TEDxFIU Event to Present ‘Fearless Journey’

Clara-Meretan Kiah/Staff Writer
clara-meretan.kiah@fiusm.com

Charles Bleiker created a pilot math program to help at-risk preschoolers in Little Havana that will soon be found in classrooms across the nation.

Bleiker, a professor in the College of Education, is one of 10 University members who will be presenting their work at TEDxFIU.

One of the most highly anticipated events of the year, the third annual TEDxFIU will take viewers on a “Fearless Journey” in November through the lives of some of the University’s front-running experts and pioneers in research.

TEDxFIU is the University’s independently-organized series of presentations, known as “talks,” modeled from the national TED Talks event.

Applications for TEDxFIU opened shortly after last year’s event to University students, faculty and alumni.

The speakers had three to four months to plan and perfect their talks at the University’s Communication Arts Lab.

Bleiker’s talk focuses on his preschool math program NumberWays, a series of games designed to make learning numbers fun for children.

Bleiker said he saw TEDxFIU as a way to expand his research from his small test field in Little Havana classrooms to audiences and parents around the world.

He said understanding numbers is like understanding the alphabet, and he believes learning math it is just as important as learning to read.

“In the 21stcentury, math is becoming more important in anything we do,” said Bleiker.

Nicole Ruggiano said giving a TED talk didn’t occur to her at first; but, she realized it could help bring the topic of aging adult health care to the main discussion.

Ruggiano, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, researched how elderly people tend to feel like they’ve lost control over their lives and their own health care.

“My research was based on looking at older people as being experts in their own lives,” said Ruggiano.

Bringing her grandparents to their doctor’s appointments and seeing how they were shuffled around the office sparked Ruggiano’s interest in aging adult health care in college.

Ruggiano said she believes it’s time to change the general fear people have of aging, and the idea that aging means you will no longer be able to function independently.

John Dufresne, a writer and professor in the University’s Creative Writing master’s program, said he saw TEDxFIU as an opportunity to end the misconceptions people have about being a writer.

“Writing is not romantic,” said Dufresne. “Every story, in a sense, is a failure.”

Dufresne’s talk is about how to think like a writer.

He said a 13-minute talk is nowhere near enough time to explain everything a beginning writer needs to know, so his focus is mainly on how to develop plot.

Dufresne, who has 12 published books, a screenplay, a full-length play and many more short stories, said he doesn’t go out much. So he is looking forward to watching the other talks as well, and he is excited to observe other’s ideas and broaden his horizons.

Tickets for TEDxFIU 2013 sold out in one day, and the event’s coordinators, Deborah O’Neil and Eduardo Merille, expected the same for this year when they went on sale Oct. 6.

Students and staff who did not get tickets can watch a live stream of the event at the Graham Center Pit and the Wolfe University Center. Streaming is also available online from computers and mobile devices.

Last year, more than 1,500 people tuned into the live stream.

The talks are also recorded and uploaded to the national TED Talks YouTube page. Since the start of TEDxFIU two years ago, FIU talks have accumulated more than 250,000 views around the world.

“This is much more than a 500 person event,” said Merille. “It’s a spread of ideas worldwide.”