TED-ed | Lessons Worth Sharing

I have been a huge fan of TED for a while now. It's a great place to go for inspiration, and a way better way to spend my video watching time than browsing videos of cats on YouTube.  TED is a conference that brings experts in their field to the stage to present, in just 18 minutes, the "Talk of Their Lives."  Though originally started with talks that focused on Technology, Entertainment, and Design [TED], the talks have expanded to include such diverse issues as global issues, psychology, food, and education.    TED has expanded from two conferences annually, to global events, and has inspired hundreds of TEDx partner events.

The most recent edition to the TED lineup is TED-Ed. TED-Ed is a website that allows you to create lessons around TED talks. Using the idea of the "Flipped Classroom" TED presents a video and then guides students through questions that progress from simple understanding to more in depth analysis.  Teachers can easily take pre-created lessons and modify them for their students. They can then share the lesson for their students to complete. TED-Ed tracks student completion and allows the teacher to review student answers.

Here is a quick "Flip" that I created in about 2 minutes using TED-Ed.

"The 8 Traits of Successful People"

All you need to do to start using TED-Ed is sign up for a free TED account (something you should have anyway to help you keep track of your favorite TED talks).  The Ted-Ed website has a useful video that guides you through how to create your first lesson.

In addition to TED talks, the site has lessons created for TED-Ed by top educators and animated by professional animators that you can use as a Flip.  At present the collection is a little limited, but I am sure that it will grow quickly with quality content. You can help the collection grow by nominating a top educator here.