TeachNet Learning Blog

One of the greatest benefits of ICT in the classroom is the opportunity to “invite” outside experts onto our screens and introduce our students to their knowledge and ideas. Without doubt, ted.com is one of the best places to find these people. TED means Technology, Entertainment, Design – but there is huge amount there for education. The TED website is a collection of short presentations recorded at conferences over the past few years. They are high quality, can be downloaded for offline use, and best of all for maximising impact, they are short and divided in to chapters. Standard talks are 20 minutes, a selection are 5 mins or less. Most of the material would be suitable for second level, but one or two gems (Mathemagics, Underwater Astonishments, Climbing the World’s Biggest Tree) would suit almost any age group.

Just check out the quality – this 5 minute talk from David Gallo contains a short video of creatures living on the ocean floor. Even if you usually ignore the natural world, fast forward to the last minute and you will see something only the lucky few will see in vivo, but which we can all share thanks to TED.

On a first visit have a look at some of the TOP 10 talks. As well as Gallo, Gore, Robbins (all world class speakers we might never afford to see live) you will find Sir Ken Robinson speaking passionately about how education is killing creativity, Jill Bolte-Taylor explaining (and showing us) the two sides of the brain, Johhny Lee (of YouTube fame) showing how he uses Wii to make a $50 IWB, Dr Hans Rosling showing world statistics with his innovative and thought-provoking Gapminder software. Soon to join the Top 10 will be a beautiful recent talk by Richard Preston on the wonders of the world’s largest living organism – check it out.

There is a wealth material there for many subjects – Physics, Biology, Religion, CSPE, SPHE, English, Biology to name a few. Downloaded and used judiciously in class, or used for student research, these experts can be a rich source of information for homework and projects as well as provoking debate, argument and rich discusssion.

Why not have a look and tell us how you might use TED material in the classroom?