Melissa Marshall:Talk Nerdy to Me

I think that the saying "talk nerdy to me" is quite catchy and relatable and the overall premise of the TED talk was useful. I think communication is a vital part of science and any kind of advancement for that matter. I took a class in high school called Theory of Knowledge which was a discussion based class where we discuss and discover what knowledge really is and what it means to us. One of my favorite units was the unit on language and how it makes the world go round. Involuntarily we form coherent thoughts using language exemplifying knowledge. However, it occurred to me in this class that we are only as smart as our vocabulary. We are truly only as smart as we can communicate to the world. Without exquisite communication skills we are unable to convey and share our knowledge thus making it useless. Melissa made a great point about how communication and scientific knowledge must coexist in order for advancements to be made. She gave examples on how to make PowerPoint slides more appealing and more easily understood by the common people. I think this concept is extremely important however I think that just by using the Alice in Wonderland analogy it was in fact taking the material and “dumbing it down” for the audience. I don’t think that it is a terrible thing to paraphrase information or use easier words so that others can understand science, it’s what is needed and it is in face dumbing the material down, in a good and necessary way. I will certainly apply what she said about giving presentations to my academic endeavors. I think the slide formation of more visual text than long bullet points is more effective especially for me as a visual and auditory learner. Overall I was interested in what she had to say and I don’t think there is anything wrong with altering information and the vocabulary used in order to convey things to a certain group of people with lesser knowledge of science.