The next lesson will be about asking different kinds of questions regarding listening and reading texts. We will be practicing with a reading from Tina Seelig, a professor at Stanford University. Please watch at least six or seven minutes of her presentation HERE. In our class blog comments, tell us about something interesting she says (don’t worry if you don’t see your comment immediately, sometimes it takes a couple of hours to appear).
My favorite thing she says is, “If you don’t ask the questions in a thoughtful way, you won’t get interesting answers.”
Next week, these vocabulary words will be important: factual, comprehension, application, evaluation, Halal, fatwa, cruise control, extroverted, self-fulfilling prophesy, blinders, oblivious
Interactive English: Reception 
Today,I listened to Dr.Tina ,who is recognized as a leader on engineering education.
Today’s theme is about innovation and creativity. In other words, where do ideas come from?
Six components are related to hitting upon ideas.
First, as our inside components, “attitude”, “imagination”, “knowledge.”
Second,as our outside components, “culture”, “habitat”, “resources.”
I learned it is important to having always motivation and appreciate a lot of knowledge in order to think frexibly.
Moreover, I want to go to many foreign countries because I can feel each different culture.
I will study English very hard at university.
Thank you.
She says “Most of us do not pay attention to the world around us. Not only do we miss opportunities to see problems we can solve, but we also miss the solutions that might be in front of us.”
I usually do not pay attention around and I think that it is true of everyone.
Always, we want to enrich our knowledge but we never notice it is us to abandon the opportunities to gain more knowledge.
She taught me many things that I cannot notice by myself and gave me an opportunity to review my conventional way of seeing the world.
I think that she wants to say that ideas come from not only your inside but also your outside so you must solve problem not by yourself but with your friends, families, or coworkers to make creative solutions.
Thanks to her speech, I feel that I become more innovative and creative!
I was especially impressed by the idea that true innovators actually see themselves as kilt makers.
We should not try to complete puzzles,because there are many ways of thinking.We have to get over defined frames or general images in order to discover something new.
Seeing things from various view points will make our life more fun and satisfying. This is difficult,but I would like to try to do it and think with combining a lot of materials.
Hello.
I listened to Tina Seelig’s lecture about innovation and creativity.
She explains to us that ingenuity is closely related to 6
factors―Imagination,Knowledge,Attitude,Culture,Habitat,and Resources.
I learned that the causes of so-called breakthroughs are complex and so perhaps I should experience various things.
Her opinion is interesting in that she regards these 6 components as equal.
In my opinion,Knowledge is the most important thing because I think that the more knowledge ,the less subjective point of view.
Anyway,this lecture helped me rethink my opinion.
Thanks.
Oh,I can’t stop complaining that my English level is so low that I couldn’t understand Tina Seeling’s course completely.Though I can’t take it 100%,I still want to say that her course makes me feel pleasant.
She is now teaching a class called creative class at Stanford University. And she thinks that there are two parts will influence your creativity.Inside is depending on yourself:your knowledge,your imagination,your attitude.And outside is provided from outside world:the resources,the habitat,and the culture.
The thing makes me have the same feeling is that “what is a sad thing that we don’t teach people have to increase their imagination in the school”.Going back to my primary school to see,I was always told that there was only one right answer at my math class.Or “you should sing this song just like me,don’t change it casually” at my music class.They did’t allow us to think tings more than one way,or do things just like them.And it maybe reduce much interesting things in my early youth and then let my creativity gradually die away.
So I will happy to see that the creative class would appear at kids’ early youth.Because I hope that they can increase their imagination and make interesting ideas then be a wonderful person,make life more amazing.
Yes,that’s all.Thank you.
Hi, Matt! I’m Annie in T4.
Today, I watched Tina Seelig’s presentation about creativity and innovation. Her ideas are really amazing. I used to think that creativity is a sort of talent endowed by nature. If you have the talent, you’ll be creative. But according to her, creativity exists in everyone’s body. We just need to know the correct way to unlock it.
