Category Archives: Video and Audio

Science and Communication: Alan Alda in Conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Despite the reality that we use tools and techniques every moment of every day that have been devised and revised through the constant questioning and reflecting process we call science, far too many people don’t believe they understand what science is, don’t consider themselves scientists, and don’t trust the expert opinions of the scientific community. How can that possibly be?

“We’re not really listening, unless we’re willing to be changed by the other person.” ~ Alan Alda

Science and Communication—Alan Alda and Neil deGrasse Tyson at the 92nd Street Y in New York City

Visons of Science

I’m supporting a friend with a great idea that’s a little less than 12 hours old….

My friend and fellow computer science education researcher, Brian Danielak, has worked hard today to create what we hope will be the first of many video podcasts to promote high quality visualizations in science.

He and his team would like feedback ASAP on their initial effort.

If you have ~25 minutes tonight (or as soon as you can) watch his ‘cast and provide feedback via the form underneath the video…

http://briandk.com/2013/07/visions-of-science/

Making Space for Others

Whatever your personal level of achievement, it’s vital that you remember to make space for others to stand up and stand out. Here are three examples of celebrities rising to that challenge.

Michael Buble and Sam Hollyman in 2010
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cw1uLVSl1Y

Billy Joel and Michael Pollack— a Vanderbilt University student in 2013
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bceuh8c-4kg

Bono of U2 and Adam Bevell— a self-taught, blind guitarist— in 2011
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBc2SgEvq8

Thank you to Christie Veitch and Brian Danielak for reminding me.

Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim

My sense is that we all often throw up our hands and imagine that there’s nothing we can do, whether it be about our country or our organizations or ourselves.

We should fear failure: the failure to try and the failure to behave in a moral, principled way; everything else is ego.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html

The Calculus of Friendship

When a close friend sent me a copy of this book, his inscription read, in part

it has always been about the students

In this short video, Dr. Steven Strogatz— a Cornell Mathematician— reminds us that the student-teacher relationship is complex, dynamic, enduring, and often unpredictable; far from the Brave New World-style cold, isolationism espoused by the so-called professionalization of education that the United States has experienced over the past 100 years.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9piYoYqIf3I

Adding a keyboard shortcut for Save to PDF… in OSX

When I’m commenting on electronic documents, I find it useful to be able to quickly generate a PDF of the marked-up version of the document to return to authors for review. I annotate the document using track changes and adding comments (using the INSERT > COMMENT feature… not by adding text to the body of the document!!!), then

Save as PDF…

to keep a copy for myself and to email (or post to a course management system) for the author to review.

Unfortunately, OSX doesn’t have a built-in keyboard shortcut for Save to PDF…, but it’s easy to add one.

[Note: you can’t Save to PDF… from an Adobe Acrobat print dialog box… it would bruise their ego]

httpvh://youtu.be/HDhiGZKbicQ

Storytelling, which I take to mean teaching

This 70-minute lecture by Charlie KaufmanEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich— on screenwriting applies equally well, I think, to being an educator. Consider the following excerpt, but replace screenplay with learning— for the student perspective— or even teaching!

A screenplay is an exploration. It’s about the thing you don’t know. To step into the abyss. It necessarily starts somewhere, anywhere, there is a starting point, but the rest is undetermined, it is a secret, even from you. There’s no template for a screenplay, or there shouldn’t be. There are at least as many screenplay possibilities as there are people who write them. We’ve been conned into thinking there is a pre-established form.

While I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish quotations from his original thoughts, I found both to be engaging and inspiring.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45290206″ iframe=”true” /]

Richard Feynman on Question Formulation

How we frame a question both constrains and frees our creativity[1. Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention by  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi],[2. Framing in Discourse by Deborah Tannen]. The form of the question itself either encourages or precludes certain types of answers. Some forms of questions encourage shallow, quick answers while others encourage you to dig deeper into a topic.

In this video, Richard Feynman— lecturer, physicist, and self-professed womanizer— discusses why questions in an attempt to understand magnetic force.

I note Feynman’s womanizing here, rather than removing this entry, because you’ll eventually come across him, quotations from him, or tributes to him. 99% of those will knowingly or unknowingly gloss over his flaws while promoting his contributions to science, writing, and culture. I think you should know the whole story.

The Last Lecture

One of the most widely watched videos about teaching, learning, and life, Randy Pausch’s talk– The Last Lecture— offers lessons from which we could all benefit.

I find Dr. Pausch’s creativity and joy of teaching to be inspiring. In the last months of his life, he managed to share with the world his love of a life well-lived.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zzQpvoYcQ