TED Community » Tyler Vega

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Education, empowerment and development

An idea worth spreading

Esperanto

Talk to me about

Anything. Particularly remote language exchange programs and large scale cultural interfaces. Khan institute esperanto immersion schools focused on translating material to the local languages.

My TED Story

Hollyhock summer gathering! Whoot ding!

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Can it be commonly understood that character development or the lack of it is the root of our collective ails and their solutions?

  Mar 31 2011: You pose a difficult question in that there is an inherent paradox in it. The nature of your question points the finger at lesser evolved, yet fails to show the development of compassion that you speak of. I don´t think you can do any good by pointing out that some people have less or different development than others. I suspect we´ll all find that we each have a piece. The gentiles, the jews, the autistic, the gifted, the developed, the greedy, the other and the self. Know that I heed my words as I type them: Look at you first, then see what you can do for the world. Accept the others as they are. Pray to god that they accept you.
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  A comment on Talk: Chris Jordan: Turning powerful stats into art

  Mar 31 2011: Word. Good on ye for the reminder. I haven´t read all the comments, and this may be a repeat, but it deserves attention. The rest of the world is following and surpassing america. Education and mindfulness on issues of consumption have to be lead by the so-called ¨first world¨, but it doesn´t end there. Here in ecuador, what I see is scary... And the people here want most to make it more like america. Change is slow, one person at a time, but we must also look at crossing cultural gaps as effectively as consumerism has. We need to encourage bi and trilingualism, cultural exchange and web-based globally oriented education on issues of this nature. Cleaning up after this is already a gargantuan task that even the boldest fall in front of... We have to tackle it at the front, the back, the middle and from all sides. This includes every country in the world, every language, every point of consumption and every endpoint of the waste. Thanks Chris.

• A comment on Talk: Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic

  Mar 31 2011: One possible solution: Passive solar distillation meets ¨use it as a resource¨
  Premise 1: When you evaporate water, the plastic does not go with it (test it, it works)
  Therefore, although you can´t get the little plastic out, you CAN get the water out.
  Using the materials available in the Gyre, most importantly the bouyant lines (ropes for you landlubbers), sealed bottles (trap warmth well), bags (make it spongelike to trap particles) and probably old seine nets from onshore, we could lash together some, most or all the big stuff. it would be bouyant (obviously) pourous, and, it would have a few natural water cleaning traits:
  First, it would support life, particularly filter feeders that would eat the plastic (unfortunately for them, fortunately for us) and die with it in their bodies. Second, it would be warmer (as land is) and evaporate water, thus creating a very slow suction sponge and would ultimately keep small plastic particles in itself increasing quantities moving toward it´s surface and getting trapped within it´s structure.It would also keep the big stuff contained in a way that keeps it from beoming lthe unmanageable little stuff that we´re most concerned with. This solution has no likely drastic side effects as it´s passive and natural, it can all be done under sail power (long live the sovereign fleet!), and it could even considerably support habitat for the albatross. It would obviously take years, and could only be done during the safe times of the year, but the idea is to do it non-invasivly. So what if it takes decades? We´re hoping to be around for that long right? Besides, it´d be fun. I proprose this as the new arm of Algalita: NPG Ecotourism. Many people would gladly pay for this adventure. btw skipper, if u need crew, please call me.
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  A comment on Talk: Naomi Klein: Addicted to risk

  Mar 31 2011: It was risk tempered with incredible patience that saved what´s left of the redwood forest. When yin tells yang that it´s his fault, the world explodes again. Disempowerment is disempowerment, mens suffrage and womens sufferage... Only together can we destroy the world. Only together can we save it. You must learn to talk to your target audience in way that he can hear, becuase when his ears close he drives faster.
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  A comment on Conversation: The Creative Play Paradigm (or where an adjective could make all the difference, and yet...)

  Mar 29 2011: Integrating this at every level is certainly important, but not at the expense of it´s opposite. I think of it as yin and yang, yang being the play style of learning, the active style that has been largely absent inside the schools for so long, the thing is that that you just have to look outside the building to see it. It´s on the football field, at recess and sometimes in the music department. the yin style of learning (lecture style), or passive audience, has it´s benefit though. Take TED, for example. It´s an entirely passive based structure with room for the active, empowering the active by giving it it´s voice. Another example is Salman Khan´s work which interestingly, is leading to the same conclusion. So the trick I think is in the mariage of the two, and I reckon this is always the case. In any situation at any level, a mindful and organic use of both the active and the passive styles of education is inherently mandatory and can be modified based on the needs scene. In a classroom where the boys are going crazy and being medicated for it, add yang and open the window. In the endless rural ghetto below the poverty line where they have nothing but the futbol, add Ted and Salman Khan.

• A comment on Conversation: What is the true value (if any) of organized schooling?

  Mar 28 2011: It can´t be reasonably argued that traditional schooling has no value. It can´t be reasonably arued that homeschooling or unschooling have no value. We have too many incredible success stories that come from each of the myriad paths. At the very least, the institutions have the key elemnents of space, shelter and resources, not to mention the people who care happen to be in these institutions. It´s a question of evolution, or I should say an answer. Evolving ourselves and allowing our institutions to evolve. There is no good reason why my alma matter can´t instantly and incredibly morph into a learning explosion with the tools we have to offer at hand. Our system is outdated, there is no question and the kids in our schools don´t act the way you, I or their parents want them to. Remember though that the most important thing still exists, and that´s that they do want to go. Even if it´s solely for the company, they still want to go. They just don´t want to go and be force fed. Just like you and me, they (I should say we) want to do what we want to do, and we don´t lke it when we can´t. All it takes is a little breathing room, maybe a little kick from the outside. Maybe a little help from the passionate writers that present here, maybe the right tool? But I think it´s really just a little more room to be who we are.

• A comment on Conversation: How can we empower kids to reshape the education system? *A TEDActive Education Project Question*

  Mar 28 2011: Sugata nailed it. Just finishing his talk. You take that, plus Hans´ thesis plus good water and nutrition and you will get your results.

• A comment on Conversation: How can we empower kids to reshape the education system? *A TEDActive Education Project Question*

  Mar 28 2011: I rather suspect it´s what we don´t know that gives us magical wisdom when we´re kids. A number of recent (to me anyway) ted talks speak directly and inderectly to this point, and it´s a point that is worthy of considering for Einsteins Grand Unifying Theme. Patricia Kuhl put it exquisitely, in short paraphrasing the magnitude of the beginners mind. Salman Khan showed us how student motivated learning is key. Deb Roy showed us how environment and interaction play a role. Sugata Mitra shows me yet another angle as I type. All that said, it was Hans Rosling who showed the lynchpin in his very own story and thesis. He started his career when his mom had time to read to him. We know form Patricia that maximum impact is below the age of seven. We also know that mom is the first and most effective teacher, and that mom is always strapped for time. Therien lies the key element, the wolrds most valuable commodity: Time. So we can add time to mother (teacher) and child (student) at the critical age (as early as possible) plus language aquisition and optimal growth in something like the following equation: A School based on washing machine-created free time for mothers and their young children with play-oriented language exposure and nutritional, book and computer support in any place, preferably at the bottom of the status quo for maximum effect. Ideally it would be an international hostal with discounts for reading books to local kids in the traveller´s native language, an interactive multilingual kitchen, minimal entry cost, space to be outside and lots of room to hang laundry. Have the Khan Academy right there at my fingertips, along with the worlds knowledge in the form of google. A good book in every language. Let it all be voluntary, play oriented and student driven with adult supervision and as many elders in the building as possible. Add a focus on translation ability... A global network of sites with video conferencing for the kids for exchange....