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drunkoffthestars) wrote2011-10-04 11:45 pm
drunkoffthestars) wrote2011-10-04 11:45 pm
Entry tags:
Listening to Old (mostly White) Men
As a whole, I find the concept of the TED talks a bit ridiculous/patronizing/so 1.0, but on an individual basis, they do end up quite interesting, at least in the moment I'm watching them.
The first one I liked was this dude who is working on what I would call teacherless computer-mediated group learning. Basically, when left to their own devices with a computer either connected to the internet or accompanied by some sort of information source (he talks about data CDs in this talk), kids will figure out how to use the computer and find relevant information on their own, and then teach those skills and information to other kids, and they can effectively work as a group to learn new information. Adding in various low levels of direction can aid the process. And when later tested, all the kids in the group retain approximately the same level of information. Talk here.
Pretty cool stuff, and I think it has implications beyond elementary education. Namely, with regard to fannish cooperation. While for the most part, fandom is content to industriously work away at fic and art and meta and bookmarking and whatever our individual fannish pursuit is, on aggregate, the amount of 'work' we collectively do is HUGE and often highly collaborative. And in moments of upheaval, with our attentions collectively focused on a specific one thing, we can crank out an ENORMOUS amount of stuff with a reasonably high level of quality (see: the giant google doc of doom that ate the pinboard dudes face which was produced in roughly 48 hours with accompanying poll. See also: every HELP_$disaster fund drive. And on a slightly slower but more enormous scale: AO3.)
So basically you guys, I think we're pretty awesome. I think it would also be cool to try and nurture that aspect of fannish community EVEN MOAR. I like being a part of a community that can come together for a short time and WHUMP the shit out of whatever the current problem is. Also, I know that would be epically hard. Herding fangirls is probably a whole lot like herding cats. Everyone has their own ideas about where we should go and what we should do and heaven forbid we appear anything but independently contrary. Self most certainly included :P
Speaking on education, I'm not sure I follow his main thesis, but I enjoyed this talk about creativity and the current model for education and which subjects are valued and why. And while I certainly believe that things should shift toward a more holistic approach to education, as a person who is at the very beginning of trying to build a career, it is more than a bit disheartening to hear repeated what I have already seen to be true. Basically there are too many people educated in a specific way (ie the traditional western college path) that the value of such a background is greatly diminished and the answer is some amorphous 'follow your dreams' frippery that while true on a higher level certainly makes it difficult in the here and now when I would like to make rent and buy food and so on after kind of crashing and burning on my last set of 'dreams'. The whole 'figure out what you want' thing is easier said than done. *hands of existential angst and it ls LIKE I am nearly 30 what am I supposed to DO with my Life*
The last one that I watched was a bit odd. It is by Elizabeth Gilbert (the person who wrote Eat Pray Love) and is about, for lack of a better description, emotional management of creativity. Basically the current paradigm internalizes creativity to such an extent that the internal pressure is immense. She proposes developing an alternative paradigm of creativity, more akin to that of the ancient Greeks and Romans where creativity is viewed as a partnership between the artist and 'inspiration'. To a point, I agree with her that externalizing some responsibility for works of creativity (exceptional and otherwise) can only increase the emotional health of artists, but I pretty much bail when she starts talking about divinity and gods as the source of inspiration. I realize that not everyone is as vehemently secular as I am, but it's the truth. I cannot stomach that stuff.
To go on a personal digression, it's not that I deny the possibility of a god-like being existing somewhere somewhen, I just don't care or find it relevant. Really the digression I want to go on is one about the flux of spiritual/emotional development as a person (namely myself) ages out of childhood/extended adolescence, which I am about to do numerically, if nothing else, but I will spare you. You're welcome.
Tenuously related to the above, I want to briefly pimp ItunesU/Open Courseware/etc. While a lot of the most popular stuff is geared toward computer education, there are a TON of college classes FREE over a very wide array of subjects (including languages), and they are kind of fun and useful. In my dreamiest of dreams, there would be a fandom com dedicated to 'taking' classes together, because I am a gigantic nerd like that. I'm currently watching an intro computer science course from Stanford (Programming Methodology, if anyone cares), and the prof is very engaging, if nothing else.
---
And on a slightly administrative note, I wrote a brief and completely incomplete overview of using RSS readers to substitute for the old Delicious Network page. If that is a thing any of you want to do and you have any questions or run into problems, I cannot promise to be able to answer them at all, but I will do my best to help!
