Salman Khan, creator of the Khan Academy, is using technology to revolutionalize education; humanizing the classroom, and providing teachers with tools and extensive information to help them better reach students. Khan spoke at a recent TED talk, where he said, “What you see emerging is this notion of a global, one world classroom. And that’s essentially what we are trying to do.” He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script – give students video lectures to watch at home, and do “homework” in the classroom with the teacher and other students available to help.
Salman Khan: “Let’s use video to reinvent education”
In TED’s first talk of 2011, Al Jazeera’s director-general Wadah Khanfar shares his view on the historic uprisings happening in the Middle East. As democratic revolutions led by tech-empowered young people sweep the Arab world, Wadah Khanfar shares a profoundly optimistic view of what’s happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and beyond. He spoke on March 1, 2011 in Long Beach, California, where he discussed how we can “imagine a future that is magnificent and peaceful and tolerant.”…
Wadah Khanfar: “The future has arrived… and the future is now.”
Another 2011 TED talk was with Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped jumpstart Egypt’s democratic revolution. Ghonim is an Internet activist and computer engineer who started an influential Facebook page that galvanized voices of protest in Egypt. In early 2011, he was detained by the Egyptian government for 11 days. After he was released, he became a leading fugure in the youth revolution that forced Hosni Mubarak from power. Speaking in Cairo, he tells the inside story of the past two months, when everyday Egyptians showed that “the power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”
“Our revolution is like Wikipedia. Everyone is contributing content. You don’t know the names of the people contributing the content. Revolution 2.0 in Egypt was exactly the same. Everyone contributing small pieces, bits and pieces. We drew this whole picture of a revolution. And no one is the hero in that picture.” Ghonim explained on 60 Minutes….
Wael Ghonim: “This was Revolution 2.0. No one was a hero, because everyone was a hero.”
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy called on Americans to give two years of their lives in service to others as Peace Corps volunteers. Since then, over 200,000 volunteers have served in 139 countries. Today is also the launch of “Peace Corps Month”, with over 700 events around the world.
President Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. The Peace Corps’ goals are to help the people of interested countries meet their need for trained men and women, to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
While volunteers continue to do important work like bringing clean water to communities and teaching children, today’s volunteers also work in areas like HIV/AIDS awareness, business development, and information technology. Volunteers provide technical training and support to groups and organizations that want to make better use of information and communications technology. They introduce people to the computer as a tool to increase efficiency and communication and to “leap frog” stages of development. Volunteers teach basic computer literacy skills, (e.g., word-processing, spreadsheets, basic accounting software, Internet use, and webpage development) and they introduce host communities to e-commerce, distance learning, and geographic information systems.
