Lets face it we academics are without doubt experts in not only HOW teaching and learning takes place and is disseminated today but we are also experts in our own particular fields of study.

So why when it comes to making our knowledge available to the world to we tend to jump at obscure journals and even more obscure niche academic conferences?

My theory is we are simply following the old academic protocol.

Research to Publish to Present with little to no thought being given to the HOW and WHO or even WHERE of the process.

Well there is an alternative and that alternative is the TED model.

The scary thing is so many academics watch TEDTalks but so few actually try to do their own work and presentations in that format, right down to the audio/video and show.

Some might say that the TED format dilutes the content of a presentation, I don’t buy it.

Here is the clip talking about TEDCannes and there is nothing light about the content.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is time for the academic world to awaken to the possibility before it and not stay crouched behind a podium in a room tucked away on an obscure University campus and jump feet first onto the world stage and the model for this is TED!

It makes a lot of sense that music would be created for the way and where it would be played.

Does this apply to other presentations?

In particular I am thinking about academics like myself.

How much time, when I am planning a lecture, do I spend thinking about how the lecture will look and of course sound in a particular venue?

None! At least not consciously!

But the way my lecture looks and sounds is very important to the consumer, the student.

And what about the translation of my work to the MP3 player or a car radio and Vimeo?

A lecture is a creative and adaptive activity just like Byrne is talking about with music and in the end birds.

Maybe the problem we are facing as academics is we are no longer creating our lectures and teaching materials to fit the multiple contexts they are being delivered in.

Just a little food for thought.

Maybe we need to change what we do to fit the changing context.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Gilbert about a year ago.

I instantly knew that Ian had a story to tell and many people with ear plugs in need to listen and hard!

We have a global education crisis today because bureaucrats, CFO’s (chief failure officers), accountants and academic leadership in general has failed to do what needs to be done!

Maybe we all need to listen a bit closer to what Ian Gilbert is saying?

And maybe those education leaders who are failing our youth need to either stand up to the challenge or step aside!

Ian Gilbert Live at TEDxDubai 2009.

You know I am a TED fan and will be going to TED2011 as well as co-curating TEDxDubai this coming December.

But there is another group that you might not have heard of and need to also look at!

GEL  Short for “Good Experience Live”

You are scratching your head right?

Well here is what it is all about.

Gel is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms – in art, business, technology, society, and life.

Gel was founded by Mark Hurst in 2003 and has run a spring event in New York City each year since. Gel 2010 was the 8th annual event.

Instead of focusing on just one thing (design, technology, user experience, business, etc.) like many conferences, Gel touches on many things. This challenges attendees to find, and learn from, the patterns that underlie good experience, even in disciplines vastly different from their own.

The best way to understand the Gel experience is to attend.

I have not attended yet BUT like TED I do love the videos.

You can find the videos on VIMEO

One of the recent greats is this one!

Matt Haughey

Founder, Metafilter.com

Tags: business, community, technology

Posted: 05/26/10 | Recorded at Gel 2010

As the founder of Metafilter.com, Matt Haughey has created one of the most successful and vibrant online communities in the world. At Gel 2010 he describes some of the lessons he’s learned along the way. Matt is a longtime Gel attendee and it’s a privilege to spotlight his outstanding work.

(Coincidentally, just days after Gel 2010 the online community of Ask Metafilter stopped a human trafficking attempt in New York City. See also the Mother Jones article on the incident.)

See also: Matt Haughey on Twitter

The point is there are a bunch of people doing great things and making it available, live, learn and pass it on!

I really love this little talk and for me it frames a lot of where I think education in the field of media needs to be going and fast.

David Bornstein at Gel 2010 (author, “How to Change the World”) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

All I keep asking is what can I do?

Sadly, as Oliver says in his opening sentence, I am not so sure people know where to start or if they can see where how!

For 3 months I have been saying, “there must be something I can do!”

-cook with my kids

-eat better

-make food a priority

-engage the community

I have been working on all the above and am making some headway, but it is slow.

So, Chef Andy and myself have decided to role out an imperfect way to get people thinking food right here in the UAE.

Step one FOOD RADIO!

The start of my own little attempt to make food thinking an issue in the UAE, with a DIY/HOW-TO approach!

Andy and I hope, we really do hope, that we can get 3 people to change their eating habits, learn some basic recipes and share them with another 3 people!

Oliver said, we need to learn how to cook to weather any storm, and we want to help make that happen here in the UAE!

Will it work?

All I know is that at the end of the day I can say I did my part.

Yet, when it comes to food we fail miserably to really think about how it can have an impact on our lives and the lives of those around us.

Jamie Oliver won this years TED Prize and hopes to create a food revolution!

Give the video a look!

We can ignore the food guy if we really want, food is his thing.

What about the US military?

The US military is saying the same thing!

WASHINGTON — Too fat to fight? Many American children are so overweight from being fed french fries, pizza and other unhealthy foods at school lunchrooms that they cannot handle the physical rigors of being in the military, a group of retired officers say in a new report.

