Classrooms & Technology - Using TED Videos

I am often inspired by the words of visionary individuals who have innovative thought. A great resource to tap into some of this visionary thought is TED.com, which showcases "ideas worth spreading." The goal of TED is to "foster the spread of great ideas" on a variety of topics, including education. Two TED talks relating to education that I enjoy are as follows:

I recently watched a TED talk by Ken Robinson on his thoughts about how schools kill creativity. He asserts that creativity is as important as literacy, and it is our role as educators to ensure that we are not "educating people out of their creativity."

Another TED talk that I enjoy is Dave Eggers' "Once Upon a School", which showcases how a group of creative individuals instigated an opportunity to provide free tutoring for youth. Eggers also shares how this idea spread to colleagues across the nation, and he concludes by sharing his wish for listeners to use their innovation to get involved in public schools in their communities.

TED talks have teaching application in the classroom. (See Teaching with TED and click on a topic or talk on the right sidebar. For additional resources on Sir Ken Robinson's talk, click here. For more information on Dave Eggers' "Once Upon a School," click here.) In addition, administrators have used applicable TED videos for in-service training meetings with teachers and staff to inspire, educate, and instill vision.

To check out more TED videos on your own, go to ted.com and enter a topic in the search box, or peruse the categories on the left side of the home page. (To see Richard Byrnes' recommendation of fifteen TED talks for teachers to watch, visit his blog post here.)

(See another blog post that includes a TED talk here.)