Ted Talk #5 Response - Jane Chen

What are your take-aways from this video?
The main thing I learned from this video, is the invention of the Embrace Baby Warmer:

I learned that this invention is simply a very small sleeping bag like pouch with special warmers in the pack that act as the heat source. These warmers can last at the steady temperature of 35-37 degrees Celsius for up to four hours. I also learned that this device is expected to save lives of millions of babies. (it did come out in 2010, as it was an older Ted Talk). However, not only did I learn simply about this product and it's purpose, but the reasoning behind it's invention, and how this can effect the future. This product provided a simple, localized, affordable solution to the problem of premature babies dying due to parents not being able to afford a $20,000 incubator to keep their baby at a healthy temperature. The Embrace Baby Warmer is proving that the only good products don't have to be complicated, sent from around the world, or ridiculously expensive. This warmer is a solution that just about anyone can use, and save lives of premature babies everywhere.


What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
Jane Chen's product is that of a very sensitive subject, premature babies and death. Because of this, Jane used a very calm, collected, soft voice to portray her product, usability, and reasoning behind it. This worked because it opened people's hearts through her soft voice, and allowed them to feel inside their heart, the importance of this product and getting the word out there.


What is his/her presentation style?
Like most of the "Ted Talkers", Ms. Chen had slideshow behind her. This slideshow simply incorporated relate-able pictures, and she referred to it little. It added some visual for her audience to look at, besides her of course. In addition to the slideshow, Jane had a sample of her product. I think that this is important, so that people can actually see it...size, look, use. This gave the visual versus just the pictures, for the audience to found out more about the product.


What matters from this video? How does it connect you you personally? To education? To the world?
This video could save lives, so of course it matters. Specifically it matters to parents of premature babies that cannot afford expensive equipment. Although, this invention is also useful and cheaper to those who have a lot of money. For me personally, I cannot use this product, nor do I know anyone personally that can use it. However, after seeing this Ted Talk, I now know that there is an affordable, simple solution. Before watching this, I could have never imagined that a product like this existed or was being made. After watching this video, I went online, and of course many websites had the Embrace Baby Warmer for sale, and they were available everywhere. Through education, this little known baby warmer can spread the word. Also, I think that it would be cool to do a fundraiser at a school to raise money to purchase many of these and give them to people who really need them, and cannot afford to spare even $25. Around the world, this product could save lives. If the word gets out and spreads, this could become a world known product and be saving lives all over the place, all over the world!


-Mikaela M.

Ted Talk #4 - Clay Shirky

What are your take-aways from this video?
I learned the difference between civic and communal value and which one our future can build a better structure upon. I learn that civic value, such as Ushahidi (and open source project to provide source crisis information):

and it is created by the participants to help the whole society/world. Where as communal value is created by the participats for the participants, such as wall cats (pictures of cats with funny captions):

It is hard to envision a future on communal value. However Clay Shirky  said that if we take communal value and use massive group projects with it side by side, we can created civic value and build a sturdy base for our future. Also, I learned an effective way to show graphs in pieces, to make the audience focus on one part of the graph. Clay showed pieces of the graph as he talked about them, and if I use graphs in my Ted Talk, I think it would be a great tactic.

What are the speakers effective speaking techniques?

Clay's speaking techniques were fairly simple. He spoke straightforward about his ideas in an orderly fashion. He didn't emphacize any words, or use any jokes.

What is his/her presentation style?
Clay Shirky's presentation style didn't have any humor or emotionally engaging stories, but he did use real data and tests to explain his point. His presentation included a powerpoint and lots of hand gestures. His powerpoint had some pictures and data on it. I especially like the way that he used his graph on his powerpoint. He only showed the parts of the graph that he was talking about, and then continually added parts of it as he spoke about them. I think that this is really productive in getting the audience to focus on one part of the graph at a time, and gradually adding information in as necessary. It also kept you guessing about how the results continued.

What matters from this video? How does this connect to you personally? To education? To the world?
From this video, people should know that group projects combined with light-hearted communal value can produce a civic value that we can build a possible future on. Personally, the video made me aware of these open source projects in effect that can help during crisis anywhere. As far as education, this video also mentioned that once gates are broken (through the daycare study) they are not rebuilt and people can step forward without stepping back. Around the world, civic value such as Hashidi, are helping massive amounts of people as they are created by masssive amounts of people.
-Mikaela M.

