What They Found

I just stumbled on a new, TED-like site, Fora.tv.  According to Fora’s about page,

“FORA.tv helps intelligent, engaged audiences get smart. Our users find, enjoy, and share videos about the people, issues, and ideas changing the world.

We gather the web’s largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world’s top universities, think tanks and conferences. We present this provocative, big-idea content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share –when, where, and how they want.

With our community of savvy users and an extensive, growing library of smart videos, FORA.tv is at the forefront of the ongoing integration - and transformation – of the traditional media, TV, cable, and online industries from mass-market to high-quality, high-value content.”

Plenty of nosh for your noggin.  Coincidentally, here’s another talk by Ken Robinson about learning to be creative and encouraging creativity in all walks of life.  The topics range from creativity, passion, and education, to  standardized testing,  climate change, and industrialization.  It’s a good listen, but about an hour and a half long, so hunker down for the long haul or listen till you’re bored, whichever comes first.

<via Soulpancake>

***UPDATE: These clips were taken from a 19 minute speech at the TED conference in 2006, and can be found here.

This really resonates with what i’ve been reading lately about in my special education course.  With “exceptional learners”, it’s important to focus on the abilities of the student, not just the disabilities.  It doubly resonates in regards to having creativity educated out of us.  I’ve recently been advised to read Mindset, by Carol Dweck.  According to my source, there’s a good bit of psychobabble bullshit (what’s the origin of this phrase?), but it has some good things to say about having a growth mindset, not being afraid to make mistakes.  Definitely something I feel like I’ve had educated out of me.   Where’d the creative little GT kid go, the one who tried to make wax models of the atom bomb for class and built self-standing articulated ATST walkers from k’nex and my own imagination?  I hope that geek’s still in here somewhere, I miss him.  Anyone else feel like they’ve got their inner creative child gagged and duct taped in a car trunk somewhere?