Week 15 Lab: TEDEd Videos: Style

The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez - In this video, Brandon Rodriguez discusses how constraints fuel creativity. Constraints provide a problem that must be creatively solved in order to get the desired result. He argues that these constraints provide a problem solver with the opportunity to innovate. The way I thought of it was this: in order to push the envelope, there must be an envelope to push.

Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) - Helen Sword - In this video, Helen Sword explains how nominalizations, or the act of making a verb, adjective, or another noun into abstract and pompous nouns. At their best, nominalizations help describe complex ideas, but at their worst, they suck the life and action out of otherwise lively sentences. She calls these nominalizations "zombie nouns," because they tend to make a sentence dull and lifeless.

A zombie. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Week 14 Lab: Creative Life TED Talks

Video 1: Copyright is Brain Damage

In this video, Nina Paley mainly discuses the need for copyright reform. She argues that claiming rights on intellectual property does not ultimately benefit the creator of the ideas and instead prohibits the continuation and evolution of art. I really enjoyed the analogy Paley made regarding information. She compared people to neurons, each one part of a vast network, receiving and transmitting information to one another to make up a "great mind." the ideas that this great mind form is culture. However, copyright is a brain disease because it allows ideas to flow into a neuron, but not to be sent out. Therefore, copyright laws must be reformed, or even abolished, in order for the great mind to work freely.

Image Source: Photo District News

Video 2: A New Theory of Human Intelligence

In this video, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman discusses the need to rethink human intelligence. He says that in the current education model, too many kids fall through the cracks because it is unable to  properly accommodate the unique needs of what he calls twice-exceptional children: those children simultaneously having exemplary strengths and extraordinary weaknesses. The current binary system categorizes children based on ability and disability when it should be holistic and all-encompassing. The theory Dr. Kaufman presents focuses on the four C's: Capacity: the potential intelligence and aptitude; Competence: the actual intellectual achievement; Commitment: the motivation and determination to learn; Creativity: problem solving and the ability to hurdle intellectual obstacles.

Storybook Research

After reading some of the comments regarding my first installation to my storybook, it occurred to me that most people are unfamiliar with Silesia. I also took the consideration of others who said that my story started a bit too abruptly. Because of this, I thought it necessary to write an introduction to my original introduction in which I can speak to the reader as the author and perhaps clearly set the scene. I started by first providing a brief overview of Silesia. I found the information by referencing Wikipedia and Britannica. I then addressed the reader as myself to introduce my narrator and to set the scene for the reader, which is only fair because I am asking the reader to be a character in my story. I thought that the best place to put the result of my research and my true introduction was the home page of my site. You can check it out here. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion my readers might have had.

Coat of Arms of Silesia. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Week 6 Lab: TEDEd Videos: Language

How did English evolve? - Kate Gardoqui
-"They gave us a hearty welcome"
   -connotes a simple, rustic, and blue-collar scene because of the words' Saxon origins
-"They gave us a cordial reception"
   -connotes a elegant, sophisticated, and high-brow scene because of the words French origins
-When the Roman Empire crumbled, the Germanic tribes took over the Britain from the Celts
   -the spoke their Anglo-Saxon language we call Old English
-When the Viking Danes invaded, Old Norse words were integrated into the language
-The Normans then invaded making French the language of English royalty for nearly 300 years
-This caused for the aristocracy to speak French and the simple peasants to speak Old English
-The Normans also brought over Roman Catholic clergymen who introduced some Latin into the language
-This division based on language is still embedded in English today, i.e, the first example

Model showing the history of the English language. Source

Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude
-Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism
-Prescriptivism
   -a language should follow specific rules
   -as languages came to be written, it was standardized to make it easier to understand over a vast population
   -this standard form was then seen as the only proper form
   -language purists established rules that were applied to spoken language as well
   -how language SHOULD be used
   -formal
-Descriptivism
   -Variation and adaptation is a natural and necessary part of language
   -speech is a separate phenomenon from writing
   -speech is more flexible
   -how language IS ACTUALLY used
   -informal
-Grammar is a set of linguistic habits that are constantly being renegotiated; a combination of descriptivism and prescriptivism