians, that words have their own life, for good or for ill, and that writing is a means of seizing the power of the gods. This course attempts to explore this conversation -- between the writer and the wider world -- and to find ways of bringing our writing safely out of hiding.
We will be exploring myth, and writing craft, and method, and the strategic practices every writer must learn in wrestling with narrative. Each of us will examine our strengths -- the ways in which the natural mood and flavour of our writing makes itself known -- and our vulnerabilities as well: how we get stuck, or lazy, how we lost confidence and gain doubt. How we learn to shut down and hope the whole thing will go away.
This course is about writing, and reading, and making a claim for the fundamental right of storytelling. Within that context, we will explore the ancient practices of myth-making (particularly as regards family and culture), the hurdles of writing (as they involve craft and precision and clarity) and the great gifts we might receive from others of our creative kin (that is to say, the long tradition of writers of writers and myth-makers).
The threshold between fact and fiction (which is not the same as that between truth and lie) is one of the territories of myth. In this course we stake out that territory, inspecting the geology of its forms and ideals, finding our own individual places to homestead. Myth involves the search for truth, and fidelity to fact, yet also an awareness that truth and fact are often provisional, and mythological; they are shapeshifters on the wide-open plain of creativity. We will explore what this means, and what to do about it.
For more information, feel free to review the course page.
The course is offered Tuesdays, beginning September 7, from 10:00am to 12:50pm, at Kwantlen's Surrey campus.
The prerequisites for this course are minimal: 30 credits of 1100 or higher courses, or permission from the instructor. If you are interested in the course but unsure about your suitability, please let me know.
Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts 3100
This course is about creativity, about making a claim for the fundamental right of intentional creative action. Within that context, we will explore the ancient and modern practices of creative endeavor (particularly as regards family and culture), the hurdles of creativity (as they involve craft and precision and clarity) and the great gifts we might receive from others of our creative kin (that is to say, the long tradition of writers, poets, sculptors, dancers, craftspeople of all stripes, musicians, myth-makers, and so on). Throughout this process, our guiding archetype will be that of the trickster.
The goal of the course (from my point of view, at least), is to have fun: to preserve and nurture the creative and imaginative spirit that is the foundation of all the arts and sciences. The course will include a variety of learning experiences contingent upon regular attendance and dedicated participation. Because creativity is an interactive process, much of the class time will be devoted to group experiential exercises, individual reflective tasks, collaborative endeavors, and practical assignments.
For more information, feel free to review the course page.
The course is offered Thursdays, beginning September 9, from 10:00am to 12:50pm, at Kwantlen's Surrey campus.
The prerequisites for this course are minimal: 30 credits of 1100 or higher courses, or permission from the instructor. If you are interested in the course but unsure about your suitability, please let me know.
Social media, online technologies, mobile devices, and many other recent developments have transformed our social and educational landscape. Laptops and handhelds have replaced pads and pencils. The utility of digital text has surpassed that of the written word. Attention spans have shortened while cognitive plasticity has increased. In the midst of this sea-change, educators have tended to hunker down, freak out, and yearn for the good old days.
And yet, these recent technological developments (along with their social and educational consequences) offer the greatest opportunities for education since the invention of writing itself. This new environment offer educators greater access to learners, improved potential for innovative and immersive learning experiences, enhanced efficiency (which translates, among other things, into reduced marking loads), and many other benefits available with minimal effort. New media, social networking, and online teaching tools offer educators a means of shaping their teaching within digital culture. Here are a few tips and suggestions about how to leverage the digital environment in service of classroom excellence:
Understand Technologies as Cultures
Recognize that the psychological development of anyone born after 1990 is different from those born prior. Technology cultures are foundational to childhood and adolescent development today. The solution is not to avoid technologies but rather to understand them, to participate in them. Be an informed educator (and parent).
Find and Follow the Meme
Technology cultures function by way of memes (and temes); patterns of interest and behavior that spread across the web in unpredictable ways. Follow the memes of technology cultures (such as the Stop Motion T-shirt War and Charlie the Unicorn) and you find the pathways to learner engagement.
Embrace the Geek
Learn and use smart tools, such as the capability of modern websites to distribute your content through the social media environment (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Safeguard your documents using cloud storage (Dropbox, GitHub, etc.). Use browser-based website software (ideally, free and open source software). Drupal, MediaWiki, WordPress, Moveable Type, Meetup, Ning, Delicious, and many other tools offer outstanding possibilities for education. Take the time to experiment, explore, and learn.
Don't Use Word and PowerPoint (gasp!)
Instead, use tools designed for collaboration, interaction, ergonomics, and multiple formats. PowerPoint is evil.
Use Social Media Tools in the Classroom
Contemporary students spend more than 40 hours each week in front of computer and television screens (which leads to a host of associated developmental risks). Contemporary educators compete with an avalanche of information, process, and social activity. Rather than struggle upstream against the momentum of these forces, use them to promote learner engagement. Don't ban social media; find ways that social media can improve the quality of the educational services you provide.
Advocate for Free Access to Online Content
In the online sphere, free is a term with many nuanced meanings. Essentially, learners today have access to information in ways that are fundamentally new and dynamic. Text books are obsolete. Research has become an online (and finely-grained) activity. Blogs are a legitimate form of scholarship. Copyright and information licensing are being transformed. Slowly but irrevocably, we are moving toward an educational system based on the digital. And digital information wants to be free.
Be Creative
Teaching (in its various forms) is one of the most influential roles in society. After parenting, it is perhaps the most crucial, for all ages. And yet, teaching — whether to children or adults — is a profession in which few practitioners have any substantial training. Some instructors have certificates or degrees in teaching, but there’s so much to know about the subject that most good instructors pick up their best skills after training, in the field, thinking on their feet and trying to keep students awake.
Many of the things educators do (learners sitting in chairs for long periods, then writing exams; instructors droning on to massive groups of disinterested students) are precisely the opposite to what is known to work better (learners involved actively, encouraged to make substantive commitments to the process, evaluated by way of collaborative assessment). Most good instructors eventually learn to turn the system around, to craft an environment that is both more holistic and effective. The web provides innumerable means of accomplishing this aim.
Feedback from the group:
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Wonderful morning. Lots of data and information backing ideas. Have him again.
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Wow - love that the speaker was a doctor that could give us amazing info!
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Dr. Ross Laird’s presentation should be prescribed for all educators.
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Valuable information for teachers and parents. PACs should hear this information.
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Excellent information session about the challenges our youth face in the tech world. Parents need to hear his message. Quickest 3 hours spent at a pro-d session!
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It was excellent because the speaker was well informed and the material that he presented was thought provoking!
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Ross Laird presented ideas that we could firmly grasp and incorporate when dealing with students that have a background of addictions.
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I attended Technology addictions with Ross Laird and the presentation was absolutely outstanding. He was very informative and the presentation should be repeated. Our students belong to a new age of learners and they have been ever so greatly affected by technology in terms of their learning styles.
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Can’t recommend it highly enough. It was my second time to go see him!
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Addiction to Technology should be a must for everyone to attend to…very good presentation.
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Very well presented with good information and research to pass on to parents.
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Wonderful morning. Lots of data/ information backing ideas. Have him again.
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Session with Ross Laird was brilliantly done & full of information! Loved it. Practical too.
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Changed my thinking. Would go to another workshop with this presenter.
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Outstanding!!!!! Unreal……glad to hear he’s booked for the fall as well.
April 6th is the due date of the third assignment.
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