What is TED-Ed? And How Does It Benefit education?
TED was created in the mind of Richard Saul Wurman, who founded it along with Harry Marks in February 1984 as a convention; it is now held annually since the year 1990.
TED, a contraction of Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a non-profit organization in the media that offers online, free public talks. Its motto is ideas worth spreading. Its primary focus is to hold talks on culture, science and latest technology, entertainment, design and academic subjects. TED aims to spread ideas through short talks. Talks may be short, but they’re compelling and inspiring. They usually last around 18 minutes or even less. TED talks are international.
The TED-Ed platform is a “lesson maker” platform that lets you organize an assignment around a specific video and evaluate students’ engagement with the content. i.e., it is packed with educative videos, which teachers utilize to develop engaging lessons.
The TED-Ed program is designed to ignite and promote the thoughts and ideas of students and teachers all over the globe.
As opposed to videos found on YouTube, for instance, the videos on TED-Ed could be transformed into a lesson by adding additional questions that students must be able to answer to show that they learned something from watching.
As the lesson teacher, you’ll be informed when your students finish the lesson. They can then examine a summary of the outcomes and comment on their responses. Each student’s responses (including open-ended responses) are also downloaded in a CSV file and then transferred into Excel. Lessons span all age groups and cover a broad array of subjects, including the curriculum and non-curriculum material.
TED-Ed continues the first TED Talks speaker platform, which pioneered the flawlessly presented talks of the most influential thinkers worldwide. The acronym stands for Technology entertainment, Technology, Design. The TED name has expanded to cover all fields of interest and is now spread across the globe with an ever-growing collection of talks.
The capability to design custom lessons, or incorporate those of other teachers, makes it an excellent tool for online learning and in-class use.
What is TEDx
TEDx talks are the same as TED talks; however, TEDx focuses on the local community. TEDx talks are not part of TED events; however, they need to get authorization from TED to prove that they adhere to specific guidelines. Like TED talks, TEDx speakers demonstrate their ideas in just 18 minutes. TEDx events are organized by volunteers from the community; therefore, the speakers aren’t paid. The primary reason behind organizing this event is to create dialogue and connect with the local community.
TED is committed to helping people fulfill their dreams of having knowledge and appreciation for the global. It is an organization that works hard because it believes that ideas can alter the mindsets and lives of individuals. To facilitate this, they organize annual conferences and discuss various subjects. Past speakers who have delivered presentations included Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Chris Anderson.
Since 2006, the organization has improved access to its talks by offering free access to its videos online. Here are a few positive outcomes of TED talks
- They offer a platform that encourages free speech and lets people express their opinions on what they are convinced of.
- They allow people to know things about the world around them, and knowledge can be helpful in an individual’s daily life.
- Important information is distributed to a broad audience around the globe.
- They bring people with the same goal of enhancing their knowledge.
What is the distinction between TED and Talks on TEDx?
To accomplish this, TED and TEDx Talks will ultimately address the two most significant issues of sharing innovative ideas. The first challenge is sharing the most important ideas with a worldwide audience. In this regard, TED Talks, given during every year’s TED Conference, focus on topics and stories that appeal to an international audience. This can include climate change, human trafficking, and mental health.
The other challenge is the reverse, which gives ideas that can be useful to local audiences. This is the point where TEDx is an opportunity. These events are organized by local organizers who choose speakers and topics relevant to current events or issues in their local area. Suppose you’re part of a diverse community, for instance. In that case, your city’s TEDx talk could focus on the issues that arise from that and incorporate different perspectives into education or community gatherings.
In the end, while TEDx Talks might address international issues, they tend to focus on the particular requirements of the community in which they are located. As opposed to TED Talks, they often feature lesser-known speakers. Therefore, if you’re an experienced speaker and aren’t sure whether you can compete with famous speakers such as Bill Gates, rest assured that TEDx Talks will remain an excellent starting point.
In the context of speaking, a frequently asked question regarding TED or TEDx talks is, “Do TED and TEDx speakers cost any fees?” Surprisingly, all speakers associated with TED talks speak for no cost. This is primarily due to the credibility of speaking at TED and TEDx talks. It’s not just because of the free publicity you get because you present your talk to the TED Organization promotes your presentation within their collection of Talks.
That’s why giving a talk automatically establishes the speaker as an authority, as well as they, don’t need to do anything to share it across the globe, and all speakers are expected to give a talk for free.
How do you use TED-Ed?
- Visit http://ed.ted.com.
- Select “Register” to create an account.
- Check out the featured lessons, go to the entire collection of lessons, or click “Create A Lesson.”
- On the “Create a Lesson” Page, type keywords to find possible videos, or enter a URL if you know the video you’d like to incorporate into yours.