She explained six elements connected with innovation and I found her idea about knowledge very interesting. She said,” Most of us do not pay attention about the world around us. Not only do we miss opportunities to see problems we can solve, but we also miss the solutions that might be in front of us.” In fact, people tend to ignore the things which are so close to them. We try desperately to get a clear view of the scenery far from us, without realizing the beautiful flowers before our eyes. And those flowers may be the key to creativity.
I have been blamed by my teacher of my lack of creativity. At that time, I thought I might not have the gift for it. But now, I gain the confidence of making myself more creative. Thank you, Dr.Tina!
Hi, Matt!
I’m Kenji (T4). The first lecture was really interesting! I hope our class all get to the top point!
I’ve already seen her presentation three times because this stimulating movie made me consider what is creativity for the first time. She says one of the way creativity comes is “flame changing” and creativity is also involved with internal ability and outside world. It sounds interesting.
This perspective of creativity evokes a memory of a joke that my high school English grammar teacher taught me.
This joke goes:
A: My dog has no nose.
B: How does your dog smell?
A: Terrible!
I find this joke with “flame changing” and we should have some gramatical knowledge to understand it and also need the situation or circumstance where joke is the base of communication. Through her story of TEDx, I realized that creativity has multiway to approach and joke or laughing can give us great hint to achieve to create new ideas.
Thanks.
I thought that I was not able to have a kind of creativity or innovation because I believed I didn’t have any flexibility , but after listening to her lecture, I feel like I can create something and solve problems.
In the end of her lecture, she said, “You can start anywhere to get this innovation going.” So I am going to start with gaining knowledge by paying attention. As she says, I am not aware of what is around me. It will be hard to recognize what I don’t usually recognize, but by paying attention, I will be able to learn things.
Her lecture made me have confidence that I may come up with new ideas. It was really interesting.
Dr.Tina says criative thinking doesn’t come without 6 important factors:Imagination,Knowledge,
Attitude,Habitat,Resources and Culture. And it is essential that every element should be connected to each other.
After watching this video,I found by paying attention to the surroundings world, we can see ordinary things in a different way and gain amazing thoughts.
I was especially impressed by the last part of the speech. As a example,in the same situation of
bottling Coca cola,different kinds of music(one was joyful and the other weird) were accompanied.
BGM can give us completely contrary feelings.Culture is aiso the key point to what we feel about the thing.
Whole lecture was interesting,but especially a sentence fascinated me.
“Most powerful a way to learn things and to learn knowledge is by paying attention.”
Knowledge is a useful tool when we imagine and it is indispensable for us to share some ideas.
Then, we have learned much knowledge mostly by reading books and listening to lectures in schools.
However, I think such knowledge have made us uniform. In addition, we are too used to learning knowledge passively not to pay attention to an environment around us.
Her words reminded me of my memories when I was little. When I was just a little girl,I was interested in the world around me and managed to understand it by paying attention to everything.
I agree with her idea that paying attention makes us find problems and those solves.
Even if we have a lot of knowledge,the knowledge is useless unless we find problems and try to solve by using it.
It is important for us to learn knowledge actively in order to make a difference.
I am not able to understand the whole of the speech completely, but I was interested in two things mentioned in it.
First, I was impressed by her saying: “Of course you can learn things by going to school, by reading books, but one of the most powerful ways to learn things and get knowledge is paying attention.”
When I faced some difficulties, I used to think like “I need to rely on books. Books are the best way to solve these problems and gain knowledge.” So, her saying was very fresh for me.
Also, I was interested in the habitat. Although we want to be creative, we study and work in boring-designed room. Especially in high school in Japan, we rarely have opportunities to be creative, but I learned about creativity in high school classes. I just thought it incompatible.
I was impressed in two points.
First, I was realized that we should ponder everything in our own brains at first. We are chasing efficiency too much, so we are trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. However, in order to innovate something, we should be more active. This is what I have to do at first.