Ted Talk #3 - Daniel Pink

What are your take-aways from this video?
 I learned I have a lot of internal motivation, which makes be come to believe that I am more independent than those who always need someone "holding a carrot in front of their nose and threatening with a stick behind them". I personally don't always need someone giving me incentives and threats. All three Ted Talks that I have watched, have opened my eyes to something I gave zero thought before. The video particularly makes me wonder how I am motivated? How those around me are motivated? It makes me question businesses and their regard to motivation. How can they be fixed, to become more productive, and loose less jobs overseas or to robotic machinery? I learned that giving rewards narrows our vision and thinking. We can't think outside the box, if all we are thinking about is the money or gift we receive at the end. Also, I learned about FedEx Days. These are days, specifically in Australia, that a company may give their workers 24 hours to do anything they wanted, besides what they did on a regular daily work basis. I find it amazing that more new inventions and creations are created on this day than any other. Why don't we have these in more companies, more often? Just think about the new heights we could reach if people took business men off of leashes. I think that people are more creative when let free, than told be creative and invent new things. Lastly, I learned that if we incorporate intrinsic motivation into the world, we could fix the "candle problem", improved businesses, and maybe even change the world!!

What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
Daniel Pink's speaking was passionate, powerful, and essentially loud. By loud I don't mean annoying and irritating, I mean powerful and purposeful. He spoke with an intense passion that gets his "case" across to the audience. His strong, powerful voice gets his point across, I got the message loud and clear. He is, and has a very influential attitude and voice.

What is his/her presentation style?
Daniel presented his Ted Talk as what he called a case not a story. He was using real experiments and real evidence to portray his point. Daniel had a slideshow behind him, emphasizing the words, phrases, and results of experiments that he wanted to get express. His slideshow was not too busy, it was straight to the point and purposeful. Mr. Pink also used humor to get his talk started. He began his presentation with a joke about law school, that led him to use real factual ("true fact") information to portray his point. Lastly, he used a lot of real experiences to back-up his topic. I find this admirable, because he isn't making broad assumptions, he is basing it off of true, real, evidence. These are things that you can go look up yourself and see the real results.

What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?
This video matters, especially to government and any any business, which really incorporates most people's lives. Personally, from this video I was able to make myself realize that I do have a lot of internal motivation, which Daniel Pink thinks is becoming more necessary than external, incentive motivation. I think that because I have internal motivation I can take myself to new heights, I don't always need someone by my side, and this makes me more independent. As far as education is concerned, this idea of motivation deals greatly with it. If there is a student that grows up only trying when bribed, or incentivized, it's hard to change. Whereas if our world became more internally motivated (children grew up doing right, just because), external motivation wouldn't matter. The student would try their best, for themselves not for the reward. Around the world, there is a mismatch between what science knows about  motivation and what business does regarding motivation and it's employees. This needs to be changed if we want to continue to grow as a world.

Ted Talk #2 - Ann Cooper

What are you take aways from this video?

 I learned so much from this video! Mrs. Cooper was very good about using staggering statistics to persuade her audience. Much of what I learned was these truly amazing stats. The U.S. uses 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides each year. This means that on average, one human may consume up to 5 pounds of pesticides in their everyday food, each year. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) said that of those kids born in the year 2000, 1/3 Caucasians, and 1/2 African Americans and Hispanics will have diabetes sometime in their life, many before they graduate from high school. This disease is mainly caused by poor health which greatly encompasses food choices and habits and this starts as a child, at school. Ann brought up a great point that really made me think, why do we teach our children that chicken looks like animals, hearts, and stars (while this shaped chicken rarely contains true chicken)? (I’m talking about the chicken nuggets that are shaped in objects which companies target kids with.) This isn’t healthy! Lastly, Ann mentioned that schools spend less that $1 per day per kid on lunches. We spend more on a single coffee than a children’s lunch! Lastly, this advertisement amazed me. The things people and companies are willing to do (this was actually published by the USDA in a magazine!) :

The statistics are great and all, but what do the all really mean, to me? What did I learn? The statistic open my eyes to the world of school lunches, the terrible deprived world of school lunches that is. I am aware of something I never really gave much thought! I not only leared terrifying statistics, but I am now aware of this topic of school lunches, is in need.

What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?

