To climb steep hills
requires a slow pace
at first. William
Shakespeare
The
Never test the
depth of the water
with both feet.
African Proverb
Collaborative Leader Newsletter
Department of Recreation Administration
California State University, Fresno
Volume 1, Issue 4
February 2010
On the E.D.G.E.: Message from the Director
Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run is a great story on the ultra-distance running
culture, the Tarahumara (the indigenous people of northern Mexico) and our
evolutionary roots to running. He builds a strong case against the running shoe
industry and uses an Eric Hoffer quote which resonated with me, and should be a
caveat for all of us in the experiential education and leadership development fields:
Read more…
L-Jay Fine
Professional E.D.G.E. Promotional Video
Fresh off the press: our new Professional E.D.G.E. promotional video. The captioned video can be found
on either YouTube or on the Department of Recreation Administration’s Professional E.D.G.E. website.
Project director, Justin Butchert, along with several others, was instrumental in the culmination of this
DVD. I want to express my sincerest appreciation to all those involved, with what I hope you will agree is a
wonderfully produced overview of our new program.
Desktop Initiative
Initiative is the term given to experiential problem solving activities traditionally presented to teams to
solve on challenge courses. To challenge you, each newsletter will include a Desktop Initiative. The first
person or team to send in the correct answer will win a prize ($25.00 value). Send your answer to
L-Jay Fine at larryf@csufresno.edu. The winner will be announced in the next newsletter. Read more…
Collaborative Learning
Pundits tell us the three areas ripe for disruptive innovations in the next ten years are health care, clean
technology (e.g., energy) and education. We certainly appear to be on the cusp of a revolution in learning.
Where once I stood firmly side by side with neo-luddites—swearing they’d have to pry my chalk from my
cold, dead hands-- I am becoming a convert to many of the emerging technologies designed to foster
learning through collaboration. Read more…
Resources:
In keeping with the theme on collaborative learning, two on-line resources promise to add tremendously
to learning opportunities and expanding dialogue, cultural literacy and a deeper understanding of our
humanity. Read more…
Full Articles
On the E.D.G.E.: Message from the Director
Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run is a great story on the ultra-distance running culture, the Tarahumara
(the indigenous people of northern Mexico) and our evolutionary roots to running. He builds a strong
case against the running shoe industry and uses an Eric Hoffer quote which resonated with me, and should
be a caveat for all of us in the experiential education and leadership development fields: Every great
cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. (The True
Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements). Experiential education emerged as a solution to a
problem in learning; namely passive methods such as formal lessons and lectures failed to properly engage
students and meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. Those involved in early iterations of challenge
courses and experiential education such as Project Adventure’s Karl Rohnke and Outward Bound’s Kurt
Hahn were passionate practitioners targeting their efforts toward youth, particularly those at-risk. As the
methodology caught on, many saw the value of transferring these learning activities, including facilitation
skills, to the corporate world. Nothing wrong with that if we can create better leaders. It becomes a
concern when we dilute the power of experiential education, particularly with the facilitation skills, with a
cookie-cutter approach to delivery. When a ropes course experience turns into little more than a
Disneyland ride then we’ve become a racket. Fortunately, we are a long ways from that but it’s always
worth keeping Hoffer’s caveat in mind.
I suppose shameless self-promotion is just shy of becoming a racket so forgive me: Under the strong
urging of my wife to enter the 21st century, the E.D.G.E. Program will be entering the social media era with
a Facebook page. Please become a fan and post your observations on team building, leadership, and
collaboration.
Once again, my deepest appreciation to Dr. Nancy Nisbett for her keen editing skills; without which I
would not have the confidence to send this newsletter out. We welcome your feedback and can assure
you that your comments will be addressed. Feel free to send your thoughts and concerns to L-Jay Fine
larryf@csufresno.edu or Ryan Soares rsoares@csufresno.edu.
Happy Adventures! LJ
Desktop Initiative
Initiative is the term given to experiential problem solving activities traditionally presented to teams on
challenge courses. To challenge you, each newsletter will include a Desktop Initiative. The first person or
team to send in the correct answer will win a prize ($25.00 value). Send your answer to L-Jay Fine at
larryf@csufresno.edu. The winner will be announced in the next newsletter.
Last Month’s Desktop Initiative Solution
Last Month’s Desktop Initiative:
“A miner has a 40 lb. stone that is used for weighing ore on a balance scale. A friend borrows the stone to
weigh ore from a neighboring claim and, while caring for the stone, it gets dropped and broken into 4
pieces. Each piece is a different size and weight, but all weights are exact to the nearest precise pound.
The miner is not disappointed, because the new weights permit ore to be weighted pound by pound from
1 – 40 lbs. What are the 4 stone’s weights?” (101 of the Best Corporate Team Building Activities by Simon
Priest and Karl Rohnke, Kendall-Hunt, Dubuque, 2000)
Answer to last month’s Desktop Initiative:
The four stones weigh 1, 3, 9, and 27 pounds respectively. These are all you would need to come up with
every combination up to 40 lbs. For example 14 = 27-9-3-1 or 17 = 27-9-1. Hope you don’t mind if I don’t
type out the entire list. Again, thanks for this puzzle goes to Simon Priest and Karl Rohnke.
Today’s Desktop Initiative
Today’s Desktop Initiative is a cryptex (aka Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code) IWSEKIEANDRNOEVA (hint: after
completing this puzzle my students would believe this to be true; unfortunately none has solved it after
five years).
Collaborative Learning
Pundits tell us the three areas ripe for disruptive innovations in the next ten years are health care, clean
technology (e.g., energy) and education. We certainly appear to be on the cusp of a revolution in learning.
Where once I stood firmly side by side with neo-luddites—swearing they’d have to pry my chalk from my
cold, dead hands-- I am becoming a convert to many of the emerging technologies designed to foster
learning through collaboration. Though I’ll never be an early adopter again (I had quite a bad experience
with clickers), recognizing the incredible versatility and power inhered in these technologies it would be
irresponsible not to participate in these new learning methods. Borrowing from the Enterprise 2.0 idea,
we can readily view this new trend as Learning 2.0. The opportunities to learn are so overwhelming to be
almost intimidating. We are likely to see two developments in learning in the 21 st century. First,
individuals from all walks of life and geography, with the right initiative, can learn virtually anything on
their own. Secondly, learning in traditional settings will be transformed from the sage on the stage model
to a collaborative learning model. Namely, innovations will center on team-based learning, case studies,
and problem based learning, all incorporating an on-line platform for deeper conversations and more give
and take.
Since collaborative leadership is so dependent on the mindset and practices of a learning organization, this
will be an on-going topic we will re-visit. I invite you to contribute to this conversation on learning by
emailing your thoughts to larryf@csufresno.edu.
Resources:
In keeping with the theme on collaborative learning, two on-line resources promise to add tremendously
to learning opportunities and expanding dialogue, cultural literacy and a deeper understanding of our
humanity.
Academic Earth provides numerous video lecture series by topic and discipline from some of the top
universities and subject matter experts. Several of these are full semester’s worth of videos.
iTunes University provides a repository of podcasts and videos from colleges and universities. Touted as:
Learn anything, anytime, anywhere: “iTunes U — a powerful distribution system for everything from
lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audiobooks to tours — is an innovative way to get educational
content into the hands of students” (Apple Website).