The Arch of Experience: Expeditionary Learning
One of the most often quoted poems in the annals of expeditionary learning is Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses wherein an old sailor is looking back on his life and says "All experience is an arch wherethro' gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades forever and...
The Writing Life
Many high schools have Career Days which involve inviting people of different occupations and walks of life to do presentations and workshop on their chosen profession. This talk is one James has given many times in many places in Canada and beyond and is often done...
From George Simpson to Arctic Sovereignty: Confessions of a professional geographer
Responding to an invitation from the Geography Department at the University of Guelph to speak about his life as a professional geographer, James prepared this presentation that follows an arc through the teaching, research, speaking, service and writing for books,...
Packaging Experience: Jungle Jim’s guide to building sick presentations
As James has worked with students of all ages throughout his career—lately with Students on Ice—helping them to build personal knowledge from experience, more and more of those students have expressed a need to develop advocacy skills and this presentation is all...
OEffective Education: Rethinking the value of experiential education
As a leader in Outdoor and Experiential Education, James has often challenged the status quo, insisting that these forms of education will remain marginal until and unless their proponents willingly and enthusiastically enter the educational main stream. This...
Fabricación de Profesores Verdes—Making Green Teachers
Originally prepared for a series of keynotes and workshops in Cuba for the Foundation for Nature and Humanity in Havana, this presentation is a semi-biographical story about the importance of environmental education in any curriculum and how this end might be achieved...
Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoe Tradition
One of the most remarkable characters in the pantheon of canoeists is unquestionably Bill Mason, subject of James Raffan's acclaimed best-selling biography, Fire in the Bones. As with all of his projects, James dived into the research with abandon, committed to total...
Education as Story: The power of narrative
As a life-long and award winning experiential educator, James Raffan is a powerful advocate for risk as a central driver of effective education. Using the distinction between public knowledge and personal knowledge, in this engaging keynote—originally prepared for...