National security is threatened by the sharp rise in obesity rates for young people over the last 15 years, the group Mission: Readiness contends. Weight problems are now the leading medical reason that recruits are rejected, the group says, and thus jeopardize the military’s ability to fill its ranks.

In a report released Tuesday, the group says that 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too fat to join the military. The retired officers were on Capitol Hill advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation’s school lunches healthier.

The military group acknowledges that other things keep young adults out of the armed services, such as a criminal record or the lack of a high school diploma.

We need to be thinking seriously about our education and are we feeding education in the literal sense?

If we are not teaching about food why not?

It is not too late BUT you need to start.

Make it small and make it meaningful BUT START.

We live conflict, we spectate conflict and we speculate on it.

Yet, we spend far too little time thinking about why we are in conflict.

And we spend even less time acting on the small things to ease if not eliminate the conflict outright.

The greatest problem facing us as we confront conflict is perception!

How we perceive ourselves and how we perceive others is a huge issue that only grows as we work through the conflict resolution process.

But there is hope!

At this years TEDxDubai Jamil Abu-Wardeh talked about modern Arabic stand-up comedy and how this simple tool might be the start to rebooting how we think about conflict!

Give the talk a listen and you will hear what I am talking about.

We are buried in possibility really!

After watching TED 2010, no I was not there but really did wanted to be, I realized that part of our personal problem with activating ideas t is the start button!

There is no start button for many people they do not see the first box on the grid!

Or we are too scared to start the process of change!

What is going to get in the way of Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish, the average person in their home starting to do food differently.

Talk is cheap and so is TV but the start is expensive, it involves faith and buy in.

As Oliver said his idea is not hard, it is obvious and it is needed. WE NEED TO START.

As with all great things we need a push and maybe the school education scheme is the push. Oliver’s wish might be the start button on a personal manageable scale

Or maybe it is less to do with the start and fear of not being able to turn off the process, as is the case with most great ideas.

There is always the fear of the unknown.

So how do we start?

1. think small, like breakfast small.

2.think about a finish point you can see, making the food and eating it for one meal.

3. think of the engagement, not just doing but living with the food and the process.

4. be selfish and think about you, why you are doing this not the whole world.

This idea of making actions, tasks, idea-activation tiny is they key to success in any endeavour! If we can not see why and how and take ownership for ourselves then it is a nameless, faceless activity which is easy to ignore!

This year I was not in the audience at TED, and how I missed the buzz!

As much as I could I watched the live feed of the show and tweeted my observations, #jamesed_me.

Even though I lived only a piece of TED this year, having been there I could sense the excitement and feel the pull of the ideas that seem to envelop as well as inform.

Jamie Oliver and his acceptance of the TED Prize 2010 was a wonderful moment that sent my mind spinning with the simple question, what can I do here in the UAE?

The power of TED is that I am still asking this question and presenting options/ideas to people, the short answer is something, anything to start the process of change.

There is nothing more simple than eating healthy!

I love the idea of learning/teaching school kids about food and making it fun.

So how?

Hmmm… what is I help set up a cooking education troop? Part acting, part clowning,part teaching, part activity and part eating? A take on MAD Science making the object here cooking and love of healthy food!

I think I am on to something.

TEDx Dubai was all about igniting the passion in people to not only talk about issues but to actually get out there and do something about it.

Five people, all with full time jobs that are not related to conference organization, pulled off the impossible as far as I am concerned and I am proud to have been part of it!

TEDx Dubai was not about money, in fact it cost each of the organizers money, out of our pockets to put this conference on.

TEDx Dubai was about giving the community permission to start to DREAM-DO-BE the change in your own corner of the world.

I am happy to say that while many people did not get it, they are asking when all the video will be available, they are asking when the next event will happen, they are asking about a follow up.

TEDx Dubai was and is not about Giorgio and me pushing and pulling people to do things it is about you saying , MY TURN!

While many people are still stuck in the old economy thinking of what is physically in it for me there are many who have embraced the TED and TEDxDubai idea.

This email arrived a few days ago.

hello james

a fellow Dubai TEDxer has made some drastic changes to her life because of TEDx and i though i tell you about it her names is Gaby Feile she is German you might know her from the great blog she wrote about TEDx right after the conference, she just quit her job in the  Monarch hotel Dubai because for her she just couldn’t relate to it after TEDx and he farewell party was yesterday she had a garage sale for her furniture and gave all the money for Masarat and her 8 days academy and she is leaving soon to spain to work with an NGO that help children by the way she is not the only person who i heard about who did some thing similar of thinking of it

im thinking of starting TED night at the shelter either to show TED videos each night a certain theme of life stream other TEDx conferences my question is how can i know about upcoming TEDx conferences i tried searching online i couldn’t find much about them?

So, what is the take home here?

Go out and do that one thing this week that is going to change the way someone thinks about anything, just make it something you care about!