Ted Talk 8 Richard Branson Life at 30,000 feet

From the start this talk was different. It was set up in an interview format where there was a TED representative asking the speaker questions. He started an airline company by selling his record company. (Virgin Records) He sold the company to protect the people who worked for both companies. He says, in response to a question about what the Virgin brand name means, that it is all about costomer satisfaction. Also it is about being different from the established companies while also being able to deliver what people want in products or services. Also for him it is about coming up with new ideas for things. Another thing I take away from this talk is that he talked about giving back to the community. This coming fom a very successful and very rich man is important because it shows that if people want to help then they can and that every little bit helps. From the beginning of the talk I got the feeling that he was a good guy. He seemed very genuine and nice while also being business savvy. His personality was the best technique that he used during the talk. He gave off the feel of being extremely charismatic which I liked a lot. In many of the talks I have seen the people were very stiff and they seemed more like people who are so smart that they get in their own way. He also brought in many personal examples about how he got to be succesful and things that he tried and that sometimes didn't work. I liked this because it made him see so much more human than some of the other people I have watched. He talked about how some of his adventures like trying to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon and how it crashed into the sea. Some of his stories were funny but they all made sense in grand scheme of the world so they were engaging and I didn't find myself zoning out and having to refocus throughout the thirty minute talk. The talk was set up in a very casual way since it was an interview instead of a person preaching their ideas to the crowd. Since it was an interview there was room for the two people talkkng to have a little fun and go into detail in some areas more than others. I think that what matters the most from this talk is not for people to be afraid to go out on a limb and try to achieve a goal because it can turn out really good in the end if you try.

Post 7 George Ayittey Cheetas vs Hippos

The speaker said that there was a new generation of Africans coming into the world, he called them the Cheeta Generation. He said that they stand up to corruption and don't wait for governments to take their time in making decisions, they are the kind of people who do something about the situation. He also said the fate of Africa was on their backs because if they don't take action any more that the people's voice will be crushed and/or forgotten. He also introduces another generation, the Hippos. They are the people who are ruling and many of them are stuck in the past. They complain about what happened a long time ago instead of doing anything about it. He also says that the "begging bowl" of Africa is leaking. 40% of the goods and wealth are exported instead of being put back into the local eonomy. He also states the corruption takes away 148 billion dollars  year in foreign aid. Another fact is that Africa spends 20 million to import food. In the 60s African countries could grow enough food for themselves, and enough to export. But, this is not the fact any more. He says this is the result of horrible leadership, there have been 204 African heads of state. And, when he put the question on an internet forumn the people who answered couldn't think of twenty good ones. The vast majority have failed their people he said. He uses the metaphor of a vampire to show what the governments do, they just suck the wealth out of everything under their control. He also says that things were in good shape before the European powers came and changed the way everything was being done. Watching this talk really made me feel lucky that I have it so good in comparison to so many people in the world. His effective speaking techiques were based on using facts. Many of the facts were very shocking and really make you think about how much is lost each year. To think that hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost each year is hard to think about. Since his presentaion was fact based it was relatively stiff. But, for this topic it worked because the raw facts are more powerful than him trying to casually present them. Also the facts set up his call to action. He says that the hippos are running things and that they have really screwed things up for everone but themselves. At the end of his talk he call upon the cheetas to stand up for the people and to take back Africa one villiage or city at a time. I think that what matters the most from this video is that you can't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in because if you don't you will be swept under the rug and squashed.

Dave Eggers blog six

He said that many kids dont learn well in large class settings. The obvious solution is to get one on one help, this however is not very practical because there aren't enough teachers for this. This problem gave him the idea for an organization that helps people with their English homework. He said that the goal was to get one on one help for kids after school. He gave the fact that if there is thirty to forty hours of one on one help per year is that there is a greater chance for them to succeed. Also the center he created is for all types of kids, not just the ones that need extra help to keep from falling behind. It is also for kids who are advanced and would like another opinion on projects. This is kind of a new spin on tutoring that makes ir acceptable in the eyes of society because normally it is looked down on in a way. The speakers effective techiques icluded his motions and gestures. His motions are very energetic and somewhat wild. They seem unprofessional but they convey his passion for the tutoring centers and desire for them to be more common. He also uses humor to his advantage. For his topic, shcool, which is normally pretty dry, the humor helped engage the audience. It made the audience connect to the topic and not jone out, which is easy to do with dry topics like school or tutoring. His speaking style also made his talk more engaging. He was very informal which was good because it made the talk less stiff. This however was also a negagitve point because he was so random and disorganized it was hard to follow what he was trying to say especially in the beginning of the talk. When he was talking he didn't speak smoothly, he was very stop and go, there were times when he was talking so fast and there were others where all he said was um over and over. I think that the idea means many great things for education and the world. I think that it will help level the playing feild for kids who don't learn well in large classes. I think that it's a great idea that has many possible that can come from it. I do think that if the idea was better presented and maybe a little less tacky it will gain even more notoriety and success.

