Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Creativity, Toys and Change



After watching this video of Caleb Chung at TED I reflected what I learned from Sir Ken Robinson and Dan Pink about the importance of nurturing creativity in students. Mr Chung's work balances art and science with incredible creativity. The bulk of this video, as Mr. Chung summarizes his career to date addresses the importance of this mix.

The last two minutes of the video dramatically demonstrate how toys have changed. I think it is important for all of us involved in teaching children, who are no longer regularly have contact with children outside of school, to visit a toy store at least a few times a year to fully grasp these changes.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Web 2.0 Goes to the Symphony

Last Friday night, after receiving electrical power for the 1st time in 2 weeks in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, my wife and I went to hear the Houston Symphony perform. It turned out that we were seeing the 1st concert since Hurricane Ike hit Houston. The symphony was performing 2 great works, Mozart's piano concerto 21 and Shostakovich's Symphony #13 about the massacre of Jews during WWII at Babi Yar. The printed program for the concert contained 2 interesting references: to wikipedia and to creative commons. The article on Shostakovich's Symphony #13 referenced wikipedia and included a photograph of a Babi Yar memorial licensed under creative commons. When mainstream organizations like the Houston Symphony cite new forms of reference and utilize new forms of copyright, shouldn't schools encourage students to do so as well?