Why Not Invite TED Into Your Classroom?

If you haven't already heard, TED is one of the world's coolest conferences. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Desgin) brings together some of the most forward thinking, progressive and really fascinating people on the planet to talk about, really anything they want.

There are lots of things that TED can teach us in education and tons of ways we can use TED in the classroom. Here are just a few...

Presentation Skills-This past weekend I came across a great blog post called The TED Commandments. Not only can the content of specific talks add amazing content to the classroom, the techniques that the speakers us can also teach kids a thing or two. Here are the TED Commandments that all presenters should live by:

1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story
5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Skae of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Teaching With TED-There is a great wiki created a while back that offers suggestions on how to use TED talks in the classroom. There is also a great collection of Education and student centered videos with discussion points and links for further information. 

TEDxNYED-One of the really cool things that the TED conferences have done is spawned spin offs. In cities around the world people have put on or are putting on their own TED events centered around topics that are meaningful to them. Earlier this year there was a great TEDx conference in NYC on the future of technology in education. There were several great talks by some great educators. If you are a teacher or technologist take some time to check out some of the videos. 

Here are a few of my favorite education related videos:

Do you have any other great TED in the classroom resources? What about a video that you used with kids? Leave some links in the comments and share!