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.

Sir Ken Robinson

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

Schools today discourage creativity because it's can't be dubbed "correct" or "incorrect." Considering the ideas in AWNM, this is exactly the opposite of what the system should be, because left-brainers are becoming less valuable to society.  Education strip-mines our brains of left-directed thinking.

2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?

He makes lots of jokes wile he is speaking to make a point. It keeps his audience engaged. It also allows him to transition his ideas.

3. What is his/her presentation style?

His presentation style is informal, and alternating joking and serious.

4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?

The thing that matters from this video is that there needs to be a change in the educational system, one that will allow for complete education, not just education of the head, slightly to one side. This video connects to me personally because  I am in the current educational system, and I need to use the choices I have over my education wisely. Education is connected to this video because Sir Ken Robinson makes a point that education has to be full, and not just L-Directed. This video applies to the world because as Sir Ken said, everywhere in the world he goes there is the same hierarchy in education: first math and science, then language and history, then art and music, and finally dance and drama.