Thursday, May 24, 2012

TED-Ed for Teachers

With classrooms and teachers moving at the speed of standardized tests (cramming everything in as fast as possible before end-of-grade tests arrive) it can be difficult for students to master a lesson or topic before moving on to something else. There's a delicate balance between teacher and student where information is presented in just the right manner, speed, and format (text, image, audio, video, etc.) so that the new 'stuff' is understood and applied. This doesn't, and most often cannot, happen for every student with every lesson.

Teacher need additional resources to explain difficult material to students. Video is helpful, especially when it can be accessed outside of the classroom, because students can watch when, how many times, and at their preferred speed. Teachers also need great quality material to maximize learning and understanding.

TED is the wildly popular conference held each year whose mission is to share "ideas worth spreading." They've recently added a new arm to their mission with TED-Ed, a collaboration of outstanding teachers and select animators to create and share lessons worth spreading.

With this growing video library there are videos on many subjects and topics for easy supplementation of classroom lessons. Teachers have unlimited access to all of the TED-Ed videos and they're easily shared with students through links, embedding on the class website, or playing all or part of the videos in class.


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