Ted Talk 5 Chimamanda Adichie

I think that the most important idea from this vieo is that many of the stories we read and write are all the same. She talked about how being raised in Eastern Nigeria affected the ways she saw things. Since Nigeria had been colonized by whites everything she read as a child was generated by whites from England and the U.S. This, she said, affected the way she percieved things in the world. She loves to write stories, and since she read stories about whites she wrote about whites. She said that she wrote stories that almost paralleled the ones she read as a child. Even though she liven in Nigeria where there were almost no whites that was all she wrote about because it was all that she read. However when she started to read African stories she said that her eyes were opened to what could be in literature. She started to realize that there was a place in the world for people like who came from other countries. She attended college in the U.S. and her roommate was astonished that Africa was more than a war zone racked by poverty. This she said was a result of Western Literature. As in our country the media focuses on the bad things that happen there. She also shows another example  of people with a single story. She uses the example of what people see Mexicans. Many people see them only as immagrants that are here illegaly. This she says is a single story, it is the  one way people see a group of people.
One of her effective techniques is using lots of her experiences in her talk. She brings in a personal feel that connects her to the audience. She shows the way people percieve things and how often times it is only one way. This really makes you think about the way we percieve the things in our lives. Her presentation was pretty stiff in my opinion, there wasn't a lot of emotion or humor in her talk. But, for this talk I think that it worked because her topic wasn't a light one. It seemed better presented that way because it makes you think about your life. What matters from this video is that there are many stereotypes in the world. And that this is dangerous because if you only see the stereotype you may overlook the beauty or worth of something.

Clay Shirky Ted Talk

While watching this talk I learned that somethimes there is too much for people to do and that it takes computers to help get the information out to the public. However, it took people to make the computers that could process and share the information. I also learned that when the world us idle, that things can still happen because of collaboration and sharing. Another thing I learned was that people can completely change the way people act based on the possible outcomes. The test on the daycare fines showed that, when people could pay to be late they would rather pay to spend more time at work than be controlled by their schedule. The speaker's effective speaking techinques were almost impossible to find if there were any at all. He used real world examples but they weren't interesting. He didn't do a good job of engaging the audience because there was no room for their interaction. I felt like it was just him standing there reciting something from memory, the whole presentation was very stiff and boring. I had a hard time figuring out what he point he was trying to get across to the audience. I think he was trying to be casual but he didn't really give off that feeling. I think that the most important facts from this talk are that information can be open to all or just to the people who are putting it in. This could help people in education because if there was a developing topic then everyone could get the information if they wanted to. The same thing goes for the world, if there is a   situation that people want to learn about then they could without actually having to go to the area and into potential harm. He gave the example of Ushahidi and wallcats and how they are created for communal and civic benefits respectivley. If we could make something that could be created by few for the benefit of all then that woul be a way to apply his ideas.

Daniel Pink Drive Ted Talk

I think that the idea that I will take with me from Dan Pink's talk is that sometimes to complete tasks you have to break away from the accepted norms. In many tasks there is a clear direction to take that has been established over time and throughout trials. This is not true for all of the problems you will encounter throughout your life. Sometimes it takes looking at the borders of problem and taking elements of the given tools or directions and combining them with different things to come to the answer more quickly and more efficiently. He gave the expample of how when rewards are offered that sometimes higher rewards are worse for performance. Higher rewards have been found to be better when there is little thinking required. But, when the task requires thinking that the higher rewards are worse. I think this is because once there are high stakes you are more likely to get tunnel vision and overlook impertant facts. Dan Pink makes bridges between his idas and real examples of how they are practical  in the real world. This gives his ideas real validity in the mind of the audience because of the connections he makes because he can show people how to get things done. His presentation was pretty casual because he was just up on the stage kind of walking around and looking at every area of the audience. This helped integrate him with the audience because there was the feeling that he was talking to you personally. I think that the most important facts of the talk are that you have to analyze the whole situation before you come to a conclusion. I think this is very relavant in education because many times you are being told what to do and not to deviate from that. This however can really hinder you later in life because you won't be able to find the subliminal messages or facts that it takes to solve the problem.

Collaboration Ted Talk Howard Rheingold

While watching this talk I realized that it really takes a group effort to make great strides in the world. In both the world we live in and in the world of the past. The speaker talked about how everything is a competition but to make great improvement the people's differences have to be put aside to get anywhere. I am a very competitive person and this talk reenforces the fact that despite being competitive I have to put aside differences with people to make sure I am giving the team a good chance to gain as a whole. The speaker's technique in built around backing up his ideas with examples of how collaboration make things easier for everyone. He talks about how sometimes a company will not put restrictive pattents on products or ideas so that everyone can benifit. This in turn helps the company that originally came up with the products or idea because they get to see what everyone else does with it so then they can improve on the other companies' improvements. The presentaion was pretty stiff in this paticular talk. The guy was standing there talking while he was clicking through slides with a remote so there was the air more of a business meeting than something he was trying to get people to believe in. Normally when someone is talking about something they really care about they have some passion behind their voice. I know that if I was trying to sell an idea that was very important to me I would let it show a little so people would be more engaged. I really didn't get that feeling while watching this talk because it was so businesslike and plain. The presentation, however had little effect on the importance of the subject because working together is very important. I can connect to this because in sports even though when it seems like some people aren't doing anything to benefit the team there will always be a time when they make the contributions and you don't. The overarching theme for this talk was that it takes everybody to make the world a good place and without collaboration there wouldn't be nearly as many good things in the world as there are today.