Using TED Talks in the Adult Education Classroom

 

Greetings,

I recently became introduced to the TED app for my iPad and have been reviewing many of the talks.  The topics are broad and I believe that the possibilities are endless for the classroom. 

I want to share a TED Talk that I certainly feel is worth spreading.  It is a talk that would be very pertinent for all adult students and quite relevant for those just getting started in the program.  It is a two-hour presentation that is cut down to just three minutes by Richard St. John called the 8 Secrets of Success.  St. John spent more than a decade looking into the lessons of success to answer the question: why do people succeed?   I think that it is a presentation that would appeal to students.  What do you think?

Can anyone share how you are using TED?  Do any of your lessons include a TED Talk?  If so, how are adult learners responding?

I am looking forward to your thoughts.

Meryl Becker-Prezocki, SME

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Good day or evening, everyone,

Meryl, thank you for sharing the 8 Secrets of Success, I very much look forward to checking it out. As an instructor I've had mixed results finding useful TED Talks videos for classroom instruction, in part because it can easily take a chunk of time to go through them. But I think they have potential and I've scheduled an excerpt from "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are" for viewing and discussion in a soft skills class I teach at our local library. I'll share with you all how it goes.

Also, earlier this month David Rosen started a couple of discussion threads about TED Talks for teaching and professional development and he's developed an ALE Wiki page to capture the TED Talks videos that others recommend. I encourage everyone to check it out and to please add links to the videos you've found most useful for teaching or PD. Here's the link: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/TED_Talks

Looking forward,

Jackie Taylor

EBPD SME

 

Good Morning,

TED also has an application where an instructor can design his own questions and send to students electronically.  I just found out yesterday that TED is working in conjunction with a book publisher to produce a reading/listening/speaking book.  I try to incorporate TED lectures with my students who are studying for TOEFL.  We have recently listened to Jay Walker's English Mania, and they enjoyed it.

Best,

Alison Puntino

Thanks Alison! I didn't know about the ability to send questions to students electronically. I'll check it out. TED Talks certainly are a trove to explore.

By the way, I thought others would be interested to see this list published yesterday from Business Insider:

The 20 Most Popular TED Talks Of All Time

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ted-talks-2014-10

Jackie Taylor

Thanks to those who have posted TED Talks for adult ed teachers and students here. Keep posting them!  I am adding new ones (from these posts) to the Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki page listing TED Talks at http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/TED_Talks  Check it out and, if you like, add TED talks there yourself and/or continue to post them here.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Meryl,

I have used TED Talks for Professional Development activities but I could definitely see how you could create a library of talks that would explain concepts in math and science in an adult classroom.  Like so many others, I have a few favorites:

These are just a few.

Brooke