TED Community » Daniel Kinzer

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The Ocean, My beautiful family, My inspiring friends, Trying to fly, Discovery, Humanity, Energy, Our Minds, Learning, Quiet Moments to myself, Time

Comments

• TEDCred score: +4350.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: What would you do in the next 60 days the get the most of the TEDxSummit in Doha?

  Feb 17 2012: Tim,
  I look forward to meeting you in Doha. Perhaps you could have your students create a compilation video of their 'ideas worth spreading' to share with others of us who are also educators ... perhaps all of us could do the same. It's inspiring to hear young peoples' ideas on what the world: business, education, family, government, nature will and should look like in the future. I would love to do a collaborative project with your students if you have the time and energy to help put it together. I teach in Taiwan - we could introduce our students and put them to work exploring the patterns and passions of their lives on opposite sides of the planet ... they may even be able to send us both to TEDxSummit with more inspiration.
  
  My Best,
  
  Dan
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What should the 21st century classroom look like? Could interactive technology provide solutions to the current system of education?

  Feb 17 2012: We could use interactive, online technologies with sophisticated ratings systems embedded into them and combine them with 'real-world' or non-virtual action-oriented challenges. Grading systems would become obsolete and transcripts would be replaced with digital portfolios complete with links to non-virtual products, answers, and solutions. Games are already designed to 'teach', but they rarely result in a meaningful end-product or value-added service. The future of games in education should probably focus on moving games in this direction.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: Is the internet, not formal education, the new great equalizer?

  Oct 7 2011: I framed this question on Mr. K's Classroom (Facebook) as: "Should we be putting our resources towards 'internet for all', rather than trying to provide a formal education for all? The Classroom thinks so."
  
  We have limited resources and formal education is expensive. I love the comments about Sugata Mitra's S.O.L.E.'s and hearing people acknowledge the unique qualities every human being brings to this world. We are born learners, we create structure and meaning for ourselves from the time we are born. We are then conditioned by what is known as 'formal education' - it's beginning earlier and earlier in people's lives. We're conditioned to think the way we're told to think, and know the things we're told are important for our future. But we can determine relevance through observation, and we are keen observers until that talent is destroyed by schooling. We determine relevance through meaningful social interactions, but we're often asked to push those interactions to the end of our day, when our 'learning' is done. I know there are thousands of incredible teachers around the world who don't embrace the destruction of our natural talents and individuality, but who still feel stifled by a formal education system demanding standardization and 'basic skills'.
  
  In the future, we will learn through connection to the actual world, not The Classroom. We will structure our environments so that young people can both learn and contribute to the world around the them, much as young people did for thousands of years before formal education came into existence. Having access to the internet deserves our attention - trying to get kids around the world into a 'formal classroom' does not. Do we need educators to act as guides, servants, explainers, coaches, mentors, etc.? Of course we do. Do we need to bring people of all ages, across all nations, together to learn what they are most driven to learn? Without a doubt.
  
  I'm an educator. I don't need a formal school.
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Yochai Benkler on the new open-source economics

  Feb 17 2011: How is it that everyone missed the point entirely. The organization of human society is being radically transformed away from a traditional understanding of economy. Why are we so opposed to the idea of sharing when we're free and encouraged to only do exactly what we want. We have the necessary infrastructure and our basic needs are capable of being met without an involuntary, or externally incentivized investment of time and human energy. The future is free.