Friday, December 03, 2010

YouTube Blog: YouTube Symphony Orchestra: From Idea to Reality

YouTube Blog: YouTube Symphony Orchestra: From Idea to Reality: "Today represents the final culmination of an idea many months in the making: a first-class global orchestra brought together by YouTube. Thi..."

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

TEDx Sacramento Youth Day Promo Video

This is the promotional video for TEDx Youth Day @ Sacramento.

As noted on YouTube, credit goes to:

The Makers Lab
Urban Now
DOOMbird
wilsonfotografie
The Urban Hive

Special thanks also to Lisa Donchak for her excellent coverage of the event.


Friday, November 19, 2010

TEDx Youth Day will be streaming live

I know... enough with the TED stuff already.  But.... if you're the kind of person who is into new, thought provoking ideas, you'll want to catch this.  If you can't make it to TEDx Youth Day in your city tomorrow (11/20) you can watch it streaming live here:

http://www.livestream.com/tedxyouthday 

For the Sacramento TEDx event, go here:  http://www.livestream.com/TEDx Youth Sacramento

Quick preview of the presentation by one of the many speakers to present tomorrow in Sacramento.
Many of today's youth spend their time in Internet-based virtual worlds like Second Life or in role-playing games like Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft.  What is this doing to their brains? Alex Terrazas, President and Chief Scientist at Media Balance, addresses this question through a discussion of his research on the hippocampus (the brain area critical to cognitive mapping).  He says that by living in virtual worlds and relying on technology like GPS devices, we may be letting the hippocampus out of its usual job of mapping events to their locations. The question is, what is the hippocampus going to be used for now?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Impressive Line-up of Thought Leaders to Present at TEDx Sacramento









The line up of presenters at this year's TEDx Sacramento conference is impressive.

Here is the list (in alpha order):
Musical guests and performers will include:
On Twitter, Look for #TedxYouthSac

In the interest of full disclosure,  I'm on the planning committee for this year's TEDx conference

Can exercise improve cognitive function?

The date of the article is November, 2007 - but the evidence seems strong that exercise improves cognitive function - and it is doubtful that it has been overturned.

According to the authors (see below):  "In people, fitness training slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for executive function. In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain, which should improve blood flow, and therefore the availability of energy, to neurons. Exercise may also help the brain by improving cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage. Finally, exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory. Any of these effects might improve cognitive performance, though it’s not known which ones are most important."

Sandra Aamodt is the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience. Sam Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. They are the authors of the forthcoming “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

Friday, November 12, 2010

Apple's Advertising Takes Left and Right Brain Into Consideration

After reading this article, I recognized that Apple was catering their advertising to a right brain audience.  Now, according to the author, they are trying to position themselves as "scientific, business-like and productive. Pretty left-brained thinking…and pretty effective."

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Innovators, Thought Leaders to Converge in Sacramento for TEDx Event

On Saturday, November 20th 2010, some of the areas most talented speakers, innovators, musicians and artists will converge at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria to deliver the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less. Under the theme of “Celebrating Youth” speakers will share their creative ideas, projects and inventions. Tickets for the event are issued by invitation only. To be invited to the event, you can e-mail the event director, Brandon Weber at brandon@tedxsacramento.com.

The first TEDx event for Sacramento was held this past April and was attended by roughly 200 people. Speakers from as far away as Idaho came to speak to an enthusiastic crowd packed with local thought-leaders, entrepreneurs, public servants, academics, artists and musicians. One such idea presented last year, Solar Roadways, went on to win G.E.’s Eco-Magination prize and has received federal funding. Our other speakers and performers were no less extraordinary or interesting.

Speakers this year will be giving inspiring talks around the topic of “Celebrating Youth” as part of TED’s celebration of International Youth Day. The event will be a collaboration with more than 25 cities, including Tokyo, Singapore, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, India, Montreal, NASA, Melbourne and Budapest. Plans are also in the works to live-stream the event, both to our website as well as to an iPhone/iPad app created by the people at TED.

While the event will focus on the extraordinary ideas and accomplishments of youth, the audience will be no less impressive -- made up of 100 of the areas top thought-leaders and ideators, educators, public servants, technologists, professionals, as well as a select group of amazing youth.

Speakers will include the minds behind such amazing projects as The M.I.T. Media Lab's "Scratch" and "Lifelong Kindergarten" projects, the U.C.Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, one of the world's foremost authorities on neurological disorders in children, a teen journalist, the creator of a ground breaking technology that democratizes the world of textbooks as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Wikimedia, a man who has brought health care to thousands of women and children in Africa, a developer who uses wireless technology to affect the behavior of children, a peek at the amazing things being done by child entrepreneurs around the world, as well as music and ballet performances by youth.

Using the simple theme of “ideas worth spreading,” TED offers Amazing speakers, powerful connections and unforgettable moments. Bringing together the world’s leading thinkers and doers, TED events have been called “The ultimate brain spa,” “Davos for optimists” and “A journey into the future, in the company of those creating it.” Speakers at TED events - some of the world’s most fascinating, innovative and influential individuals - are challenged to give “the talk of their life” in 18 minutes or less. Attendees are as exceptional as the speakers. Sharing happens from the stage or in the lounge. It’s the conversation that will change your life. TEDx is a new extension initiative of the TED organization. TEDx Youth @ Sacramento will follow the TED form and spirit.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com.
TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide.

TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to organize local, independent TED-like events around the world; and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

About TEDx (x = independently organized event)

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (Subject to certain rules and regulations).

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

TED2011, "The Rediscovery of Wonder," will be held February 28-March 4, 2011, in Long Beach, California, with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, California.

Monday, November 08, 2010

TEDx San Diego is streaming right now! Check it out.

Thanks to Brandon Weber for the link.

TEDx Sacramento (coming on 11/20) will be using a similar format. Stay tuned for details.

Click on the title (above) to go directly to Ustream.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together

What if you had to decide between being an astronaut or being a dancer?

From the TED website: "Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, a dancer ... Telling stories from her own education and from her time in space, she calls on educators to teach both the arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one -- to create bold thinker

In 1992, Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman to go into space. She's become a crusader for science education -- and for a new vision of learning that combines arts and sciences,…"

Friday, March 19, 2010

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

“If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong though. It's Hambone.”

-- Jack Handy

Monday, March 15, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

"The brain is a monstrous, beautiful mess."

"The brain is a monstrous, beautiful mess. Its billions of nerve cells-called neurons-lie in a tangled web that displays cognitive powers far exceeding any of the silicon machines we have built to mimic it."


William F. Allman (from Apprentices of Wonder. Inside the Neural Network Revolution, 1989



Various Left Brain vs. Right Brain Tests

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Learning to Change...

Thanks to Steven W. Anderson of Web 2.0 Classroom for providing this link on Twitter.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

IQ

What is IQ? How is it determined? What does it measure? Are there more important measurements - maybe a measurement using Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory, or a measurement which looks at how well someone can synthesize information?

Monday, January 18, 2010

Working Memory More Important Than IQ

If what this study suggests is true, shouldn't the schools be focusing more on cognitive skills, i.e. working memory? It really makes one wonder why there is still so much emphasis on IQ and standardized test scores. If only there was a way to quantify how well a student synthesized information or how they performed in a game or project. Oh wait..... project based learning.