Mostly Interesting

I love to watch videos from the TED conferences – there are many well-known (and soon to be known) people who give interesting talks on a variety of subjects – mainly related to Technology, Entertainment and Design (gee, TED for short!).  Below are some of my favourites; Others can be found on the WhitchurchArts website.

2009

Siftables Demo ~ David Merrill

Tags: Technology, Interfaces, MIT, Education, Toys
MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

A different way to think about creative genius ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Tags: Arts, Artists, Genius, Outlook, Perspective, Philosophy
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

How I’m trying to change the world now ~ Bill Gates

Tags: Malaria, Teachers, Education
Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.