TED Community » Dennis Hitzeman

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Sustainable agriculture, self-sustainability, and responsible use of technology to solve problems.

An idea worth spreading

I think the biggest problem facing humanity in the 21st century is getting over the idea that it is someone else's responsibility to make sure we are all fed, clothed, and housed. I want to come up with ways for people to easily grow their own food using responsible technology.

Talk to me about

Just about anything. The thing I love to do most is learn.

People don't know that I'm good at

starting wild sourdough starts and baking sourdough bread.

My TED Story

TED has provided me with a gateway into observing amazing people doing amazing things. That's an idea worth spreading.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: What if we refocus education on helping students learn what they can do with what they have learned?

  Feb 4 2012: I agree that we all need to target policy makers as part of this effort at transformation. We also need to target communities, families, and parents that continue to tolerate a failed system that consumes as many as 15 years of their childrens' lives.
  
  But we do need to target the educators too. If there is any group involved in education that has the capacity to agitate for immediate, meaningful change, it is the organizations that represent teachers in the United States. I live in Ohio and saw first hand what they are capable of doing when they worked for the repeal of SB 5. If they would target that kind of effort on improving their own circumstances and the circumstances of the educations they have been entrusted with, the change would already be underway.

• A reply on Conversation: What if we refocus education on helping students learn what they can do with what they have learned?

  Feb 3 2012: Now that's an interesting idea!

• A reply on Conversation: What if we refocus education on helping students learn what they can do with what they have learned?

  Feb 3 2012: I was fortunate enough to have that kind of experience in high school, so I can say from first-hand experience that it completely changes the way the students learn, what they learn, and what they retain.
  
  Now, how to we extend that experience to every student? I wish I knew...

• A reply on Conversation: This kid is amazing but rare. Why are we having such a hard time fostering this kind of creativity in kids when the tech is there?

  Nov 21 2011: I agree that he is no more creative, but he is more motivated and I think we need to figure out how to motivate children to be producers more than consumers.

• A reply on Conversation: This kid is amazing but rare. Why are we having such a hard time fostering this kind of creativity in kids when the tech is there?

  Nov 19 2011: Frankly, because he's not sitting in front of the television like so many of his peers.
  
  Yes, children--and adults--are capable of unlimited creativity. How many of them are realizing that potential?
  
  Again, I am not suggesting that every kid should be an app developer, but I am suggesting that we exist in a, perhaps, unique period in history where we can encourage creativity in a way than has never been possible before, and by doing so, we can advance ourselves and our world in ways we could not have imagined even twenty years ago.
  
  Unfortunately, what I see instead, at least in my part of the US, isn't kids playing outside (which is its own kind of creativity) or any of the things you suggest but instead becoming new members of a consumer culture that produces less and less even as it consumes more and more.
  
  I know that is a harsh assessment, but I believe it is also a true one, and unless we reverse that trend, we doom ourselves as so many previous consumer civilizations have managed to do.

• A comment on Conversation: Fill in the blank: I would like ________ (a living expert) to give me a 5 minute lesson on ________ (a creative topic).

  Nov 17 2011: I would like a living expert succeeding in their chosen field to give me a 5 minute lesson on how they keep focused on their chosen field so as to succeed at it.
  
  It's a little vague, I know, but what I would love to know nonetheless.

• A comment on Conversation: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of "10 Things I Know to be True."

  Nov 17 2011: I've never put these ideas into list form before now, but here's what I came up with:
  
  1. The only things in life we truly own are our time and our effort.
  2. How we use our time and apply our effort sets the stage for what happens to us.
  3. Every action has consequences.
  4. We cannot predict all of the consequences of every action.
  5. How we respond to unforeseen consequences goes a great way toward defining who we are.
  6. Learning is the only way to make the best of the life we have.
  7. If we are not growing, we're dying.
  8. We cannot improve one person's life by making another person's life worse.
  9. Charity is an individual act that cannot succeed if compelled by force.
  10. The best thing we can do in life is leave the world better than we found it.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of "10 Things I Know to be True."

  Nov 17 2011: Isn't the constantcy of the speed of light now in question?

• A reply on Conversation: This kid is amazing but rare. Why are we having such a hard time fostering this kind of creativity in kids when the tech is there?

  Nov 17 2011: That's a good point that he's so far ahead of his peers.
  
  I wonder: what are the good and bad aspects of being so far ahead?

• A comment on Conversation: This kid is amazing but rare. Why are we having such a hard time fostering this kind of creativity in kids when the tech is there?

  Nov 17 2011: Perhaps another way to foster creativity is to change the way we evaluate learning. I'm interested to read the thoughts on grades, especially since I agree with the idea that grades, in the end, tend to reflect the ability of some students to absorb and repeat rather than the fact that they learned something.
  
  I'm also interested to read what people in other threads are saying about self-paced learning.
  
  How do we use those two ideas to foster creativity?