TED talk 8

The world peace game seems like a very good way to teach kids. John hunter seems to be one step head of the rest of the educating world. He has incorporated right brained teaching methods into his class room since the late 70's. Utilizing our own modified world peace games, education could flow much smoother and transition into the new conceptual age that Dan Pink is predicting to come. I like the concept a lot, it reminds me of an activity I did in my US history teacher Mrs. Vhon Vhil's class last year with the civil war. During the activity, we had fake battles and even did drills and other military activities from the time. I learned a lot about the civil war, and even more about the south, in which I was a member. I think if all classes were like this then school would be a place kids wouldn't want to end, not a place where some feel trapped and can't wait for the ding that releases them. In my current US history class with Mrs. Cornils, we do many fun activities that seem pointless but actually relate to what we are learning about. I recommend that any teacher watch this video because it is a very interesting video on how kids learn.

blog number 7

Kathryn Schulz has a complete grasp on being wrong. I believe in what she said. Her view on being wrong is very good. I laughed when she revealed that she thought the camping sign was an Asian symbol. I can see how one could mistake that for a Chinese letter. She made me wonder how being wrong felt. I don't like being wrong, it doesn't feel good. It makes me feel dumb. her analogy to being wrong to the roadrunner cartoons was completely right. It made sense because you only feel wrong after it is pointed out to you. Until then you feel completely right, then you fall to Earth. I only didn't understand how we hate being wrong. We learn from our mistakes. Without mistakes we are machines, they are what makes us human. I recommend this video to everybody, even if they probably have already seen it.

TED Talk 5

Arvind Gupta: turning trash into toys for learning TED talk

The engineer Arvind Gupta obviously likes to make toys. He has toys for specific purposes. This video showed me how simple yet difficult the field of toy making is. It amazed me how Arvind managed to make some toys out of matchsticks and rubber tubing. His simple toys allow poor children to be able to make and break toys. They are like cheap legos or sticks-n-balls, the magnetic sticks with metal balls. These toys are made out of things you normally throw away. Straws, CDs, broken bike tubes, even matchsticks, all of these are parts to the toys. It amazes me how simple the toys are, yet I find myself yearning to play with these toys. These toys are preparing children for a fast approaching future. I don’t know how many times I have made triangles out of straws, but this guy has found a way to make them and more with just a matchstick. I would recommend this video for people to watch. It is very interesting.  The only downside is Arvind has an Indian accent, which is sometimes hard to make heads or tails of what he is saying, but otherwise this is a good TED talk. 

Daniel Pink TED talk

Ater watching Dan Pink's TED talk on motivation, i realized he has some good proof. One good example is in the candle problem. which looks like this:

The candle problem seems like a simple task, but people still have difficulties. I don't think I would have had difficulties solving the problem as I am a right brained person. But I can see how the problem could be difficult. Ever since I was a little kid, I enjoyed playing with legos, completing puzzles, and other things that require thinking out of the box. Dan Pink also stated that rewards often hinder abilities to solve easy problems, like the candle problem. He also talks about how Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that nobody gets paid to make, is more popular than Encarta, Microsoft's encyclopedia which people were paid to make. this doesn't make any sense! Why would the free encyclopedia do better than the paid one? Pink says intrinsic motivation, or motivation to do something because you want to do it. When I think of this, I think of driving. I love driving but if i was paid to drive, it would take the fun out of it. Once you decide to pay somebody, the fun activity becomes a job. I completely agree with Pink. He knows what he is talking about.

First video Review

In this TED talk, Mick Ebeling talks about how he made the graffiti artist TEMPT a way to draw again. TEMPT has ALS, a paralyzing nerve disease, and is paralyzed from head to toe. He only has the ability to blink. He was living a terrible life with all his artistic abilities locked in. His artwork is really good. One example is here:

When viewing this artwork, one sees the potential locked in his head. He now has to draw with special glasses. They look like 3D glasses with the lenses popped out and two cameras attached to the front. With these glasses he can draw again. After seven years he can draw yet again. The creators of this marvelous invention have decided to leave it open source, so anybody facing a similar situation can make one. They have the blue prints posted on this website. 

sir ken robinson ted talk.

Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk talks about how schools are killing off children's creativity. He states that we need to prepare children for an unforeseeable future. He also states that children are groomed not to want to be wrong. Robinson talks about a school play where they acted out the nativity. When the three kings come bearing gifts on kid says, "frank sent this" instead of frankincense, which is obviously wrong, but he doesn't care because he is in an early grade at school. Later in the video he talks about kids being artists. he said when asked if they were artists, kids in third grade all raised their hands but when sixth graders were asked, nobody raised their hands. This shows how the schools are killing off creativity. when talking about a dancer, he talks about her expirences in school. She couldnt sit still, so the school had her mom take her to a psychologist. At the psychologist, the girl seemed completely normal so the psychologist left the room to see what she would do if he left the radio on. Within minutes the girl started dancing. The psychologist knew she was a dancer, or at least destined to be one. The school system had no idea. It is very clear that schools have been killing off students creativity. I recommend this video to any student or parent who thinks their creativity is being closed.