Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

The label "childish" is an irrational stereotype, because adults have done stupid things, and kids have done things that have had huge impacts on the world. Also, childlike irrationality is actually something that the world today needs, rather than more excuses about why people shouldn't do things or don't have time. A knowledge of past failures can be a burden on adults, and they accept as fact that Utopian/ideal things are impossible.In order to make these things a reality, you first have to believe that they can happen.Kids don't start out with the filter of what is "possible" then base their goals off of that, they start out with their goals, then see how they can acchieve them despite "impossibility." Kids have a lot to share with adults. Children already learn a lot from adults, but adults need to start learning from kids. A lot of this is based on trust. Adults have a restrictive attitude towards kids because they don't trust them. Adults also often underestimate kids' abilities.

The speaker organizes her presentation like a paper. She starts out with an overview of what she's talking about, makes several points and gives examples, and wraps up her ideas at the end. Also, her jokes keep the audience engaged in her talk. Her language is eloquent, but easily comprehensible.

Her presentation type is somewhere between formal and informal. She uses vocabulary like a professor, and she makes her points like a formal paper, but she also talks to the audience as if she were having a conversation, not giving a speech. Also, she uses her PowerPoint only as a visual aid for a few of her points, and definitely not a guiding force in her talk.

The goal should be not to raise kids just like adults, but to raise kids that are better than the current adult generation. It is imperative to create opportunities for children so that they can grow up to fill those opportunities (and then some.) I personally feel that I should have the opportunity to teach my teachers as well as learning from them. I also feel that in some areas I am capable of handling more responsibility than is being given to me. In education, it shouldn't just be a teacher at the head of the class giving directions; students should teach their teachers, too. In other words, learning between grownups and kids should be reciprocal. Adults must lend an ear to kids today because they are the leaders of tomorrow. The world's problems shouldn't be the human family's heirloom.

PW Singer on military robots and the future of war

1. What are your take-aways from this video?

2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
3. What is his/her presentation style?
4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?

A robots revolution is upon us. There is no permanent advantage in war, so the U.S. won't always be ahead. Warfare has gone open-source. Good guys might use them, but so might bad guys. Reinforce the power of individuals against government. There will also be an increase in terrorism. We are taking the moral part out of war. There will be entertainment based on war videos because everything is recorded by the machines. What is the message we are trying to send? We are trying to show our power. What are we actually expressing? We are expressing that we are cowards, too scared to send men in to fight. There is much more potential for "oops" moments. Robots are emotionless, so they don't get upset when their buddies are killed or go off on missions of vengeance. However, robots are emotionless, so they see a helpless old woman the same as a tank: A series of zeroes and ones. Machines can be used for both good and evil. Creativity can build fantastic machines, but part of it that is coming from a drive to destroy each other.

He uses lots of pictures and video of what he’s trying to express. He also makes jokes during his presentation. His speaking perfectly coincides with his PowerPoint. At the end of his presentation, he gives a final thought.

His performance has a light-hearted sort of mood, rather than a grave tone that you might expect for such a talk. However, though he does make jokes at times, he very serious about a lot of the things he is talking about. His presentation did not sound like an essay, and it was not organized according to essay format. He had closing thoughts, but not an opener, and not any real internal structure besides the PowerPoint’s series of slides.

What matters from this video is not that we have this technology so much as the question of what we are going to do with this technology now that we have it. I can personally apply this because when I grow older, this technology will have progressed, and we will probably be fighting machine wars. If I join the military, my experience will be much different than one might expect today; my job might consist of remotely guiding a robot into battle, pressing the buttons I am commanded to press. This applies to education because schools need to keep students informed about things like this; I had no idea about this stuff before watching this video, and I assumed it was just science fiction nonsense. Schools are doing a good job, however, of informing students of the science fiction nonsense that, as of late, is becoming real. Finally, the world can use this new type of war to decrease human casualties. On the other hand, the technology can also be used for evil, and it is almost inevitable that there will be an increase in remote terrorist activity.

Dave Eggers' Wish: Once Upon a School

1. What are your take-aways from this video?
2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
3. What is his/her presentation style?
4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?

One-on-one teaching is more effective than normal class-size teaching.Teachers have to deal with students that are not on grade level especially in reading in writing in under-funded schools. However, this can be overcome if adults--even if they are not educators by profession-- take part in ensuring that a child learns essential skills like reading and writing.

Some of his effective speaking techniques include starting off with something funny and making lots of jokes throughout his presentation. He also uses much gesticulation. He almost constantly engages the audience with humor, which is an extremely effective way of communicating his ideas.

He is very informal in his presentation, talking about his nervousness and pointing out the clock. He doesn't really rely on the PowerPoint. He is the guiding force, not the PowerPoint.

I can apply this to my life because it teaches me that one-on-one education is important for my learning. Therefore, I should seek often as possible one-on-one communication with teachers. Teachers can use this information because it not only gives them a better idea of how to teach their students; it also gives them valuable information about motivating their students: when students know that their work is going to be permanent and viewed by others. Finally, this presentation is important to the world, because it shows that kids can find it fun to learn, read and write, that it doesn't have to be a burden on children to do their studies. It also shows that when people are willing to pitch into projects like the free tutoring center, lots can be accomplished; it is better to do this than to require it, because, as I learned in Daniel Pink's book Drive, this would destroy the intrinsic motivation and therefore it would probably greatly decrease the progress and the efficiency of this type of activity.

Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

There is no inherent meaning in information; it is what you do with information that matters. We don't see the world the way it is. We see it in a way that is useful to us. We are defined by our environment and our interaction with that environment. Only through uncertainty is there potential for understanding. A lot of what we see is what we have seen before. It is what we think we should be seeing, not what we actually are seeing.

Some of the effective speaking techniques include giving lots of examples to support his ideas; using lots of different mediums to show those examples, like video and audio; talking even during the thirty seconds he was having people look at the red/green optical illusion; and having audience participation in his demonstrations.

His presentation is informal. Most of the time his tone is not one of him lecturing but one of him having a conversation with the audience. He doesn’t use his PowerPoint as his sole organizer of his speaking; however, he does make use of it for most all of his points.

What matters from this presentation is that our perception of the world is relative; not everything we see is fact. In fact (☺), most of what we see is what we have seen and for this reason think we should see. To me personally, this matters because it makes me more aware of what is really true, and that that is not necessarily what I see. This concept should be taught in education, because it would give students new perspectives on what is true about their perception. Finally, the world needs this information because people need to be able to make wise decisions even if things are not always what they appear to be.  

Clay Shirky

People are motivated internally to be of service to others. When an extrinsic motivation is used, it destroys all moral responsibility, and therefore all intrinsic motivation. Another takeaway is that modern technology combined with intrinsic human motivation can have a big impact.Finally, things that have civic value and help a whole community are much more valuable today than things with communal value that can be found anywhere and only benefit the person who uses it.

The speaker uses several examples to support each of his points. He also starts out with a story, which helps people remember what he was saying.

The speaker's presentation style is very formal. He doesn't really make any jokes, and even when he tries, he's not funny. He lectures the crowd, rather than having a conversation. He uses the slideshow to demonstrate things he can't explain with words or to show pictures that compliment his lecture. However, he doesn't use it constantly; some of the time he turns it off.
 
What matters from this video is that, with the world having trillions of hours per year to spend, it should
be spent on giving back to the world, since we now have the opportunity. More specifically, it should be used to make things with civic value--things that benefit a whole community--like Ushahidi, more than things with just communal value--things that only benefit the person using it and can be found anywhere--like LOL cats. This applies to me, because I have free time that I can use to do nothing, do something with communal value, or help with something that has civic value. Education needs to teach kids the importance of this decision.Schools should also show youth how they can get involved in programs that create civic value. Finally, the world at large needs to get more involved in creating things that have an impact, and it must not try to create an extrinsic motivator to get people to do this. It has to let intrinsic motivation be the determining factor.

Ted Talk 3: Daniel Pink

The major lesson in this video is that there is a difference between what has been discovered about motivation and what business continues to do to motivate employees. More specifically, business has been using extrinsic, carrot-and-stick-type motivation, when most jobs today are creativity-based, and therefore much more benefited by intrinsic, self-motivation. In fact, extrinsic motivation can actually be harmful to the performance of the incentivized and/or threatened worker. 


The speaker organizes his speaking much like one would a formal paper. He starts with an attention-getting statement that turns out to be a joke. After that he gives people an idea of what his goal is for the presentation and launches into his speech. Near the end he sums up the main points of what he had said and gave food for thought (And maybe we can change the world). Finally, he constantly used his hands to talk (gesticulation).

The speaker’s presentation style was semi-formal. He made a few jokes, but for the most part he was giving information, and was serious. Also, he used the slideshow to show important points he was making, as well as to show the “Candle Problem” picture.

If everyone had the information from this video and was willing to apply it, it could revolutionize the current system. This video applies to me personally because as a student I believe I should use intrinsic motivation rather than obtaining extrinsic motivation from others. The other way it could affect me is if I end up in a position of authority in a company, I will make sure to use this information as I relate to those who are under my authority. The information in this video may have an impact on education because if teachers heed the words of Dan Pink, they will relate to their students in a different way than using rewards and punishments: they will give students more room for self-management, letting them use their intrinsic motivation. Finally, this video could affect the world, because it would completely change the way businesses are run, and the way any person of authority deals with those underneath him. 

Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action

One lesson from this video is that nature has answers to lots of our conundrums that we tend to go about solving in the hardest or worst way possible. The speaker also teaches that different organisms even from different species can learn from each other. Finally, one takes away from this video that humans need to rely more on nature.

The speaker gives lots of examples to support her topic. She also speaks towards the audience, not towards the slide show. She uses comparisons on the slide show that are visually appealing, e.g. comparing the black, bumpy skin of a beetle that collects water from fog to the black, bumpy black walls of a building that collects water from fog.  Finally, she gesticulates often.

The speaker’s presentation style is somewhat formal, and serious, though it is not grave or sad. She makes use of the slideshow behind her, but it is not the driving force of the talk. Rather, she uses it as an organizer, then expands on the ideas shown by the pictures.

This video matters because it teaches a concept that could solve lots of problems around the world: that nature has provided better, cleaner, more efficient ways of doing things than we have thought up ourselves. I will find this concept important soon, because I will see more and more of these nature-based solutions as I grow older, and I may find ways to apply it, on no matter what scale, to my life.  This concept can be applied to education, first of all because it should be taught in schools, but also because learning how animals learn and are motivated is a great way to decide how to teach children. For example, in Daniel Pink’s book Drive, monkeys solved puzzles just because they thought it was fun, not because they got a reward. Finally, this video applies to the world. One effect this kind of thinking has been having on the world is the introduction of cleaner, greener, more efficient ways of doing things like desalination and wind farming. Also, this reliance on nature makes the world in general more hesitant to destroy nature because they would destroy with it its enormous benefits on human kind.