TED Community » Regina Saphier

More About Me

I'm passionate about

introspecting, listening, speaking, writing, mentoring, learning, writing live conference blogs about TED Long Beach & TED Global... and about Coursera.

An idea worth spreading

"Vitamin" D can protect you from many illnesses, if your blood level is maintained by sufficient "vitamin" D intake from the sun, and foods or supplements, because the D hormone (!) cycle is an important component of the human immune system. Optimum and safe range according to the literature: 100 - 150 nmol/L or 40 - 60 ng/mL. "Vitamin" D might be toxic if over 10 000 international units per day are taken for months. Above 32 N latitude, you should spend at least 15 minutes under the sun at 11:00 am (several times a week), to produce over 10 000 IU "vitamin" D each time, from March to October, on sunny days. But no more per day! No sunscreen! Read more on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepupthegoodD/

Talk to me about

the live TED conferences, Coursera, mild Asperger's or not being neuro typical.

People don't know that I'm good at

telling you where the International Space Station is right now. Also, I am good at living a really simple life.

My TED Story

I have been watching TED for years. My first TED video was Sir Ken Robinson's talk. I loved the TED2010 Conference in Long Beach, California online, live & for free as an "Associate-Stream Member". I felt appreciated as a volunteer TED translator and reviewer and I have become a TED live conference blogger. TED is a surface that provides challenging, fun, often even dramatic educational materials that I am able to share with my friends via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Skype. I am educating my nation via my TED blog and my translations. I contributed as a reviewer in three languages. After I encountered Coursera during a TED conference, I started focusing on the MOOC phenomenon and mainly Coursera, because this is what I have been waiting for since I graduated from TC Columbia University.

MY TED BLOG:
http://mytedblog.wordpress.com/
MY COURSERA BLOG:
http://mycourserablog.wordpress.com/

Comments

• TEDCred score: +144.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +6

  A comment on Conversation: What have you learnt from watching TEDTalks?

  Jul 6 2011: My learning was complex. While watching hundreds of talks from the TED archives, I felt reassured that I have a clue about what is going on in the world, and at the same time I gained a new tool for social change. Earlier I tried to change my country by building an NGO from scratch, but two years ago I realized I could support the change from a different angle and started translating and reviewing TED talks (beyond posting TED talk links to my facebook wall). So, due to this experience I managed to learn new skills: video subtitle translation and review. After a while I got the TED associate status for my TED translations and started watching the TED conferences live online and I had the feeling that I need to take my blogging activity to the next level, and I started live TED conference blogging. Again, a new skill. And it is all voluntary, nobody asked me to do all this. TED for me is a multi layered learning experience: the talks, the interdisciplinary knowledge, the sharing, the changing, the translating, the reviewing, the live blogging...
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave

  Jun 29 2011: Even before I started watching this wonderful TEDx talk, I knew I am going to love it! Here is why: several years ago I was so ill, the only thing I could do was: searching the web for a cure. Doctors kept testing me, finally all of them either gave up, or told me: it is all in my head. I was tired all the time. I went from full time creative and happy, to full time tired. After having read thousands of medical article pages and amazing patient blogs, I finally figured out what happened to me and what I had to do to get better. I changed my diet and lifestyle (I used to work too much), but the key was "vitamin" D! I had to fight for a "vitamin" D test, because it is NOT common medical knowledge (in Hungary, where I live), that "vitamin" D and its receptor influences not only your bones, but also your entire immune system, thyroid function, metabolism, mood, energy level and so on. I had almost no "vitamin" D by the time I got tested! I embraced the sun for D production, I took selenium, I administered safe cod liver oil, I stopped eating gluten and sugar, I stopped drinking milk (to avoid casein), and in a few months I started to feel better. In six weeks my D level was fivefold. Today my "vitamin" D is optimal. According to my endocrinologist, in his practice this is unusual! People are mostly D deficient. Have your 25-D measured and be careful when supplementing with D if you have a chronic disease. My recovery was only possible because I could reach and process all that openly available information out there on the web. In turn I created a "vitamin" D information and self help group on facebook to help others; please, join if you feel you need help and/or if you have information to share: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepupthegoodD
• +4

  A comment on Conversation: We spend 3 billion hours a week as a planet playing videogames. Is it worth it? How could it be MORE worth it?

