TED Community » Ben Fincher

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I'm passionate about

Evolution, biomimicry, ID/Creationism debate, education, biology, environment, but really just about anything interests me.

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  A comment on Conversation: Should degrees have "patches"?

  Aug 5 2012: I recently watched Daphne Koller's talk about her startup Coursera, ( http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html ) I feel like Coursera would be a good framework for an idea like this since they already have the infrastructure capable of teaching classes to a widespread, online demographic and they already have universities partnered with them. The courses wouldn't have to be as long as some of the ones offered on Coursera now, and the ability to record wrong and right answers and stuff like that could help shed light on the biggest holes in the knowledge of professionals in various fields. A possible problem would be deciding if universities would accept "patches" from other universities. Like if there was a "patch" from Stanford in my field, would my university allow me to use that as an acceptable form of updating? Because each university offering "patches" for each of their majors would be a bit ridiculous and flood the system.
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  A comment on Talk: Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration

  Dec 23 2011: I think it'd also be cool to use Duolingo to caption subtitles for videos on the internet. I know listening to someone speak a language and trying to understand is much different than reading it, so I think that'd also be good practice for someone trying to learn a new language.

• A comment on Conversation: As a parent who received my education a while ago, should schools give classes so I can understand todays math?

  Aug 23 2011: http://www.khanacademy.org/
  
  I haven't watched any of their lessons, so I can't vouch for its usefulness, but maybe it's a good place to start? A quick refresher course or introduction, or you could use the site along with your children and do the practice exercises together too. Hope this helps.
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  A comment on Conversation: What If... we created a collaborative novel... write here, characters loosely based on a story that is being written before us...

  Aug 21 2011: Even he didn't know exactly where he wanted to go yet. "Away," Theodore Chase thought as he gripped the steering wheel of the old Volkswagen van even tighter. "Mommy," he heard her ask tentatively, almost afraid of the answer, but too curious not to ask, "why didn't Daddy come with us?"
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  A comment on Conversation: Can the human mind create something it has never seen before?

  Aug 21 2011: As far as physical "things" go, I don't think so. We just build onto existing things, or repurpose objects for new jobs. (I think the innovation required for our "MacGyver-ing" is more impressive anyway.) But, we built a Large Hadron Collider to make a situation we've never seen before, so in that sense, eventually we will create something we've never seen before. Dark matter, also, we've never seen that, but it's been thought up. Of course we had regular matter off which to base that idea, but everything is interconnected somehow so if you're asking if something will ever be made that is just completely out of left field and has no current (at the time) comparisons, then no I don't think so.

• A comment on Conversation: Are we pre-dispositioned to make stereotypes?

  Aug 21 2011: Thanks for all your thoughts, guys! Most of you have answered along the same lines as I was originally thinking- "yes, and they're useful as long as they're used in moderation and not taken to exaggerated extremes." When I think of stereotypes in a societal mind-frame, I think of negativity and racism. Is that a personal flaw or is it human nature to focus on the negatives (that seems to be the case on the news). So, do you think it'd be possible to keep stereotypes positives, or maybe at least keep them moderate? Can we turn stereotypes from hurtful, dividing categorizing into helpful, social rules-of-thumb?
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  A reply on Conversation: Are we pre-dispositioned to make stereotypes?

  Aug 21 2011: Hi Scott, thanks for your response. Your brain also does things you don't tell it to, like breathing. You don't think that the things our brains do subconsciously affect our decision-making and the way we assess our world? Of course I have no way of knowing, but I feel like if we knew we also had to partition part of our brainpower to focus on breathing, then maybe the way our brains processed information would be different.
  
  I also don't believe that genes and brain chemistry don't SOLELY determine our behavior, but I do believe they have influence over us. Of course we have people on both sides, those who think they hold great sway over us and those who think they barely influence us at all. "Nature vs. nurture"-esque, eh? Anyway, as we get closer to being able to pinpoint how much power genes have over us, I'm excited to see what we find.
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  A comment on Conversation: How young is too young for social networking?

  Aug 17 2011: Like many other responses I've read, I think the keys to teaching children safe social networking practices are, as with anything, moderation and being taught how to use the tools safely and responsibly, so I think it all comes down to parenting. All the time I see t.v. commercials for kid's toys that end with the voice-over saying "ask your parents' permission to go online." It seems like children are being pushed at increasingly young ages toward using the internet, and I think it's a wonderful and necessary resource, even for children. It's just that Facebook doesn't urge them to talk to their parents about it.
  
  I've just been struck with a thought- maybe a way to teach children about social networking is to set up a "family" Facebook/Twitter/Google+ page. The way I see it, parents with small children could create a page that is for the entire family, not just a single person. Family pics could then be uploaded, family news and goings-on could be shared via tweets/status updates, and I imagine this as a kind of end-of-day family bonding experience, so parents and children could be able to talk about why they want to include topics or leave topics out of updates. Hopefully through these discussions children would learn about acceptable social networking etiquette and security, and then eventually the kids can responsibly handle social networking accounts of their own.
  
  I just wrote that as it came to me, so I'm sure there are flaws, but I think it'd be a pretty cool little experiment to try with a young family. What changes would you guys make to it, or potential troubles can you foresee?

• A comment on Conversation: How are we going to get Conscious Listening into schools?

  Aug 8 2011: The first step to listening for anyone is simply to want to listen. An open-mindedness is necessary for the passing of information between any two individuals, the teacher and student for example. Young children are built for soaking up information from all around them, that open-mindedness is pretty natural. As far as school goes, I'm not sure the problem is being unable to hear or not knowing how to listen, it's just not wanting to listen. I am by no means an education professional, but it seems to me that around middle school (6th, 7th, 8th grade in the American system I attended) is when children don't want to listen most. I enjoyed Mr. Treasure's 5 ways to listen better, but I'm not convinced that they would be much help in a middle school setting. The problem is getting the information to the kids in a format that makes them want to sit up and pay attention. Personally I love infographics, the way they catch the eye and can share plenty of information so quickly with graphs and charts and short phrases. Middle schoolers also like pictures and bright colors, and if it can teach them something, hey, that's a plus. I know infographics aren't going to change the educational landscape, but I think simple things like that beat the heck out of reading long passages out of textbooks any day. I also find it's easier to consciously listen to an interesting speaker, TEDTalk speakers for example. Not a single TEDTalk was watched in any of my high school classes. Not only are even the longest Talks less than half the length of my high school class periods, but the shorter, more open-ended talks would serve as wonderful class conversation starters, while the various on-stage demonstrations are a wonderful way for students to see how new breakthroughs are actually making their way into working prototypes (like Harald Haas' lightbulb transmitters). Plus, they're given by fluent speakers I'm sure most students would have trouble not listening to.