Using Humor to Connect and Teach

“You can’t shape the world if no one is engaging with you. And humor is very effective in opening a channel of potential connection.” This was just one of many takeaways from the keynote Q&A between writer, comedian, and commentator, Baratunde Thurston, and the Director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito, at the inaugural Connected Learning Summit held August 1-3 at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA.

After being outed onstage for not being funny early in his comedic career, Thurston, a self described futurist, comedian, writer, and social activist, realized the need to connect with people before trying to get them to see his point of view. “One of the things I learned was that there is an order of operations to connecting with someone and communicating effectively with them, and it doesn’t start generally with your point. It starts with a more human emotional connection.”

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