Ted Talk #8 Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers had the idea that whatever ideas one has themselves or just hears, the opposite may also be true. He provided several examples, and they were very interesting to listen to. At first, the idea seemed sort of silly. He gave examples about music, where in one country music starts at the 1 count, but in others the 1 is where the number ends. He then continued with an example where a man from Japan asked an American man what the street blocks were called. The man, rather arrogantly explained that only the streets have names, not the blocks. However, when an American man went to Japan and asked a native the streets names, he explained how only the blocks have names, and addresses are based on whichever house was built first, not the order in which they sit. I thought it was interesting how the answer was obvious to the natives when they were in their home, but the opposite answer confused them profusely because they had never thought about it like that before. Both men thought the answers to be extremely obvious. He ended the presentation by saying that "Whatever genius ideas you have or hear, the opposite may also be true." I thought that it related to stereotyping of people. Things that seem obvious to us when observing from the outside, could be completely opposite. I think he was trying to say how we should be open minded and open to other ways of seeing, than most of us are accustomed to. Sivers had a PowerPoint presentation up, and barely looked at it. His presentation was obviously extremely rehearsed, and he seemed less nervous than several Ted Talks i have seen before now. It was easy to relate to this presentation, and it grasped and held my attention for the entire time.

Ted Talk Response #6 Ebina Kenichi

In this ted talk, Ebina Kenichi showed his talent for magic tricks. He did things like act like he had extra limbs, and send a light from one hand to the other. Although interesting, I didn't like the overall presentation much. I kept waiting for him to say something, but he just kept doing magic tricks. What i disliked most was that i thought Ted Talks were supposed to be about something that matters to you, and should matter to the rest of the world. I'm sure magic matters to Kenichi, but I'm not so sure it should matter much to the rest of the world. Most of the previous Ted Talks had to do with something that would effect not only themselves, but the world around them. I was so disappointed with this talk that i almost turned it off, but i thought this post would be very different from my last posts, giving my blog variety. Don't get me wrong, i really did think the tricks were cool. But cool doesn't change or help the world, which has been the goal of most of the previous speakers I've seen. As interesting as magic was, I can barely write a decent response due to the lack of information provided. That's annoying to me, and makes me dislike it even more...

Ted Talk Response #6 Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers' Ted Talk was my favorite Ted Talk that i have seen so far. Although his presentation wasn't flawless, his ideas and work were phenomenal. The only things i didn't like about his presentation was how at times he would turn almost completely towards is power point, and for the most part he was fidgety. He seemed nervous and almost awkward at the beginning, constantly using the words 'uh' and 'um' and at times stuttering, but gained confidence with time. Dave's ideas on using free time to create something useful relates to Clay Shirkey's idea of cognitive surplus. His ideas were that students need one on one time to truly thrive. He gathered several journalists, writers, etc. from his community to come and tutor children for free. The zoning in the building that they rented was for retail, so the land lord told him he had to have something to sell, therefore creating the idea of a pirate supplies shop in the front, and a tutoring facility in the back. His idea created a breakthrough for many other cities and communities, and I found it really interesting how everything ties together and connects! During his presentation he used the example of: Happy student= happy family. Happy families=happy communities. Happy communities=happy world. What makes a happy student, is getting grades they are proud of, and having the motivation necessary for those grades.

Ted Talk Response #5 Ethel

I watched Ethel perform a piece of music with several other people called "Blue Room". It was much different than any other Ted Talk i've ever watched. I ended the video feeling sad, because that's the emotion that the video conveyed. It was a very short video, and i was shocked that there were no words or explanations of the music. I liked it because i could tell that the point was to portray emotion through music instead of words, because i have never seen anything like it. At first i was confused at how short and wordless this Ted Talk was, but as the video went on i began interested in trying to find the meaning of this song. I think it showed sorrow and pain, but i liked how fully open to interpritation it was. Without words it is much easier to form your own opinion, and not having words helped too. I didn't like this talk as much as some of the others i've seen, but i found it very interesting.

