Posted in 8th grade, Multimedia, Parents, Reviews, Teacher resources, Videos, Websites

Weekend Website #27: TED

Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.

ideas worth spreading

Age:

Any adult who hasn’t finished learning

Topic:

Anything intelligent or fun–or both

Address:

TED

Review:

TED, as its tagline says, is truly ‘riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world’. T-E-D stands for Technology, entertainment, design, and gives you a good idea how they approach this avenue for sharing knowledge. To make it as a TED video, you must be engaging, clever, smart, and quick and cover your topic in eighteen minutes. The website includes over 700 talks–all videos–on technology, science, entertainment, design, business and more. These 700 talks have had almost 300 million viewers.

And, they’re FREE. This is an honest effort by the participants to provide equity to all who can find an internet connection. Viewers are rabid in their love of TED. Here’s one quote:

Oh why oh why have I been bingeing on TED talks again? I promised myself I would quit watching the ecstatic series of head-rush disquisitions, available online, from violinists, political prisoners, brain scientists, novelists and Bill Clinton. But I can’t. Each hortatory TED talk starts with a bang and keeps banging till it explodes in fireworks. How can I shut it off? The speakers seem fevered, possessed, Pentecostal. No wonder I am, too, now.
The New York Times Magazine

Here are some examples of the topics:

  • The ancestor of language
  • formula for changing math education
  • How to live before you die
  • Legos for adults
  • How great leaders inspire
  • Close-up card magic
  • Mathemagic

Here’s one of the talks–all music
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

There you have it. Treat yourself to eighteen minutes a day of TED. You will come away inspired and motivated. Maybe more.

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Author: Jacqui
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
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