TED Talks





Overview
The first Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) conference was in 1994. Since then, its scope has broadened. TED is now an annual conference that brings together a fascinating collection of some of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. They give short talks—typically, about 20 minutes in length. Many of these talks are then made available on the Web.

Each talk can be analyzed in terms of indirect and direct impact or relevant ideas for informal and formal education. From that point of view, the talks are useful to anybody who is interested in Information Age education.

Many of the talks are somewhat futuristic in nature. They give a good sense of where various technologies are going, and how they will affect the world.

This IAE-pedia page lists various TED talks that the writers have found particularly interesting and relevant to IAE. Viewers of the videos are encouraged to add their insights.

General Comments About Educational Video
The TED and other online videos represent a huge change in media. It is now easy for an "ordinary" person to use a digital video camera, edit the results, and post it to a Web site. It is now common for people who are browsing the Web to view video.

Thus, the technical expertise needed and the cost involved in sharing/distributing video has changed markedly in recent years. In terms of education, we are all used to the idea of seeing projected films and/or TV in school and in theaters. What has changed is the "on demand" availability of video. There is a steadily increasing amount of educational video materials available free on the Web.

The TED videos are a tremendous educational resource. These short (typically, under 20 minutes) videos are talks by some of the movers and shakers of our world. They often contain slides and video being used by the presenters. They cover a huge range of different topics. What they have in common is a presentation of the frontiers of change that is going on and/or is likely to occur in applications of technology—change that is changing our world.

In my opinion, an important part of being educated is to have knowledge and insights into such changes. Thus, the TED videos can be an important of component of a wide range of formal courses, perhaps starting in middle school, and certainly extending through all formal schooling above that level. They are also suitable for viewing as educational entertainment, with parents and their children viewing together and discussing what they are viewing and learning.

The videos provide a glimpse into the knowledge, organizational abilities, and communication abilities of the speakers. Each is rich is deep and important ideas. Each "begs" to be used as a vehicle to promote small group and very wide scale discussion.

Instructional Video
Paul, Annie Murphy (n.d.). What do we learn from instructional video? The Brilliant Report. Retrieved 5/2/2013 from http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bc04df008d4705e4e77c2eb35&id=c04dd878df&e=9fa2a82024. Quoting from the report:


 * Carpenter and her colleagues showed study participants one of two short videos of an instructor explaining a scientific concept (in this case, the genetics of the calico cat). In the "fluent" video, the instructor stood upright, maintained eye contact, and spoke fluidly without notes. In the "disfluent" video, the instructor slumped, looked away, and spoke haltingly while referring to notes. After watching one of the videos, participants were asked to predict how much of the content they would later be able to recall, and then were tested on the content.
 * Participants who watched the fluent video thought they would remember much more information than participants who watched the disfluent video—but actually both groups remembered about the same amount.
 * TED talkers are nothing if not fluent. Could it be that the effective presentation of the speakers in TED-style videos fools us into thinking we're learning more than we are? As someone who watches TED videos often, and who has given a TED talk herself, I'm biased. But I think there are good reasons to believe that these videos can be vehicles for genuine learning.

TED Talks of Exceptional Educational Value
As of 3/4/2009 there are 395 TED talks available at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list/page/1. Some of the ones listed below may be of particular interest to people working to improve education throughout the world.

Jeff Bezos; dot-com versus the gold rush
Bezos, Jeff (2003). Jeff Bezos on the next web innovation. Retrieved 8/22/09: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jeff_bezos_on_the_next_web_innovation.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says it’s more like the early days of the electric industry.


 * About Jeff Bezos. As founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos defined online shopping and rewrote the rules of commerce, ushering in a new era in business. Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1999.

Bill Joy muses on what's next
Joy, Bill (February 2006). Bill Joy muses on what's next. (19 minute video.) Retrieved 8/19/09: http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_joy_muses_on_what_s_next.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * Technologist and futurist Bill Joy talks about several big worries for humanity -- and several big hopes in the fields of health, education and future tech.


 * The co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy has, in recent years, turned his attention to the biggest questions facing humanity: Where are we going? What could go wrong? What's the next great thing?

His talk provides insight into what people can be doing to help shape a sustainable future.

Bonnie Bassler: Discovering bacteria's amazing communication system
Bassler, Bonnie (2009). Discovering bacteria's amazing communication system. TED. Retrieved 4/11/09: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html. Quoting from the site:


 * Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.

This 18:14 video is a superb example of bringing some really important new research in cell biology to a level it can be understood by a diverse audience. The talk begins with an exploration of the fact that a human's body has at least ten times as many bacteria cells as "human" cells.

Beyond the crisis, mindboggling science and the arrival of Homo evolutis
This 18 minute video is a talk by Juan Enriquez. The first half describes the current US economic crisis. The second half consists of a discussion of possible technology-based futures. The insights provided in this short talk provide gist for the mill of possibly rethinking our educational system. How do we go about appropriately preparing today's students to become responsible adults?

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
This 19:24 video makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/140

This is Mr. Rosling's second TED talk. It's not as entertaining as the one from last year, but still interesting. Seems he's spent a lot of time in Africa, and he has a lot of objections to the idea of "developed and undeveloped world", instead just saying folks are just at different stages because they've started at different places. He makes an interesting point that Africa has moved incredibly rapidly from a very "pre medieval" level of development to where maybe Europe was in the early part of the 20th century in 50 years.