Second, I was impressed by her saying: everyone has the key to their innovation engines. I have thought that innovating something is difficult for me so far. However, I was changed my thought by her words. I understood there are many elements to innovate something, but I also understood that we all have chances to generate new ideas or inventions. I was encouraged by her!
Thank you.
This presentation is difficult for me,but I am lucky to know such a wonderful idea.
My favorite thing she says is,”Everyone,everyone has the key to their innovation engine.”
I thought that people gained creativity by nature.
Her presentation encourages me a lot.
I will try to pay attention like the baby.
Thank you.
I listened Tina’s speech about innovation and creativity. At the beginning, she said “where do ideas come from?”. Then I realized that I had not thought about it, even though I always make ideas. So I was able to have a chance to think about and look forward to going on her speech.
What inspired me was her thought that “Habitat” is one of the “innovation engine”. I have read an article saying that Thai started to change their educational environment; they let students have more opportunities that they are able to be creative. I think this activity express Tina’s opinion.
Secondary I was impressed that everyone has the key to their innovation engine. Befor listening her speech, I did not know how to be creative, but I understood that it needs six factors. I have to pay more attention around me!
Tina’s speech made me rethink, so I would like to thank you to her!!
I enjoyed the lecture!
At the beginning, I was surprised.
Dr. Tina said, “we look at creativity in much too a narrow way,” and showed us the interesting diagram.
I believed creativity and imagination were the same, but according to her presentation, creativity is something much more complicated.
I have not even thought about imagination carefully.
She said imagination consists of three parts.
I think the most important one is “challenge assumption.”
Imagine that you have some difficult problem and you can’t solve it.
Your head may be filled with many conditions.
In this situation, you will never reach a nice solution.
You have to challenge those assumptions!
Now, I feel an aperture.
Thanks.
It is difficult for me to understand this lecture, but I am interested in this subject.
This lecture is about “Where do ideas come from?”. She designed the system called Innovation Engine to solve this question. There are six factors; three factors are in our inside and the others are outside. Our inside factors are imagination, knowledge and attitude. We have to connect some ideas and challenge assumptions to improve an imagination skill. Outside factors are habitat, resources and culture. These six factors interact and cannot be divided.
She says people can be creative in flexible environment and otherwise become frustrated. As she describes, I think its easier to come up with ideas when we are relax. This is because when we are relax, we have little distractions. When I consider new ideas, for example, I often sit on a sofa, pick up something with my hands and drink a coffee. I always get a better idea in relax rather than in frustrated mood.Therefore when we try to design new things, a relaxative environment is the best situation.
Tina seeling said cleativity is not just imagination.There are many other aspects of cleativity. Jorking is a good way to be cleative. By jorking we can forget assumption. Assumption is a bad thing to be cleative. She said we shoud be careful to be cleative. we miss many things around us every moments. If we would be careful and aware of many things we can be cleative.
Hello, Matt!
I’m Mika in T4 class.
The first class was really fun. I’m not good at speaking English, but I am going to participate in class actively.
Today, I watched the presentation about innovation and creativity. Tina says that putting things together that haven’t been together before is good to increase your imagination. And she introduces Japanese Chindogu as an example. I haven’t heard about Chindogu before, so I got interested in them and researched. There are various Chindogu, for example, Umbrella Tie, Baby Mop and Easy Eye Drops Glasses. I can’t deny they are not practical , but I really look up for those who invent them.
At the end of the presentation, she says that everyone has the chance to improve their ability of innovation. It is not easy, but I am trying to look things in a different way and want to be more creative!
Thank you.
Through this lecture, she was trying to figure out what is involved with unlocking creativity.
One of the elements she emphasixed was “Imagination”, and I think it is the most important.
What we’ve sudied is how to the right answer that was decided beforehand, such as 5+5=?. Therefore, we might be bad at seeing things from every point of view because we rarely meet quesions which have various answers. we need to practice considering many possible solutions from one problem.
