Honda’s ASIMO Conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
July 2, 2008
On May 13th, 2008 Honda’s ASIMO conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performed “Impossible Dream” to open a special concert performance with renowned
cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Now that is something you don’t see everyday!
Honda hopes ASIMO’s appearance will draw attention to the DSO’s music education programs, and particularly the DSO’s effort to encourage and support involvement of children in Detroit. You can read the full press release about Honda’s The Power of Dreams Music Education Fund by clicking here.
While you can find many clips of this performance on the Internet (a YouTube clip is embedded at the bottom of this post) the best quality video is available from Honda’s site. It is a huge file, but the quality makes it work the wait.
TED Talks: Do Schools Kill Creativity
June 26, 2008
Here is an interesting TED Talk presentation that relates to technology being applied to the automotive industry. It is a little deviation of the more technical content that is usually found on the site and more about education. I just find this talk about education so interesting that it should be shared. As an educator it challenges me to look at students differently.
So what is TED?
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
This talk is by creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.
Good Source of Online Software Training
March 27, 2008
Every time you buy a new piece of software you have to deal with a new learning curve. I have found a good site, Lynda.com that offers online training for a wide range of software titles. I used it to speed up my learning curve on Adobe’s Captivate which I am using to record flash movies of my desktop for my online course.
Lynda seeks out an expert in each software title and the expert walks you through a series of movies (with narration) that show you how to use all the features of the software. Each video is between 3-10 minutes long and covers a particular feature. There is a detailed outline of the videos so you can go straight to the feature you want to see.
You can buy a single course, but they offer a $25 a month “all you can eat” type subscription. This option gives you unlimited access to their entire inventory. You can jump in and subscribe for a couple of months to get the training you need and then stop the subscription at any point.
Below is an excerpt from Lynda’s website:
Lynda.com is an award-winning provider of educational materials, including Hands-On Training™ instructional books, the Online Training Library®, CD- and DVD-based video training, and events for creative designers, instructors, students, and hobbyists. The lynda.com Online Training Library® and CD-ROM titles include such subjects as Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Office, digital photography, Web design, digital video, and many others. lynda.com’s all-star team of trainers and teachers provides comprehensive and unbiased movie-based training to an international membership of tens of thousands of subscribers. Considering the speed at which technology evolves, the Online Training Library® is a great solution for keeping your skills current. Library subscriptions begin as low as $25 a month, with no long-term commitment required.
