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.

Sir Ken Robison Ted Talk

While watching the video I learned that everyone has the capacity to be creative. The speaker explained how the education system educates people  throughout their lives. It starts out with more focus on creativity and art, over time however the focus shifts from those things to more practical things (in the eyes of the world)  like math or languages. He says that kids are being conditioned to fit into the box the people expect them to be in. He also says that this makes poeple and kids expecially less likely to take chances. "If you're are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original" During his talk he used humor to lighten the mood in the beginning of his talk.this helped him integrate himself with the audience. His speaking style was somewhat casual. He gave the feeling that he was actually talking to the people in the room, not just reciting a speech on his views on education. The topic of his talk is what people should take with them. He points out real examples of how people are conditioned to fit what people want them to be, and not what they want to be. He shows that how being different is perfectly ok because it really doesn't matter what people think of you if you are comfortable being yourself.