Jeff Mummert from The History Teachers Attic has published this great post which lists the TED videos that he thinks are particularly useful and divides them up by subjects including the traditional curriculum areas. As he point out this list is not the sum total of all the TED videos, just a selection of those most relevant to education.
This Google Spreadsheet has a listing of all of the TED talks from 2006 through to 2010. It includes a short summary of the talk as well as listings by date, conference and speaker first name
"Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how."
The question of what learning matters most to our students is one that I return to regularly. A fascinating range of models are available each with similar elements but presented in a slightly different manner. Most could be summarised by the 'Four C's' model outlined in 'Most Likely to Succeed' by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are vital and each plays an important role in allowing us to manage the complexity of modern day life. Beyond being relevant to success in the classroom the Four C's are the foundations of life-long learning but I question if alone they are enough. I believe we must include a fifth; compassion.
'Ted doesn't think we work hard enough because in a DEECD survey of face-to-face teaching hours they found teachers only teach an average 16.3 hours. This surveyed teachers across the state but did not acknowledge time release for additional duties. (Victoria) '
Better we make the wise decision than the expedient one.
Read the older educators... Read Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier and Herb Kohl... and feel the wisdom in their words. They write without hubris, but instead with an acknowledgment of their own flawed humanity. They write with an understand that they cannot be all things to all children, but with the knowledge that they must come as close as they can.
I am far from religious, but I am reminded a lot these days of the serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.