TED talks play an important role in education. I have been to countless professional developments, workshops and staff meetings where we start off by watching a TED Talk. We even had the option to watch many this summer for the MAET program. I know I will be in the minority when I say this, but I don’t really like TED Talks. I find them too long and I usually get bored or distracted halfway through. I’m not sure if its because I’m not genuinely interested in the topic or if my attention span is too short, but they are not my preferred method of being informed. (I am not even sure if they are valid method to learn and be informed) I am curious why TED Talks are so popular. Why does everyone go bonkers for them? Is it because there are so many? Does talking about a TED Talk we just watched make us sound intelligent? Is it a good source of information? Who (or what) is TED? What is the deal!? While researching for this blog post, I was hoping to find some compelling evidence one way or the other if TED talks were “good” for me that would maybe inspire me to try a little bit harder to listen along.
I don’t know even know who or what TED is. I figured that would be a good first step as I was looking into TED talks. “TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.” (www.ted.com) The description of this sounds like something I would be interested in. TED is an organization that reaches far and wide. I like that they are available in many languages and while I personally am interested in technology, entertainment and design, I do think broadening their topics makes it more accessible to others. This is why everyone I know seems to have found a TED talk they loved. Forbes contributor Carmine Gallo has done a lot of research regarding TED talks. His conclusion is that “that the TED style is effective because it’s consistent with how our brains are wired to receive information.” (Gallo, 2015, para. 4) His blog post surmises that there is a pattern to how a TED talk is delivered and if one follows this pattern it will be appealing to the audience. According to Gallo, one of the key components of a TED talk is an emotional one, by telling a story to involve the audience. In my opinion, this is not different than teaching. You always need to find a “hook” or a way to engage your students with your lesson. This also sounds like it could be interpreted to be a form of entertainment to me, more so than an educational experience. As mentioned earlier, because TED is such a vast organization, there are always a variety of presenters and topics. As a consumer of information, I tend to question the credentials of the presenter and how we know that their ideas are good ones and genuinely if they are worth buying into. This is a similar train of thought that I read and talked about in my last blog post about educators on twitter. I find that I particularly picky around ideas and TED talks surrounding the field of education. While some people may find TED talks relating to education inspirational, I tend to always be listening with a wary attention span, unsure of how the discussion can apply to me, only because education and students are unique and there isn’t a one size fits all answer for everyone. Owen Carter wrote a blog post on why he believes TED talks are not the best platform about ideas for education and in his opinion TED talks “privilege the performance over the evidence, the message over the methodology.” (Carter, 2016, para. 5) His blog post references TED talks he watched regarding education in which some of the presenters were teachers with limited teaching experience or were never teachers at all. While I couldn’t find any definitive answers as to why TED talks are good (or bad), this research did help me learn more about TED than I had known previously and earn a bit more respect for its vast network of talks and conferences. I still do not think TED will be my preferred method of education or entertainment, but I admire the fact that the TED organization is inspirational to many people and because TED talks are offered in so many languages are accessible to people who want to learn, question and be inspired around the globe. References www.ted.com Gallo, C. (2015, March 17). Why our brains are wired to love TED talks [Blog post]. Retrieved from:https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2015/03/17/why-our-brains-are-wired-to-love-ted-talks/#86f23cf1322b Carter, O. (2016, May 25). Why I hate TED talks [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://blog.optimus-education.com/why-i-hate-ted-talks
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