In addition, she said “your konwledge is the toolbox for your imaginaion.” In this sense, I agree with he very much. People can come up with creative ideas only after they have studied a lot and many pieces of their knowledge have been accumulated.
To be creative, I try to see things from every point of view and learn every field of the study!!
I really enjoyed Dr.Tina’s lecture because I have valued imagination and creativity for a long time and I am interested in this topic so much.
I couldn’t comprehend what she said completely,but there ware many interesting views and I learned from them a lot.
Her wards were all clear and critical ,and especially,these two expression impressed me most ,”puzzle builders” and”quiz makers.”
I noticed that I tend to be a puzzle builder when I am reluctant to do a work and as Dr.Tina says, in that case, I can hardy achieve the goal.That makes me tired and a vicious spiral often follows.
She gives us several elements to stimulate our creativity, for example,habitat,knowledge and attitude.I think the all elements are related closely each other and the most important thing is examinating all the available ways.This is the very”using all the resources around us”Dr.Tina repeated in the lecture.
I would like to think more about the resources which I have and become a quiz maker.
Thanks for your giving me the chance to watch this lecture.
Hi,Matt!
I guess you remember me because of my unique nickname ,”chankei”.My friends have called me “chankei” since I was in junior high school,so call me chankei,please.
Moving on to what I want to say today, I think this lecture is fairly interesting!
In this lecture, she said, “you can start with a passion and an attitude,and you can solve a problem.” It is only a part of her speech, but I am encouraged to be more active.
Last week,every times I attended a class,many students can speak English actively.On the other hand, I could not do well.I was so overwhelmed.
But when I was in confused like that,I watched this lecture.She said not only knowledge, but also resourses, culture, habitat, imagination, attitude were needed to be creative.
This way to think about a problem is also important during discussions in classes.I was a little bit of passive.I have to be more positive and think imaginatively about subjects in front of me and prepare resources which is needed to talk for discussion.
thank you.
I’m Joi in your class,T4.
I find this lecture amazing! Because I did not know those facts that are mentioned in the lecture, the lecture is full of wonder.
The most thing I am interested in is what Dr.Tina realized in her study, ” we look at creativity in much too narrow a way.” And all things we have to do is to unlock creativity , she says. I have never thought creativity is so complicated as is said in the lecture. She says creativity consists of six elements , and I think imagination is most important . As I study Japanese history in high school , the people in Japan used to imagine things in many different ways by reading books , and invent many things that is convenient , such as Senbakoki ( this is used in farming).
I think Dr.Tina’s suggestion in the lecture should be known to a lot of people.
If I have the opportunity I can give a speech , I want to explain her suggestions to people more easily.
Thanks.
Hi matt! I’m so sorry to add a coment lately. First,I don’t know about”Chindougu”. I’m so suprised at japanese imagination!!
I think this lecture is so interesting. Especially,what I’m interested in her word is “one of the most powerful ways to learn things and to gain knowledge is by paying attention.” I’ve not ever thought about this. So,I’m very expressed this and following lecture after that.
Hi, Matt. This is Yuko.
I like this TED Talk. I like this topic.
Well,I think creativity needs motivation.
If you really want to do something, you will think a lot.
Sometimes, you may conceive great ideas without thinking not so much, but usually the more you think the more you can get many ideas and you can choose one of the greatest ideas.
Then, to think a lot, you need motivation.
Considering for a long time is sometimes hard, and needs stamina.
But if you really want to do it, it gets more easy.
You can ask lots of people about it and combine their ideas.
I was impressed by Tina’s presentation. This theme is good for me.
One reason is that I don’t like to answer the question as she suggested in this presentation like “?+?=10”. This is because I’m always obsessed with an idea that I’m not imaginative and I can’t answer the question.
However, she told us how to improve our imagination. I need knowledge. Sadly I think I have less knowledge compared with others but she also told us how to get knowledge. Then I realized that because of my carelessness I have less knowledge.
Now I understood what should I do so I will carry out this and I’ll be an imaginative person!!