- You will be directed to the “Create a Lesson” web page when you’ve selected a video. There are currently two different versions of the page that have different interfaces. However, they both have the same features, and you can toggle between them by clicking the link at the top right corner.
- The lesson’s title should be changed and, if necessary, the title. Include the following elements introduction, questions discussion, additional info, and a conclusion.
- Utilize”More” or the “More” option to view the lesson or seek help.
- Utilize”Publish” or click the “Publish” button once you are ready to share your lesson via generating a hyperlink or emailing the lesson to the entered email addresses.
- Follow your email, or log in to your account to view your dashboard. It includes all lessons you’ve written or started to develop and discussions and lessons you’ve taken part in. You can also manage the settings and notifications within this section.
The tab under every video on your dashboard explains what steps you can take, e.g., review students’ work, launch an activity, or complete an entire lesson.
Privacy: To make lessons, you must sign up for an account on TED-Ed. This needs an email address or a Facebook username and password. To allow learners to store their works (i.e., answering the question), they require an account. The Privacy policy of TED-Ed stipulates that, in addition to account details and cookie usage, comments posted on discussions are made public. It is, however, possible to alter your preferences for an account to ensure that comments are attributed as “anonymous.” (5 stars)
User-friendliness: Easy to use with a clean and straightforward interface. Users who sign up for the service receive welcome emails that include tips for starting and an interactive interface to provide feedback and leave a comment. Several FAQ pages are available. There does not appear to be a complete start-up manual available. (4.5 stars)
Impact on student learning: This is a tool that aids in students’ motivation and assessment. However, it is only effective if the available videos align with the curriculum. (5 stars)
cost: The tool is entirely free. (5 stars)
Bias and Power: TED-Ed is an open platform, and it is restricted only by the amount of relevant and appropriate videos on YouTube (4 ratings).
Access can be utilized on any device and does not require additional plug-ins. (5 stars)
accessibility: It is an accessibility device for visually presenting information so that the person’s visual perception is presumed. But, multiple colors and zoom options can aid those with visual impairments. The quality of the audio, transcripts available, and closed captioning depend on the video source. Tips to increase access to YouTube videos are provided here, but they aren’t listed on the TED-Ed website. (3 stars)
What is the purpose of the TED-Ed?
The TED-Ed website, where has you can find all the options, is broken down into four parts: Watch, Think Explore, Dig Deeper and discuss.
Watch as you’d expect is the place where students can open the video and watch it in a browser or full-screen on the device of their preference. Since it’s web-based and hosted on YouTube, it is easily accessible on devices with older or less reliable internet connectivity.
Consider the area where students can give questions to test how well they’ve grasped videos. It offers multiple-choice responses to enable an experiment-based method that can be used in an entirely independent way, even remotely.
Dig Deeper lists additional resources that are related to the subject or video. It can be a valuable method of establishing homework based on the videos and possibly preparing ahead for the next class.
Discuss is a space for open-ended and guided discussion questions. This is different from the multiple-choice Think section; students can talk more openly about what the video has done to their thinking on the topic and its areas.
What are the top TED-Ed highlights?
The TED-Ed program goes beyond video content to provide an additional platform for engagement. The TED-Ed Clubs are one of these.
The TED-Ed Clubs program assists students in creating TED-style presentations to stimulate research and exploration, discovery, and the ability to present. The videos can be shared on the site, and once a year, the most engaging speaker is invited to speak at TED-Ed in New York (under normal circumstances). Each club is also granted access to TED-Ed’s open public speaking course and has the chance to connect to other clubs in the network.
Educational professionals can apply for the opportunity to participate in an educational program that is, if selected, allows them to present their talks allowing them to share their knowledge and perspectives.
The TED Masterclass for Education is a professional development program designed to help districts, schools, universities, and other education-related institutions highlight and showcase their most innovative ideas.
The main issue is the absence of standards-based curricula that are sectionalized. Including a section that illustrates this thorough search could be a valuable option for teachers.
What do you think you can do using the TED-Ed program?
- Make custom lessons for your pupils.
- Engage your students to share their most significant ideas.
- Explore ideas that stimulate learners’ curiosity.
Science Students should discover a video that can illustrate the concept of a specific scientific field (e.g., gravity, for example) and then create a lesson plan, which can be shared with other students. Also, check out TED-Ed Originals and TED-Ed lessons on technology and science.
Math students look at a film that explicitly addresses the concept of math or an area that requires numeracy skills to comprehend. Students have to answer related questions that need calculations similar to the ones in the clip. Also, check out TED-Ed Originals as well as TED-Ed lessons in math.
Also, check out TED-Ed Originals and TED-Ed lessons on Social Studies.