I also liked his point of making a distinction between means and goals, something the we lose sight of when dealing with other countries, I think.

This talk presents a modern, computer-based way of viewing complex statistical data. The representations are far removed from the traditional graphs that most people use.

His talk last year, which is very fun, is available at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

Alan Russell: Why can't we grow new body parts?
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/142

Talks about regenerating tissues. Summary point: we're a lot further along than I thought we were. I think this one is a bit light on info though.

Some of the medical research in initial development ideas are indeed fantastic. Thus, we will continue to see substantial changes and progress in medical technology in the future.

One of the education ideas that Russell mentions is the need for interdisciplinary education and the need for teams of people from different disciplines to learn to work together on difficult problems. This is an important aspect of an Information Age education.

Bill Stone: Journey to the center of the Earth ... and beyond!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/141

This starts off being about doing extensive exploration in underground caves (where you spend days walking into the caves), but then shifts to talking about space exploration. Interesting.

The talk explores some of the technology being developed for exploration in very deep caves, and ideas being thought about for exploration development of potential water sources on our moon. Most people are not aware of the technological challenges and current rapid progress that is occurring in deep cave (and underwater in deep caves) exploration.

The talk explores advances in technology that might someday lead to looking for life in the water under the miles-deep ice covering Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

Dan Dennent: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/116

As defined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976): [www.silcom.com/~barnowl/chain-letter/glossary.htm a meme is] "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.

In his talk, Dennent talks about memes. He makes the point that the memes of Western culture are having a profound impact on other cultures of the world. In effect, they are like a disease spreading through education and mass media that are wiping out many older cultures. Dennent uses the analogy of how germs have wiped out native populations, such as when America was "rediscovered" by Europeans. This is a profound concept that I feel needs to be part of the general education of all students.

David Bolinsky: Fantastic voyage inside a cell
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/147

This presents the work of Mr. Bolinsky's group's work on doing scientific images and animation. In particular, it presents 3 minutes of a longer video showing the vast and complex inner workings of a cell responding to a special situation.

This video seems to be being done at Harvard as a way to help give students something visual and concrete to "hang" all the things they are learning in their biology classes on, as well as to provide inspiration.

The video is very impressive and awe-inspiring on its own. Who really realized that all this is going on in our cells all the time! Yet, this was also impressive to me as an example of a novel way to get people interested in a subject and help them understand it better. Someone, it seems, recognizes that the value of this kind of information is worth the investment cost of developing it.

Will Wright: Toys that make worlds
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/146

In this video, game-maker Will Wright presents a demo of an upcoming game, Spore.

The purpose of the game is to evolve creatures, starting from microscoping things in the water to space-faring intelligent beings. Mr. Wright makes the point that he was interested in many things when growing up, and part of his purpose with this game is to give people some concrete way of understanding many of the ideas in things like biology and astrophysics and so on.

It is interesting to think about how much a game like this can, indeed, give someone a thumbnail insight into some of the abstract ideas in science. Like the Bolinsky talk above, this is as much inspiration as information, and that seems important.

Emily Oster: What do we really know about the spread of AIDS?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/143

Ms. Oster presents some insights and data about the presence and spread of AIDS in Africa. Much of her presentation involves demolishing several commonly held beliefs about AIDS, and in the process she reveals some interesting patterns (e.g. when people have a generally have an expectation of a shorter lifespan, they seem less concerned about getting AIDS).

One of the notable things about this is the willingness and ability to find data and relationships and be willing to proceed to question established assumptions with that data.

Patrick Awuah: Educating a new generation of African leaders
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/156

Mr. Awuah used to work at Microsoft, but returned to Ghana to start a liberal arts college. Here, he speaks about his feelings that the future of the country depends on good leaders, and it is education which can produce good leaders. Mr. Awuah, here, is a quiet, slow speaker, but by the end leaves you impressed with what he is doing and his vision.

If nothing else, this serves as an important reminder of what education is really about.

Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/163

Quoting from the Website:


 * In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we've come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.

This video provides a good rebuttal to the common assertion that "the world is going to hell in a hand basket."

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of seven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, and most recently, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.

Michael Merzenich: Exploring the Re-wiring of the Brain
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_merzenich_on_the_elastic_brain.html. Quoting from the Website:
 * Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain's incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He's researching ways to harness the brain's plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.

Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/184

Quoting from the Website:


 * In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with impostors.


 * V.S. Ramachandran is a mesmerizing speaker, able to concretely and simply describe the most complicated inner workings of the brain. His investigations into phantom limb pain, synesthesia and other brain disorders allow him to explore (and begin to answer) the most basic philosophical questions about the nature of self and human consciousness.

This excellent presentation provides evidence of our growing understanding of the functioning of various parts of the brain.

Howard Rheingold: Way-new collaboration
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Quoting from the Website:


 * Howard Rheingold is a writer, artist and designer, theorist and community builder, Howard Rheingold is one of the driving minds behind our net-enabled, open, collaborative life.


 * Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action—and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group.

Sugata Mitra: Can kids teach themselves?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

Quoting from the Website of this 2007 video:


 * In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.


 * In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who's now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it "minimally invasive education."

Two of the key arguments put forth in this video is that children are naturally, intrinsically motivated to learn, and that learning is a social endeavor. This is a fascinating video with important educational implications.

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