Dave Eggars (Blog 7)

Eggars starts out incredibly nervous, which is really adorable, except absolutely not at all. It was a bit hard for me to focus on his talk at first because every couple words seemed to be punctuated by an "um" or an "uh". However, once I managed to actually tune in to what he was saying, I found that... not only did his story cause he to take quite some time to reach the actual point of his talk, but he also went off on multiple tangents that distracted him from the story, which was already distracting him from his point. However (again), when his talk finally began to round out and come together, I saw that what he was trying to say and the idea that he was presenting was actually a really fantastic idea. The combination of a fun, creative store that is open to the entire public and a tutoring centre that also assists kids in writing books, etc, and all together helps these kids become more excited and motivated to do well in school and in life is an absolutely brilliant plan. I think that his "wish" is a great goal, and if such a thing could be accomplished it has the possibility of changing the face of education in a very fun way. I also loved the way in which he concluded his speech, as I think it really tied together the slightly jumbled mess (at least at the beginning) of everything that he had said. All in all, while his mumbling, fumbling speaking style was not especially effective, this was overcome by the all around wonderful idea that he was presenting, and his message was fantastic.

Clay Shirky (Blog 4)

The idea that Shirky discusses is something that he calls "cognitive surplus". Cognitive surplus refers to the free time that humanity has and how they use it to create things together and separately. He also talks about doing things simply because we like to or want to do something, and also how many things are created through human generosity. Another very interesting point that he makes is that many things we create technologically  that have either communal value -- things created by users for users -- and civil value -- things created by users for society. One of his effective techniques is that he uses specific examples (Ushahidi and "LOLCats") to describe the much broader topic of the use of cognitive surplus. He does talk somewhat quickly and skip from idea to idea a bit too fast to for anyone to fully process and grasp what he's saying. At one point, he pulls in a topic that seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of his talk. However, he does make a very good point, at both the beginning and the end of his talk. If more people use their cognitive surplus to create things with civic value, without expecting pay or being told to but simply out of human generosity and interest in spreading information, this can change the way the world receives knowledge. As Shirky says, "no one person knows what everyone knows". However, if we all share what we know, anyone can access information and enlighten themselves on the world around them. To me, the prospect of being able to learn more things from people all over the world is a very exciting concept, and while funny, communal things can be fun to see, I do hope that more people use the technology available to use to create things of civic value.

Daniel Pink (Blog 3)

Daniel Pink is very exuberant and excited throughout his talk, which shows that he is very passionate about his topic. The point to his talk seems to be that incentives lead to poor performance when the task requires deep, out of the box thinking. He also emphasizes that "there's a mismatch what science knows and what business does." I like the point he makes when he says that being offered a reward narrows one's focus. The solutions he presents to this problem are very interesting in that many people would not expect to work, but they do. I think it actually does make sense that these solutions work. Eliminating an incentive will eliminate workers who only try in order to gain the rewards, and inspire people to do the work for other reasons (because they love it, because they want to beat their personal best, because they want to be able to stay on the same level as their peers). I can, however, see the other side of the issue, and how taking away rewards would have a negative effect on work. However, I believe in jobs that require creativity, taking away incentives works because it really takes one's mind off of just getting the reward, and opens your focus up to what you need to accomplish. 

Sir Ken Robinson (TED Talk 1)

The point that Sir Robinson seemed to be trying to make is that the way most school systems seem to stigmatize mistakes is causing more and more students to slowly lose their creativity. I believe he has a point in this regard, as many times a student is less concerned about "What can I do to be creative?" and more concerned about "What will get me an 'A'?" and often the answer to these two questions is different. He also makes to point that school systems focus more on academic topics then they do on the arts, and this does not always work for every type of student. His TED talk makes me think of the Albert Einstein quote "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it's stupid." Sir Robinson brings up how many brilliant, creative students end up feeling unintelligent because the topics they excelled at were either highly ignored at school,  or they were told to stop trying at that particular talent, because they'd never make it  in that field (i.e. artist, musician, etc., basically any creative career). One of his main points is that intelligence comes in many different forms, and not all of those forms are always appreciated by educators and education systems. His TED talk contains a lot of anecdotes, and he is able to make the audience laugh every so often. He often starts broad with his ideas and then narrows down to a more specific example to illustrate his more general idea. He is also very friendly and keeps his talk interesting. I agree, personally, with a lot of the points he makes. I myself have always been rather art minded, and have even been reprimanded by teachers for adding illustrations to my notes, though being able to connect the information to a picture helps me to learn a bit better. It was also hard to find support at my last school from teachers and administrators when I said that I wanted to study art in school and go into a career in illustration. I think he brings up a lot of important issues, and points out one of the main flaws in the education system, as I know that there are many students who have also dealt with the same challenges.