And the winner is....

Sara Pitcher from Stewart Memorial Library!

Sara's iPad and cover is one it's way to the library this morning; she'll be able to enjoy the TED app, and many others.

I hope everyone found a little something to think about this summer. These links/videos will remain here indefinitely; if one or two were particularly interesting to you, please share the links.

Week 13: The End

Although there were only supposed to be "13" things to think about this summer, I just couldn't decide between these last two talks. Read the description and determine which piques your interest most this week. Both seem like fitting topics to lead us into this new semester.

Option 1: A Kindler, Gentler Philosophy of Success (16:55)
"Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work."

Points to Ponder:

• Do you agree with de Botton's analysis of meritocracy?
• During Week 4; Kathryn Schultz's talk focused on being wrong. As de Botton described today's mindset concerning the 'bottom of society' being labeled "losers" did you find similarities between the messages? Is it true that our biggest fear in failure is not failing itself, but the judgement and ridicule?
• What is your idea of success? Where does your idea of success come from? Has it changed over time?
• How do we help our students define their own ideas of success (making sure each is truly the "author of his/her own ambitions")? How do we do this when our students place a high value on letter grades?
• What stood out for you in this talk? What do you agree with or disagree with?

Option 2: Liz Coleman's Call to Reinvent Liberal Arts Education (18:41)
"Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day."

 

Points to Ponder:

• Have we (the liberal arts colleges) lost our roots? Coleman says "We have professionalized the liberal arts to the point where they no longer provide the breadth of application and the enhanced capacity for civic engagement that is their signature. Over the past century, the expert has dethroned the educated generalist to become the sole model of intellectual accomplishment. … The progression of today’s college student is to jettison every interest except one, and within that one, to continually narrow the focus, learning more and more about less and less — this despite the evidence all around us of the interconnectedness of things. …" Do you agree? Is Coe guilty? Is this true of your liberal arts alma mater (if you came from one)?
• Coleman talks about the connection between education and the public good, indicating the academy simply does not empower this connection. Do you think our students understand or feel a connection? Do our students connect their liberal arts education to civic engagement?
• Is there any way to know when Coleman's ideal marriage between liberal arts and public good is met?
• What do part of Coleman's talk to you most deeply agree or passionately disagree with? Why?
  

Week 12, July 30

My apologies for the late posting today!

Let's take a brain break with a little humor this morning. Many of us have an iPod, or some type of MP3/music playing device; and we've all heard the news reports of music and movie piracy. Rob Reid takes a shot at deciphering the real cost of pirated media in this short talk "The $8 Billion iPod"

Running time: 5:11

 

Comment if the talk moves you to do so!

Week 11, July 23

Week 11? That means there are only two weeks of our summer thinking left!

Did you know there is a competition called the U.S. Memory Championship (which of course, leads to the World Memory Championships)? Yes, an event where people compete to see who has the best memory. If you haven't found your sport yet, this might be for you!

Science writer Joshua Foer heard about this event and wondered how people prepared. An initial look into the event led him to study memory and memory techniques in a broader sense. After spending a year in study, he even entered the competition!

Running time: 20:19
note: be sure to follow the instructions at the beginning!

 

Points to Ponder:

• Foer says technological advances seem to be taking the place of memory/memorizing: books, photographs, an Excel spreadsheet with a grand matrix of all of our passwords. What do you think about that? Are these essential things we should be storing in memory? Could future technology include a USB port into our brains for external storage?
• Do you actively practice memory techniques? What is your current method for committing something to memory?
• Foer says we remember best when deeply engaged and when we can make a connection (Baker, baker). What types of techniques do you use with students to both engage them with content and to help them make connections to what's going on in your course?
• What stood out in this talk? What didn't make sense or work for you?

Week 10 July 16

One of the most popular and prolific speakers in the TED circles is Hans Rosling, a professor of global health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Even if you've never heard of Professor Rosling, you may have used the statistical visualization software he developed, GapMinder. This software takes data from sources like the United Nations, the World Health Organization and others and presents a clear, user-driven and insightful way of seeing comparisons and global trends. The online version of Gapminder is available HERE.

In this TED talk, Rosling makes what appears to be a counter-intuitive claim: to stabilize world population, we must increase child survival rates. Hmmm...sounds mathematically unstable, right? If more children survive, wouldn't that add to the population size?

 

Points to Ponder:

• Do you agree that we're still in an antiquated mindset? "The Western World and the developing countries"? In a different TED talk, Rosling quotes "my neighbor knows 200 kinds of wine, I know two: red and white. But my neighbor only knows two kinds of countries, western and developing, I know 200". Why is it important to stop thinking in terms of developed and developing?
• Education of women is key; countries where women have the highest literacy rate are also the countries with the lowest family sizes. Smaller family size equals lower infant mortality rates. Should there be a more intense focus on the education of women in our poorest countries? Why or why?
• Anything insightful, new or intriguing catch your attention in this talk?
• Have you experienced Gapminder? How have you/could you use these visualizations for your courses, research or other purposes?
• If you have some extra time, watch these additional talks by Hans Rosling for further insight: 

1. The Magic Washing Machine: in this short talk, Rosling "shows us the magic that pops up when economic growth and electricity turn a boring wash day into an intellectual day of reading."
2. Let My Dataset Change Your Mind: taking the Gapminder visualizations on global poverty to test.

Week 9, July 9

Although our mission and our status as a residential college does not lead us down the path of online education, it's hard not to think about it; it's everywhere. We see billboards plastered on I-380; we hear recent news about Iowa public school students having online options, and we're frequently exposed to articles about online learning in our scholarly articles.

Can you imagine a 100,000 student classroom? Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun couldn't either, until they were teaching one. Nationally known for his expertise in artificial intelligence, Peter Norvig had been teaching courses on the subject at Stanford, in person for some time before taking on the challenge of the free, online course.

Norvig discusses the project in this six minute, twelve second talk:

 

Points to Ponder:

• Norvig and Thrun set out to provide a course "equal or better in quality" to the courses taught at Stanford in person; do you think this is possible?
• Twenty thousand students completed the 10-week courses, putting in anywhere between 50 and 100 hours of course work during the course session. None of these students paid for the course. Is there a new level of motivation in our society - one leading self-starting, driven students to seek out high quality education without the high-dollar tuition?
• What's the most striking element of this short talk? What surprised you or baffled you?
• Do you agree with the statement on peer instruction? How do you encourage your students to work together in your courses?
• Would you consider taking or teaching a course like this, online?

Week 8, July 2

It's a short week, full of fire-cracker celebration, so we won't think TOO much this week. We'll look at a topic that almost all of us engage in on a regular basis, but most of us don't think about at ALL: drying our hands with paper towels.

In this short talk, activist Joe Smith gives us a solution for saving over 500,000 pounds of paper towels from landfills every year. Follow Joe's simple instructions for drying and you'll be part of the solution!

This is a short talk, coming in under 5 minutes. Let's give our brains a little break this week; comment if you've got another tip for saving the world, but feel free to watch, implement and NOT comment if you'd like this week.

Happy 4th of July!