Are you considering adding TED Talks for students to your curriculum but aren’t sure where to start? As both a teacher and parent of teenagers, I have been watching a shift in learning happen right before my eyes.
25 years ago, my students were still using books as their main source of learning. My technology was limited to supplementing lectures and book work with DVD’s and the occasional trip to the computer lab. My campus looks quite different today. Every student is issued a laptop. Most kids have a smartphone. And students are consuming most of their content from videos instead of books. So, it only makes sense to incorporate TED Talks for teenagers into my curriculum as a way to deliver information to them in a way that they have grown accustomed to.
HIstory Of TED Talks
In case you didn’t know, TED Talks have been around for a while. TED is short for technology, entertainment, and design and the first talk was given back in 1984. It included cutting-edge demos of both the compact disk and the eBook.
The popularity of TED Talks grew as new technology was developed for sharing videos of its presentations. In 2006, the first 6 TED Talks were posted online. And in just 3 months they were viewed over one million times. By 2009 TED Talks had over 100 million views. With the access to watching videos on phones and tablets TED Talks have become incredibly popular today.
Since the start of the COVID-19 I have increased my use of video in my classes. And TED Talks have become an amazing way to teach ideas and spark learning within my students. And even now that we are back to in-person learning at school, I have kept several of the modifications from COVID in my teaching routine.
Why Showing TED Talks for Students Just Makes Sense
Teenagers are spending an increasing amount of time watching videos. In 2019 the Washington Post reported that the amount of screen time spent by kids watching online videos had more than doubled over a 4-year span. While the amount of total screen time hasn’t changed much (teens have been averaging over 7 hours of daily screen time for a number of years), what they are watching has. In 2015 watching online videos ranked 5th in terms of preferred media activity. Today, online videos are king of the mountain.
So, if kids are comfortable watching online videos, it only makes sense to use them as a mode of education. GIFs, YouTube clips, and TED Talks are all part of a typical online lecture in one of my distance learning classes.
TED Talks Get Students Thinking
Distance learning has made me rethink how I teach my students and opened my eyes to new possibilities. As a physical education teacher, I’ve needed to redesign all of my lesson plans for the past year. Traditionally, my units would consist of live demonstrations followed by hands-on learning. But with the need to teach through a webcam, I’ve had to get creative. I’ve replaced many of my team sport units with health and exercise physiology. And using online videos in my teaching has become a great way to help my students understand the material.
I’ve found several TED Talks that highlight the topics we are covering in class. From “Why Dieting Usually Doesn’t Work” by neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt to “Sleep Is Your Superpower” by sleep scientist Matt Walker, TED Talks have helped my students learn about the topics we are discussing in a format they are most comfortable learning through. If you are looking for TED Talks to bring into your classroom, here is a list of 35 “must watch” TED Talks for students.
How To Incorperate TED Talks Into Your Classroom
I have used TED Talks in a variety of ways in my classroom. I have used them as part of a warm up to frontload information on a topic and get kids thinking about a particular subject. For example, in my photosynthesis unit I include the TED Talk, “Can we hack photosynthesis to feed the world?” I have used them as homework assignments to bridge content between classes. And I have used them as a way to dive deeper into a subject.
I’ve also created a series of TED Talk worksheets to use with the video presentations. Each of my TED Talk worksheets contains 3 sections: before the talk, during the talk, and after the talk. In the before and after sections, students are given an open-ended question that I can then use to initiate classroom discussions. In the during the talk section, students can answer short questions about the topic being covered.
TED Talks can be used in both independent and whole class instruction making them a great resource. In addition, new TED talks are being produced so there will continue to be new infromation that can be shared with your students in future years as well.
