TED Talks directly about education
1. John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
What strikes me most about Coach Wooden's talk is his emphasis on teaching and
developing character over winning. One of his three most important rules, "no criticizing of
teammates, I'm paid to do that," is a great rule that translates well to the classroom and the
workplace.
2. Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
Clifford Stoll has done many cool things in his life including catching a KGB spy, but the
coolest thing he's done is teaching college level physics to 8th graders. What I like about
Clifford Stoll is that instead of just talking about ways to teach and improve education he is
actually getting on the front line and trying his ideas. (Stoll has definitely done enough
things and made enough money to sit back and be a "consultant" but instead he's actually
teaching, something I have tremendous respect for). In this talk he gave at TED in February
2006 Stoll talks about and demonstrates measuring the speed of sound with an 8th grade
class. Stoll also makes a very profound, but somewhat obvious, statement about the future.
He says, "if you want to know what the future generation will be like, ask a Kindergarten
teacher."
3. Don't Eat the Marshmallow
In this TED Talk given by Joachim de Posada talks about the behavior of children when they are
given a marshmallow and told not to eat it for fifteen minutes. In the talk Joachim de
Posada reveals that the response of children to this challenge can be indicative of future
success in life. In addition to being informative and thought-provoking, the talk includes
some really cute video clips. The information shared in the talk confirms what most of us
know about the impulse control of small children. None-the-less, it's nice to have a
reminder that can inform our planning of day's lessons.
4. Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
In this interesting TED Talk (they're all interesting) Bill Gates discusses mosquitoes,
malaria, and education. The education part of his talk (the last eight minutes) presents
some interesting fodder for conversation. While you may not agree with everything that
Gates proposes in this talk, it will definitely make you think about what does and doesn't
work in education.
5. David Merrill Introduces Siftables
Siftables are the high-tech version of the alphabet and number blocks we all played with as
children. Siftables are little computer blocks or digital blocks that contain motion sensors,
neighbor detection sensors, digital displays, and wireless communications. The blocks can
be manipulated to create words, equations, pictures, and designs. Siftables are not yet
commercially available nor do I have any idea what they would cost, but there is a ton of
potential for Siftables as an educational resource. Siftables would be great for young
students just learning to spell and do arthimetic. Siftables could also be great for older
students to develop and try solutions to mathematics problems.
TED Talks with implications for education
6. Tom Wujec - 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
In this short talk Tom Wujec explains how the brain interprets words, images, feelings, and
connections. As an educator I always take interest in research and discussion about how the
brain absorbs and processes information. Knowing how the brain processes information
should influence how we present information to our audience(s).
7. Jimmy Wales - The Birth of Wikipedia.
Do a Google search for just about any academic term and more times than notWikipedia is
at the top of the results. So how did Wikipedia get started? How does it continue to run?
Watch this talk by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, to find out.
8. Julian Treasure - 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.
In this talk Julian Treasure tells us that people working in open plan offices are 66% less
productive than those in quiet rooms. Treasure follows that up by saying if you are in a
noisy open plan room, wear headphones and listen to soothing sounds and your
productivity goes back up. The ideas and information in the video are good to remember the
next time you have students working independently in a large classroom. Perhaps instead of
trying to keep them as quiet as possible, we should allow kids to use their mp3 players when
they're working on independent assignments.
9. How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History.
In this talk Clay Shirky examines how text messaging and social networks empower citizens
to report the news without state-run media censorship. This TED Talk could be good for
getting students to think about the positive things that they can accomplish using the
technologies that they often think of as just fun tools.
10. Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice.
If you're a music teacher, this two minute performance might be something you'd like to
share with your students to encourage them to develop their improvisation skills.
