The Revolution in Education Isn’t Radical – It’s a Pretty Basic Idea that Works

by

A former hedge-fund manager created a tutoring system almost entirely by accident when helping his cousins with their math lessons. The TED video below is a great summation of his work and its demonstrable effects tracked over time; it’s effective because the learning is done A) at the self-pace of the student and B) because there isn’t a penalty for failure, rather there is an emphasis on trial and error until mastery is achieved. The article from Wired.com below the video provides a more thoroughgoing look at how and why the teaching model he’s pioneered with video works so well. This is how I wished I’d been taught and how I believe we should be teaching our children in the future. In addition, I’ve posted the link the Khan Academy itself so that if you have children in school they can have access to the resource. It’s truly superb.

Daniel Pink on Motivation

by

Scientific research finally confirms what I’ve always known in my personal life and in positions as a manager: Giving people autonomy and having more equitable and democratic organization is more effective, productive, and healthy than hierarchical command-and-control systems of management. Give people the power to succeed and they will. Control people and order them to perform and they won’t or will only half-heartedly.

 

Creating Lasting Positive Change

by

So many TED Talks are great. This is the best TED Talk I’ve seen in years (it’s funny too) and I’m personally implementing the steps outlined at the end of this talk in my own life. Today, February 4, 2012, is day one of “creating lasting positive change” in my life.

The method consists of doing the following daily activities for 21 days in a row:

  • 3 Gratitudes (writing three unique things that we’re grateful for each day helps develop positive attitude by teaching us to scan the world each day for something positive in our lives)
  • Journaling (writing about one positive experience daily helps re-create happy feelings that perpetuate)
  • Exercise (doing daily physical activity helps to reinforce positive behavior)
  • Meditation (doing daily meditation helps to focus intention)
  • Random Acts of Kindness (performing random acts of kindness every day ripples the effects of positive behavior)