Designing electronics is generally cumbersome and expensive — or was, until Leah Buechley and her team at MIT developed tools to treat electronics just like paper and pen. In this talk from TEDYouth 2011, Buechley shows some of her charming designs, like a paper piano you can sketch and then play.
Leah Buechley is an MIT electronics designer who mixes high and low tech to create smart and playful results.
Everyone talks about innovation but nobody really knows how to innovate. By employing simple frameworks such as players, boundaries, and goals, Gamestorming turns simple office supplies like sticky notes and index cards into a powerful platform for changing the game of business. Gamestorming is a proven approach to real-life, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-your-hands-dirty innovation. The authors of Gamestorming have spent over twenty years identifying, cataloguing and practicing the techniques that leading teams – from startups to global giants – use to collaborate, communicate and make the right things happen at work. Whether you’re a startup with a hunger to change the world or an intrapreneur at a big company who wants to change the game from within, this book offers a clearly-defined approach to breaking down barriers, communicating effectively and generating breakthrough strategies. Richly illustrated with 100 images and more than 80 business games, Gamestorming is for people who want to learn how serious “play” can be.
“Every month, Ocampo-Gooding and nine others in Ottawa pledge $100 of their own money. Then, they get together and cut a $1,000 cheque for a project they like.” What I like about this is that the definition of “awesome” is wide opemn, and that the money is given with no strings attached. “If you build a giant tricycle that shoots fire, that sounds awesome … and was actually a proposal in Portland,” he says, rhyming off some of his recent favourites. “If you write us saying you want to build animatronic giant teddy bears to put in daycares, that sounds awesome. If you want to host ginormous murder mystery party with hundreds of participants with pieces written for each one, we want to (help you) do that.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/21/pol-awesome-foundation-ottawa-giving.html?cmp=rss
A recent study suggests that our modern lifestyles are making us “less intelligent” than our
ancestors, at least at a genetic level. This research echoes concerns Einstein had when he
supposedly said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The
world will have a generation of idiots.”
The immediate availability of information has created a particular conundrum in our modern
society. When it takes a mere few seconds to find information about almost any topic, the
value of knowledge and expertise is being devalued as information becomes cheaper and
more accessible. This is despite the fact that information, knowledge and expertise are
fundamentally different entities.
Education in the information age: is technology making us stupid