Now There's One More Reason to Love TED

This week I want to thank Kristin Edlund for turning me onto TED's ("Ideas Worth Sharing")  new venture: TED-Ed (Lessons Worth Sharing).

First, some background for those of you who don't know what TED Talks are:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. (from the TED website: http://www.ted.com/pages/about)

Those who know me know that given the opportunity I will go on and on about TED Talks. (Is this an opportunity? I think it is.) I love them. I listen to them at the gym, I watch them while I make dinner, I make my friends watch them after I make them dinner. If I were still in the classroom I would make them a regular feature of my classroom. (Oh, wait! I did do that!--as part of the blended learning class I taught this fall at the high school, a regular assignment was watching, commenting on, and sharing TED Talks. Kids loved them!) I know there are a few teachers who share one talk a week with students and then they discuss it or respond in some other way. One of my favorite ways to have students respond to a TED Talk is to ask them What questions would you ask the speaker? then I have students do some research and see if they can find the answers themselves.

Now, for TED-ed:

TED-Ed's mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos. A new site, which will launch in early April 2012, will feature these new TED-Ed Originals as well as some powerful new learning tools. (from the TED-Ed website: http://education.ted.com/)

Even though the site hasn't officially launched yet,  you can check out the TED-Ed YouTube channel they've started. I watched a really interesting demonstration of how the brain works using a cockroach's leg.

What do you think? After watching the introduction video above and checking out some of their sample videos, come back here and offer your two cents' worth. Did you find something you could use in your classroom? Or, do you have a suggestion for a lesson? I think linking great lessons/talks with great animation is a super-terrific-fantastic idea. You?