Ms. Cooper's speaking tactics were soulful, powerful, and moving. Ann spoke about her topic of school lunches with such great passion that it rubs off on the audience, and it made me want to look into what could make a change and opened my eyes to the problem within cafeterias lunch food quality. Ann's soulful, passionate, powerful speaking gave her the advantage to persuade her audience, to get them on her side, to make them want to make a change. Ann can’t be alone in this adventure to change.

What is his/her presentation style?

The presentation style of this Ted Talk was very similar to that of the first Ted Talk. Ann was very casual, not very formal in her speaking and presenting tactics. She wore her chef's outfit that I'd have to guess she wears during her work in a school cafeteria, but maybe not. To me, this gave her a sense of being someone who actually cooks children's food, a key point of her Ted talk, instead of the lunch ladies who opens the boxes and cans and heat the processed food that’s been delivered. She wanted to prove a point of making the food she serves, versus most schools that serve packaged, processed, unhealthy warmed foods. She had a slideshow behind her (just like we will when we perform our final Ted Talk) and she used these slides as a persuasion tool. Ms. Cooper showed pictures, slogans, and an advertisement to sell her point to those watching. However, she did not rely on it to heavily. She glanced at the slides ever so often to make sure she spoke corresponding to the slides. Ann also used a lot of gestures. These gestures weren't really specific to her topic but emphasized her point, they gave her even more passion than she already possessed. (Much like Mrs. Moritz) Lastly, Ann asked many great question like: Will there be a generation that all lives a life shorter than that of their parents? and, Where is the socialization, family time, and talking in children today? These questions made the audience think, and form and opinion while she expressed her solid opinion upon them. 

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

This video matters for everyone. If the health of our planet doesn’t get better, children will begin to live a life shorter than their parents! Terrible! The health of an individual comes down to teaching them habits as a child. Teaching children in school that plastic packaged burritos, processed can foods, and heart shaped chicken are food we should eat a lot is wrong. This is not true, and needs to change or our generations will begin to live less long, maybe come down to not at all. As far as education is concerned, this is all about education. School cafeterias are not getting enough funding, as are most parts of education, and this is leading to unhealthy generations. Around the world, Ann never mentions specifics about overseas places, but I’m guessing that their lunchrooms are all organic, super healthy. I think all lunchrooms all around the world need to make a change, this change needs to come from the people and possibly the students.

-Mikaela M.

Ted Talk #1 - Sir Ken Robinson

1. What are your take-aways from this video?
After watching this video, I didn't necessarily take away a lot of justified information. However, this Ted Talk did make me begin to question creativity and the connection of creativity and education in schools. Is everyone actually artistic at the beginning of their life? But they loose this artistic ability if they don't apply or "practice" it? Why isn't there any school that teaches dance everyday as we teach math and other norm subjects? This video makes me wonder whether you can grade creativity? How often are artistic kids that aren't necessarily brilliant in the regular subjects, looked at and treated as though they have a learning disability? After watching this video, I do know now that all kids learn differently and if education wants to be super successful, education must adapt to the students as opposed to the students adapting to the teachers. Lastly, I was absolutely amazed by this: if all insects were to disappear, humans would die within 50 years. However, all humans disappear, life would flourish! This is spectacular and frightening. What are humans doing to this planet? How is other life effecting humans?

2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
Ken Robinson uses alot of humor and jokes, that are actually truly funny, to interest the audience. He also uses alot of personal experiences and stories to express his opinons and ideas on the topic. He mixes these two techniques, by using humorous experiences to explain his points. Sir Robinson also uses questions to make his audience think about his topic, creativity in education, he deepens their thought trying to make them create an opinon. While he expresses his opinon,  he is influencing them while they are forming theirs.

3. What is his/her presentation style?
Sir Robinsons presentation style was a very casual, laid back type. He did not wear a three piece, super professional suit and tie. He also did not have notes with him stick to a strict structure during his speeck. Mr. Robinson used some gestures with his hands, however, these were not as purposeful as his other casual tactics were. He seemed very comfortable and calm on the stage, speaking to the audience.

4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?
This video shows people that education cannot stay the same forever, it must adapt. During this adaptation, people must tackle the challenge of creativity in schools. Personally, this video makes me wonder and fear how education will be in the future. How are people today supposed to prepare students for the future, when we don't know much about the future? This video itself will not effect the world and education directly, but the dreams and ambitions of the people who watch this video will effect the world, education and the world's education. Education is always adapting and incorporating creativity into this adaption is very important.


- Mikaela M.