My Estonian TED(dy) Talk - Creativity and ZaidLearn!

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• Articulate & MP3 versions (ZIP format)
• Slideshare version (include audio)
  

CONFERENCE

Part 1
On Sunday evening (11/04/2010), I got this interesting e-mail from Marko Puusaar...

Great! But he forgot to tell me when (which he did in the next e-mail), and after checking the website, I realized my short talk was scheduled on 16th of April (anytime between 4pm - 6pm Malaysian time). Luckily (this time around), I am supposed to present online and not in Estonia.

And then I was thinking, what should I talk about? This is an International e-Learning Conference in Estonia, entitled: E-Learning - A Serious Game. My 15-minute talk (during a parallel session) needs to explore the theme: Searching for Inspiration.

"Creative and "out of the box" thinking is a valuable asset for everyone. During this two hour TEDx style session we will try to see what inspires us and how does it make us creative even in the most limited situations and environments? Speakers from all over the World will share their experiences about being creative and free of limitations."

Yes, I certainly need some quick inspiration, that is for sure! But, then on Monday evening I got a spark of inspiration to talk about Creativity and how I have tried to infuse some of it into my blogging adventure at ZaidLearn. If you think about it, it was ZaidLearn that got me into trouble (in a positive way), so why not use it to perhaps get me out of it.

By Tuesday early afternoon, the presentation slides were finalized, and then another spark of inspiration just popped into my mind (and luckily it was inline with my KPI).

Instead of conducting a live talk, why not record the talk using Articulate, and then they can watch the presentation whenever they want. And by doing so, I can instead spend more time to interact with the participants to share ideas and experiences.

By Wednesday (14/04) morning, my Articulate presentation was completed and sent to Marko Puusaar (links above). Also, I published the podcast version (MP3) using Articulate, so that they have access to both formats. We all know how Steve Jobs feels about 'Flash' content :)

Then, I uploaded the PowerPoint slides and audio to Slideshare to create a 'slidecast', and here you can enjoy (or bore) yourself with my so called TED(dy) talk, entitled 'Creativity and ZaidLearn':

Creativity & ZaidLearn

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff.

Part 2
Here is the breakdown of the parallel session (full programme) I participated in:

Searching for Inspiration
16th April 2010 11:30 - 13:30

11:30 -Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story (video)- 6 min
11:40 - Zaid Ali Alsagoff - Creativitiy and ZaidLearn
12:10 - Richard St. John's 8 secrets of Success (video) - (video) 4 min
12:20 - Erkki Pung - Creativity and inspiration in the design world
12:40 - To be updated!
13:00 - Jüri Vilipõld - Teaching programming through games by using Scratch
13:10 - Ken Robinson says schools kill Creativity - (video) 20 min
13:30 - We are done

An action-pact 2 hours session, including three (3) inspiring videos (links above). Here is a screen shot from the parallel session (small group) from my Skype view:


Luckily, they watched a recorded (Articulate) session, because the audio connection was not too good, and the video buffered consistently (meaning the screen-sharing option would have been a disaster!). Though, I have to admit it is more stressful watching people watch me talk than actually doing a live talk. After the talk, we had a Q&A session via Skype (only one question: What do you think is the future of Blogging?). Then I watched the rest of the parallel session through my Skype view. The other two (2) presenters were very interesting.


REFLECTION
Of course, it is always tough listening to our own voice (unless we are used to it!). However, listening to our own voice talking about our own work is even more difficult. I have always preferred to talk about other people's achievements and innovations. So, listening to myself talking 20 minutes about my blog, was really tough. The picture above, basically sums up how I felt during the parallel session.

Anyway, I enjoyed the whole learning process. In addition, I should keep in mind that this 22-minute Articulate presentation (from slide conceptualization to publishing, including no audio script) was developed in roughly 10 hours (working hours!), so I can't complain too much. Also, the learning experience has inspired me with tons of new ideas on how I can improve further.

Meaning, you will hopefully see many more audio narrated presentations and screencasts here on ZaidLearn in 2010, as I explore my voice tone, pitch, clarity...

Finally, Thanks to the Estonian e-Learning Development Center for giving me this opportunity, and of course a big thanks to Marko who discovered ZaidLearn and Zaid. Without his connection this would not have happened :)