Unity Project

Eternal Vigilance. Because, if you knew better - you'd do better.

Filed under: ted

Global population growth: Hans Rosling on TED.com

The world's population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years -- and only by raising the living standards of the world's poorest people can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology (you'll see). (Recorded at TED@Cannes, June 2010 in Cannes, France. Duration: 10:04)

Watch Hans Rosling's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.

via blog.ted.com

Education Innovation in the Worst Situations (via @good)

 

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If you're looking for new ideas in education, says financial journalist-turned-innovation consultant Charles Leadbeater, you shouldn't focus on the top: specifically, Finland, which is often touted for having the world's best education system. Rather, Leadbeater argues, often the most dismal situations can result in the most out-of-the-box solutions. He himself has seen them in the favelas of Brazil and the slums of Kenya.

He's met a man who came up with the idea of setting up a communal computer in the entryway to an Indian slum, as well as a Brazilian fellow who has come up with more than 200 games to teach kids any subject imaginable. (One of them uses the process of making soap as, what Leadbeater calls a "technology of learning.")

During this TED London Salon talk, Leadbeater praises a couple American initiatives that we've previously cited on this blog, including the Harlem Children's Zone and Big Picture Learning. The key to these innovations, he says: Pulling people into education, rather than pushing them into it.

A New Traffic Sign Concept: "Take Turns"

GaryLauder_TakeTurns_CC

The inventor Gary Lauder unveiled this new idea at the TED conference: A traffic sign that instructs drivers to "take turns" at an intersection. The TED blog explains:

Half a stop and half a yield, the sign gives each driver a clear indication of how to behave. Below the red "Take Turns" shield is a small sign reading, "If Cars Are Waiting, Please Stop and Alternate." And if there are no cars waiting, just blow on through. (No more stopping at red lights at 4am, on a country road, when there's no one around for miles.)
via good.is
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
  
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