Do robots dream of better education paradigms?

An Evaluation of TED Speaker, Rodney Brooks and His Talk on Invading Robots as Compared to Sir Ken Robinson’s Talks on Education

Rodney Brooks says that the robot invasion is increasing.

They began as toys, but humanity is creating robots to perform more tasks, as well as program them with rudimentary emotions.

Will they eventually take over?

. . . Brooks doesn’t think so.

Brooks doesn’t beat around the bush, but gets right to nitty-gritty.

. . . An anecdote would have been nice.

However, he kept his audience engaged with various slides, videos, and a couple demonstrations with a real robot, and then a British man acting like a robot to show a point.

iiThou Shalt Dream a Great Dream0r Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.

iiiThou Shalt Reveal Thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.

Two TED Commandments Brooks Followed The Best.

Brooks showed Wondrous Things, by his demonstrations and especially videos of people using and interacting with robots in ways previously not done.

His Passion was evident throughout the speech as he was able to talk about complicated concepts regarding robot evolution without needing to refer to his own slides.

The man knew his topic thoroughly.

Dynamism

4Brooks didn’t get a 5 due to his lack of personal connection. There were some Moments of levity in his speech, but some of these seemed accidental. When the audience was laughing, he knew to stop talking and allow the audience to finish before continuing.

Although Brooks didn’t use his slides very often, there were . . .

Bullet points! NOOOOOOO!

What I learned from Rodney Brooks’ presentation was that even if you don’t have a witty story, even if you don’t personally connect to the audience, if you have passion for what you are talking about, that passion flows forth and attracts your audience’s attention.

But those other things still help.

And what of the knighted Ken Robinson and his talks on education’s paradigms?

Personally, I felt that Sir Ken Robinson’s talk had it all:

the witty jokes

personal stories passion about his topic

no dependence on information on slides

an interesting topic

personal connection with the audience

thorough knowledge of his topic

While Brooks had passion, knowledge, and an interesting topic, I wished he had been a little bit more personal, like sharing a funny story about his trials and tribulations in working in robot development . . . I mean, there has to be something.

Don’t Forget Your Audience!Try to connect with them. Connect to engage! Talk about something you care about, but remember to find a personal tone, common ground, or perhaps a story so they have something to relate with to you!

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