Ted Talk #4 (Clay Shirky)

Clay Shirky's Ted Talk had to do mostly with using the world's free time and talents to create things that whole communities and even the whole world could benefit from. He called the use of the world's free time and talents 'cognitive surplus'. Clay goes on to tell a story about a Kenyan woman creating a website called 'Ushahidi' which takes reports from fields, aggrigates them, and puts them on a map to make available to the entire population(crisis mapping).  She had this idea during a presidential election so that people would have more information on the subject, and in 72 hours her and a few engineers created this website. It's amazing to think that something like that could be done in 72 hours. Clay Shirky also expressed that nothing could be done without two things; human generosity, and digital technology. I thought it was really interesting how different those two things are, but how they play together so well. Technology is communication, yet human generosity is a way of living. So communication and a way to get information out to others, and an act of generosity from a person go hand in hand to create things. I also liked how Clay used his body and hands when he spoke to help express things and to help the audience visualise things, but didn't fidgit. He used a very clear, strong voice that you really couldn't help but listen to. He used story and comparisons to state his points, and they worked well together. I think if the world used more of cognitive surplus, and the balance between digital technology and human generosity, we could create things beyond our imaginations. So far, i think our world uses too much of digital technology, and not enough generosity to balance it out.

Ted Talk #3: Daniel Pink

Daniel Pink's ted talk was based on how rewards for good work can have a negative effect overall. The first moment that the camera landed on him, he jumped into a personal story about him starting out as a student in law school. He explained how it wasn't for him, as much as he wanted to succeed, and it was very easilly related to! Daniel used hand motions as he talked, and moved around the stage almost constantly, but didn't seem nervous of fidgety. I liked how confident and comfortable he seemed while giving his presentation, and he made his audience laugh several times. I learned about several studies testing testing how rewards can actually be a disadvantage to productivity. He explained how 8 out of the 9 studies conducted showed that "higher incentive lead to worse performance." He also emphasized that giving rewards to try and increase performance dulls the original thinking and creativity. I liked how he expressed these things as facts, not opinions. He said more than once that these studies and statistics are true facts, not feelings or philosophy. The most interesting part of the presentation was the part where Pink talked about an Australian companie's "Fedex days", and Google's "20% time" that they provided to their employees. During this time, employees were allowed to work on anything they wanted, and many huge ideas came out of these esentially free times. Overall i thought the presentation was very interesting, and Daniel kept me interested the entire time.

Ted talk response #2: "Photos of AIDS".

Kristin Ashburn's Ted Talk was called "Photos Of AIDS". From the moment the camera lands on her, she gets right to the point of her presentation, launching herself and her viewers into her story of visiting Zimbabwe, and being shocked at the amount of HIV positive people. She shared with us that 35% of the entire population in Zimbabwe is HIV positive. Kristin talked for a few minutes, and then showed a slide show of photographs of women, men, and children with AIDS. The slide show was shocking in a way, i wasn't expecting it at all. It was very real photographs that didn't shy away from reality. During the slide show, Ashburn didn't talk once, just letting the images sink into our minds. The silence really emphasized how serious and real HIV is. Kristin's way of talking showed comfort and ease, making me as her viewer feel comfortable too. Throughout the entire presentation she hardly moved her body, and didn't fidgit at all. This presentation was short and right to the point, which kept me much more interested than the last Ted Talk i watched.

Ted Talk Response #1

The man that gave this speech used several strategies to capture and hold the attention of the audience. He used humor and his easy-going personality to lighten the mood of the room. The man was very casual, and didn't pace or move around a lot during the video. At first, his jokes were funny, and kept me interested. As the speech went on though, the jokes got repetative and kept veering off of his original points on education. His use of quotes from his friends, family, and people like picasso were very interesting, and most of them provoked thought. I learned that many more people are coming to the decision that education needs to change to ensure a brighter future for generations to come. It can no longer be tought to one specific kind of learner, and our educators need to broaden their horizon.