In personal news, I'm going to start 'volunteering' at my theoretical job either Friday or Monday (and I have to spend the intervening time giving myself a pep talks about having a concrete money conversation no matter how much I don't want to) and build up some serious off-record vacation time. I will use this vacation time to take off some extra time over the holidays and most importantly, most of the SXSW week. *\o/*
The first one I liked was this dude who is working on what I would call teacherless computer-mediated group learning. Basically, when left to their own devices with a computer either connected to the internet or accompanied by some sort of information source (he talks about data CDs in this talk), kids will figure out how to use the computer and find relevant information on their own, and then teach those skills and information to other kids, and they can effectively work as a group to learn new information. Adding in various low levels of direction can aid the process. And when later tested, all the kids in the group retain approximately the same level of information. Talk here.
Pretty cool stuff, and I think it has implications beyond elementary education. Namely, with regard to fannish cooperation. While for the most part, fandom is content to industriously work away at fic and art and meta and bookmarking and whatever our individual fannish pursuit is, on aggregate, the amount of 'work' we collectively do is HUGE and often highly collaborative. And in moments of upheaval, with our attentions collectively focused on a specific one thing, we can crank out an ENORMOUS amount of stuff with a reasonably high level of quality (see: the giant google doc of doom that ate the pinboard dudes face which was produced in roughly 48 hours with accompanying poll. See also: every HELP_$disaster fund drive. And on a slightly slower but more enormous scale: AO3.)
So basically you guys, I think we're pretty awesome. I think it would also be cool to try and nurture that aspect of fannish community EVEN MOAR. I like being a part of a community that can come together for a short time and WHUMP the shit out of whatever the current problem is. Also, I know that would be epically hard. Herding fangirls is probably a whole lot like herding cats. Everyone has their own ideas about where we should go and what we should do and heaven forbid we appear anything but independently contrary. Self most certainly included :P
Speaking on education, I'm not sure I follow his main thesis, but I enjoyed this talk about creativity and the current model for education and which subjects are valued and why. And while I certainly believe that things should shift toward a more holistic approach to education, as a person who is at the very beginning of trying to build a career, it is more than a bit disheartening to hear repeated what I have already seen to be true. Basically there are too many people educated in a specific way (ie the traditional western college path) that the value of such a background is greatly diminished and the answer is some amorphous 'follow your dreams' frippery that while true on a higher level certainly makes it difficult in the here and now when I would like to make rent and buy food and so on after kind of crashing and burning on my last set of 'dreams'. The whole 'figure out what you want' thing is easier said than done. *hands of existential angst and it ls LIKE I am nearly 30 what am I supposed to DO with my Life*
The last one that I watched was a bit odd. It is by Elizabeth Gilbert (the person who wrote Eat Pray Love) and is about, for lack of a better description, emotional management of creativity. Basically the current paradigm internalizes creativity to such an extent that the internal pressure is immense. She proposes developing an alternative paradigm of creativity, more akin to that of the ancient Greeks and Romans where creativity is viewed as a partnership between the artist and 'inspiration'. To a point, I agree with her that externalizing some responsibility for works of creativity (exceptional and otherwise) can only increase the emotional health of artists, but I pretty much bail when she starts talking about divinity and gods as the source of inspiration. I realize that not everyone is as vehemently secular as I am, but it's the truth. I cannot stomach that stuff.
To go on a personal digression, it's not that I deny the possibility of a god-like being existing somewhere somewhen, I just don't care or find it relevant. Really the digression I want to go on is one about the flux of spiritual/emotional development as a person (namely myself) ages out of childhood/extended adolescence, which I am about to do numerically, if nothing else, but I will spare you. You're welcome.
Tenuously related to the above, I want to briefly pimp ItunesU/Open Courseware/etc. While a lot of the most popular stuff is geared toward computer education, there are a TON of college classes FREE over a very wide array of subjects (including languages), and they are kind of fun and useful. In my dreamiest of dreams, there would be a fandom com dedicated to 'taking' classes together, because I am a gigantic nerd like that. I'm currently watching an intro computer science course from Stanford (Programming Methodology, if anyone cares), and the prof is very engaging, if nothing else.
---
And on a slightly administrative note, I wrote a brief and completely incomplete overview of using RSS readers to substitute for the old Delicious Network page. If that is a thing any of you want to do and you have any questions or run into problems, I cannot promise to be able to answer them at all, but I will do my best to help!
In personal news, I'm going to start 'volunteering' at my theoretical job either Friday or Monday (and I have to spend the intervening time giving myself a pep talks about having a concrete money conversation no matter how much I don't want to) and build up some serious off-record vacation time. I will use this vacation time to take off some extra time over the holidays and most importantly, most of the SXSW week. *\o/*