  Feb 19 2011: Jane! Hi! I am not a gamer. I am an online idea generator. When I listened to your talk live last year, I knew that I should translate your talk into Hungarian and I am glad I did that (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/hun/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html). :-) Thank you for the inspiration! I had this idea: Why not create a game that makes people in the developed world responsible for the education of people in the less developed parts of the world. There is now so much content out there for online education for free... I was thinking: Ivy League development, education, etc... students should be inspired by online games ... you know, somehow combining education, mentoring, research and gaming... Get your degree as an online gamer by teaching people skills, showing them the world, interacting with them online and seeing results as we play. Learn from each other. Get your university credits with meaningful online games. I even wrote e-mails about that to the TED management, because TED talks would be perfect for this new way of "online global community graduation" with "gamer organized free educational content" from the web. I imagined getting an experimental PhD in such a way online (on top of my Columbia University MA) from my home in Budapest, Hungary while pulling someone else (living in a less fortunate environment) toward a BA or an MA degree. The game could have an academically meaningful impact beyond the epic win of teaching people skills, languages or science... I am sure many PhD students would be happier with this, instead of being the RA and TA slaves of tenured professors in the US... I could work with a post-doc who is in the US... so that person in the US, me in Hungary, and the person in the Third World: we would get to know each other's needs and culture too and that with minimal carbon footprint. That could promote global power balance and understanding. This in my opinion would be a meaningful game project. :-) Best, Regina Saphier
• +3

  A reply on Talk: Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

  Feb 10 2011: You are all very welcome. :-) I studied adult learning and explored educational issues at Teachers College Columbia University in New York, USA and a key approach close to my professional world view is multiple intelligences (as described for example by Howard Gardner). I am also a passionate reader of neuro science, sociology and psychology related publications. Plus, I am a daily user of online social networks and virtual communities. I encourage diversity of educational approaches! Some people like TED 18 minutes talks, some like RSA non-animated long talks, some have a brain preference for edited, shortened and animated talks. The key is: people have different brains and different learning styles. For free online learning any of these methods are wonderful in my opinion as long as people manage to grasp the key concepts and become more interested in deeper exploration. Not to mention the value of animation in online language learning (visual aids enhance contextual understanding). I embrace education related innovation, creativity and effort. I am sure Sir Ken Robinson would strongly agree with me. :-)
• +11

  A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

  Dec 19 2010: Changing (Education) Paradigms - This is not a TED talk, it is the shortened (Cognitive Media animated) version of Sir Ken Robinson's Royal Society of Arts (RSA) talk. The original long RSA version is available here: http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/archive/sir-ken-robinson
  His second RSA talk is about his new book, The Element: http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/archive/sir-ken-robinson-the-element
  
  More RSA Animate talks available here: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Carter Emmart demos a 3D atlas of the universe

  Jul 1 2010: Here is a link I looked up for my Hungarian TED Long Beach speaker-by-speaker conference blog in February for a slightly better visual experience (I hope it helps): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U
• +9

  A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

  May 24 2010: The rock-star of education: Sir Ken Robinson. I got to see him live, online in February at the TED Long Beach 2010 event. Always a true pleasure! :-) Several years ago, his first talk made me a TED enthusiast! We, TED speakers, employees, viewers, bloggers, translators and other volunteers, and donors, we are all makers of the revolution now! :-)
• +8

  A comment on Talk: Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish

  Mar 11 2010: Both of his talks are elegant, smart, informative, entertaining and really funny. He has the timing of a stand up comedian, the curiosity of a journalist, and all this in a gourmet chef’s thin body. He is no scientist, but he is an interested searcher, wanting to know how to do a better job as a human and as a chef. It is important to ask questions and realize that one is wrong. It is what he did with the first fish. He kept thinking: is it really a good fish? As soon as he figured, that the fish was made of chicken, he rejected the idea. He moved on, searched and found another option. I am sure he will be asking more such questions and say: wow, this is wrong… when he realizes that something is just wrong. But if he likes it, he will share it. It is the optimum you can expect from a chef. I believe we need more people asking more of these questions. I appreciate his efforts and welcome his skill to trigger other people’s curiosity about the topic of food and where it comes from. :)
• +8

  A comment on Talk: Richard Feynman: Physics is fun to imagine

  Mar 7 2010: Richard Feynman speaks about all sorts of fun things in this video, but the most interesting for me in part 11 is this:
  He wanted to learn to precisely count a minute in his head and he not only calibrated this skill, but he also trained himself to read something else while counting. So finally, he figured, he could count a minute and read, but he was unable to speak. As he explained this to a scientist friend in Princeton, the friend would wonder why he found it hard to speak, and could not imagine reading, while counting seconds. So, Feynman kind of trained him to count a minute in his head and he was easily able to speak but unable to read, while counting. It turns out, Feynman spoke to himself while counting, and so had no problem using his visual brain centers to read, but his speech center was occupied with the silent inner speech of counting. His friend however saw seconds visually, and was able to speak, but not read.
• +7

  A comment on Talk: Richard Feynman: Physics is fun to imagine

  Mar 7 2010: It shows that a scientific mind is basically a creative, playful, curious, productive, brilliant visual, spatial, sound etc. apparatus playing with data that you put in, and Feynman would have made a superb experimental psychologist too. He would have made a superb medical researcher as well… He has probably become what he has become because of the early influences, like him earning money as a kid fixing radios.