Looking over the Open Educational Resources for this week, I immediately was drawn to Ted-Ed. I have used Ted Talk videos in my classes for the last three years. When my photography class visited the Wild Life Photographer of the Year exhibit in at the BC Museum in Victoria in April, Paul Nicklen was the overall winner of the show. Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_nicklen_tales_of_ice_bound_wonderlands.html ) enabled me to show the class more of his work, but most of all, to hear and see his passion for saving the Arctic environment. The National Geographic selections from Ted Talks are the most inspirational because they address the idea of a visual narrative, how photographs can tell a story. The Ted Talk with David Griffin, In How Photography Connects Us (http://www.ted.com/talks/david_griffin_on_how_photography_connects.html ) directly relates to my work with Inquiry in my Photography classes. Through Inquiry, my students are encouraged to have a focus and tell a story with their own photographs. The ability to take this resource a bit farther with Ted-Ed is a great opportunity to not only customize a lesson using video for a face-to-face classroom, but also create an engaging lesson for an online course. What does Ted-ED offer as an Open Educational Resource?
Ted-Ed offers 138 educational videos with the added ability to “flip” their own selection and any video on YouTube by customizing with quizzes, added information and resources. Ted-Ed’s initiative is to share educational lessons using quality animators to inspire anyone who wants to learn or aims to facilitate learning. The features of Ted-Ed also include a tracking system to monitor student participation and responses to content. Signing up for Ted-Ed is free. Most videos in the library were created by Ted-Ed animators and educators, but as more members contribute and “flip” videos, the database becomes larger and more varied in its categories and sub-categories.
As fantastic as this resource seems for educators, there are some critics of Ted-Ed. Shelly Blake-Plock, of Teach Paperless: seeking social solutions to the mysteries of 21st Century teaching and learning (http://teachpaperless.blogspot.ca/2012/04/problem-with-ted-ed.html ) states “TED -- in the form it is presented online to the masses -- is not about doing. It is about watching. Listening. Consuming.” She concedes that she personally finds find many of the lectures to be inspired, “But we shouldn't confuse an inspiring lecture and provocative ideas with "learning". I disagree with Shelly, and obviously many others do as well; seeing Ted-Ed on the Time Tech website of the 50 BEST Websites 2013 (http://techland.time.com/2013/05/06/50-best-websites-2013/slide/ted-ed/ ) helps substantiate that. Videos create an engaging and informative learning platform and one only has to look toward the enormous world of YouTube to know just about anything can be taught and learned there. All educators at some point in their teaching have relied on videos to inspire, instruct and explain curriculum. The exciting feature in Ted-Ed is the option to upload videos from YouTube and on Ted-Ed, then” flip” them
into a resource that is unique to the creator’s intent and gets saved to a URL that can be freely shared. In Ted-Ed, “Watch”, “Quick Quiz, “Think”, “Dig Deeper” and “Finally” are sections of the lesson that can be created or built upon to enhance the learning on each video.
Ted-Ed is a valuable resource for educators inside and outside the classroom. As long as students prefer to view short videos than to read articles or listen to lectures, Ted-Ed as a resource can only continue to grow. For me, I will use it as a starting point in introducing the impact photography can have on our world’s social and physical environment. I am also going to investigate videos I can use with Ted-Ed to discuss and understand copyright laws and engage students in that discussion. One video series in my mind for that discussion would be the RIP Manifesto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwN6rRU0Xk&feature=player_embedded&list=PL44F4EBDBE6879CE5 ). The endless opportunities for bringing topics to the “classroom and beyond” (http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/ted-ed.php ) using Ted-Ed is why this OER is here to stay. What uses can you see for yourself inside and outside your classroom?
See my “flipped” lesson on Ted-Ed
Photos from: http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/ted-ed.php