Have you seen how they dress?

Have you watched them use phones, tv, computers, games and eat all at the same time?

Generally the youth of today get a bad rap.

Well let me tell you not to lose hope.

I had a chance to talk to 4 students working on a TEDx event, 3 speakers one organizer, and WOW they were amazing!

If these kids are a sample of the global population it is time to give them more time to share and inspire us becasue they are very switched on.

And if you are unsure about TED I give a great intro.

Bill Roedy did the 5th Anniversary and graduation speech for the Berlin School.

AMAZING!

Not that I was hearing anything new but it was great to hear these ideas from another voice.

Tips to success from Bill the cable guy.

1. The most important lesson is the need to creatively adapt!

2. Passion is what you need to have.

3. Go global go local you have to be there.

4. Take risks and break the rules.

5. Innovation comes from risk.

6. Failure teaches .

7. Don’t be afraid.

8. First on the battle field last to leave or quick to take blame and slow to take credit.

9. Bureaucracy is a killer of innovation.

10. Hard work trumps talent.

11. Stand up for tolerance and diversity.

12. Never accept no for an answer.

13. MASTER DIGITAL with a heart.

14. Have fun.

15. Make  a difference

These are very valuable tips that all too often we forget.

I wonder where we went wrong actually.

As you look around you there are so many aspects of our lives that speak to education or the lack of it.

-organizational communication

-visual ads

-wording in many contexts

-look of things like posters

-conflict

And those are just a few areas of our common lives that seem to have slipped through the cracks in our education system.

I came across a link to the book Type Matters and realized that this is a whole side of my education that has been ignored!

Yet I produce all sorts of documents and visual presentations relying on the default font or one or 2 I like.

In a sense I have left a whole side of my communication to chance!

Again I ask where did we go wrong as we reformed and continue to reform education?

I think we are so focused we are missing much of the obvious.

We took the TEDxZU experience out of the random public space of the atrium into the auditorium of the University.

For all that was lost in the random spontaneous aspect of the show what we gained was a huge amount of credibility.

At this event we had HE Sheikh Nahyan the Minister of Higher Education and Research speaking as well as the CEO of du Mr. Osman Sultan.

The show opened with Ayshah talking old tech and was followed by Suad talking experience and Jack Hillwig re-directing education.

The point of TEDxZU is it is a ZU community event for the ZU community.

Did I mention the co-hosts, Alyaah and Nour, were also ZU students?

In my experience the optimum TEDx event is 60 minutes long and smack dab in the middle of the day between the normal drudge.

Here is a sample of what happened.

Oh and by the way these were recorded off of my iPhone, not bad!

HE Sheikh Nahayan

Mr. Osman Sultan

Dr. Jack Hillwig

And pretty much every time I read something on the Duarte blog I have a new door opened!

This week I was introduced to Dan Roam, how did I miss him is what I am wondering?

Dan is all about the thought process.

What is clear to me as I walk back into my University classes this week is we as teachers need to be doing more to conceptualize how our students think.

Honestly I am not sure I have given the thought process much though.

Well Dan has started me down a path that is sure to get very interesting fast!

Check out this video and tell me it doesn’t make you ask a few questions about your own approach to thinking.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/35270777[/vimeo]

And I can’t help but look at the results and ask if I have achieved my goal.

The goal being very simply to make my students laugh and think.

And of course there is the application of the laughter and thinking into some real world possibility.

How often to we link the comic side of things with the thinking side of things?

Not often enough is the short answer.

Well there is an answer to this challenge.

Marc Abrahams: The founder of the Ig Nobel Prize describes some past favorites – including some connections to other Gel 2011 presentations. See also Marc’s Annals of Improbable Research.

Marc Abrahams at Gel 2011 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

What is a teacher?

Public education?

Smart?

Not?

Economics vs intellectual?

I am moving to a new school in September to help create the UAE’s leading mass communication program.

I say leading because if we are going to just do what is typical today there would be no point in moving to CUD from ZU.

We are going to put a program in motion that is in constant re-invention.

We are thinking of journalism in terms of the craft and the delivery.

We are thinking advertising in terms of what, who and where.

We are thinking about PR in terms of the story and delivery.

No more we need huge expensive pools of equipment to make media, WE DON’T NEED A HUGE SET OR A HUGE LAB.

What we need is people who are engaged as mentors and learners.

Watch this video this to me is where CUD’s mass communication program is going.

You name it, from National Geographic to a local radio station, it is being broadcast to the world through Livestream.

And what I really love about Livestream content is the simple fact that this alternative content is easy to find and watch.

How much SXSW do you get to watch?

And Facebook Live? Did you even know about Facebook live?

And when was the last time you listened to Mike Tyson talk about his ability with a computer?

Again here we have a resource that is being under used by so many groups and organizations who need to get their message out.

And once you start watching Livestream content it is hard to turn back to traditional TV.

Why? That one word, convenience.

And then there is this little piece on fashion that made me sit back and listen as Oscar de la Renta talk about among other things truth and business.

There is a lot of noise out there on the Internet and once again a way to break through the clutter is with a service like Livestream.

Yes there is an element of torture in sitting a final as it does bring on stress and all sorts of anxiety.

But there is another side to the written final, and I am not talking multiple choice, a full no holds bared 100% essay style exam and that is the love of the written word.

This may sound funny but it is really interesting to look at the way people write and what they add to their sentences in terms of font size and colour. In this case both font and colour are added manually becasue this is not a typing exercise.

There is something about a well written piece, this coming from the guy writing this on a computer.

Fast Company recently had an article talking about the technology/old school reality.

87 percent of them supplement gadgets with paper productivity, and 47 percent thought their personal and company efficiency would improve with better note-taking.

I have actually spent a little more time with my students provoking better note taking and to get there I have ditched PowerPoint or Prezi for the notes being written on the board.

There is something about scratching an idea onto a board as busy minds wait to unpack the thoughts.

And then there is the whole thought process itself when it is tied to digital tools. I personally think technology is forcing us to do things too fast and with too little thought. Apparently I am not alone.

As another Fast Company blogger pointed out, critics and researchers see paper as a medium that allows for deeper thought and focus. By its nature, it’s a single page that you pick up and give a key position to, and you can see exactly how much you have done with it. On another level, paper lacks hyperlinks, search boxes, and notifications, the kinds of context switches author Nicholas Carr believes have rewired and distracted our brains.

No matter how you slice this onion there is not denying the reality that a little hand writing can do wonders.

We spend a lot of time thinking about career options and that usually takes us off in some far flung direction.

Web design, app creator, conference organizer… and then there are the things we don’t even know about yet.

But what about all the things we just use and do on a daily basis.

Butchers, bakers and candle stick makers as career options?

The Red Wing Shoes Repair Service looks like something we need in every city!

And maybe this is a career option for many!

I think we need to think a bit more about the here and now.

Imagine the possibility!