Speaking English - The new mania?

Has the quest to learn English in places like China reached the "mania" level? Watch this and then tell me what you think.

Sir Ken Robinson on "The Element"

Back in November, I posted Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

Here's his talk at RSA this month discussing his new book "The Element."



Enjoy!!

Bill Gates Unplugged at TED

Love him or hate him, when Bill Gates talks people listen. You should too. Gates addresses just two of the issues that his foundation has been working on - malaria eradication and education (How do we make teachers great?). I think every school administrator should watch this - and then reward good teaching.



For video of the Q&A following his talk, click here.

Are we killing creativity?

When I first saw Sir Ken Robinson's talk at TED, I seriously considered blogging about it. Unfortunately, I never quite got around to it. I really need to be a better blogger!!

Now is a great time to resurrect that idea. Jennifer Dorman did just that today on her Cliotech blog - by the way, one that I follow and recommend. In addition to posting and sharing the TED talk - which I'll also embed here - she tipped us off to a more recent Ken Robinson talk delivered this past April at the Apple Education Leadership Summit. Here are the links to the 2-part Apple talk, posted on Edutopia:

Part I

Part II


Here is the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson:




I echo Dorman's dual-emotional reaction to these presentations - inspired and frustrated. Robinson should be speaking at every school district in America, because as he points out, this is not the problem of an individual teacher or school but a systemic problem that will only be solved through serious education reform. In fact, Robinson calls for a "transformation" rather then "reformation." Obviously, that will not happen - the nationwide speaking tour that is, but probably ed reform as well. I urge all readers to share this post with every educator (or person) that you know.