Education TED-Ed

Take a video tour of TED-Ed, narrated by … who?

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As the one-year anniversary of the TED-Ed website nears, the TED-Ed team created a new video to walk users through the features on the site, like the ability to add questions, upload “dig deeper” materials and start discussion chains relating to any video. (This newest feature makes the website even more interactive for any type of learner.) But rather than get a traditional narrator for this video, the group had a crazy idea: what if the voice of TED-Ed were computer-generated?

TED-Ed director Logan Smalley explains, “Practically speaking, it is way easier to re-record and edit. But more than that, we wanted to establish a character. This voice is naturally egoless, and future-proofed — in future videos, the voice could become female or speak in another language. And our animators can develop the character down the line.”

See the 10 most-watched TED-Ed videos so far »

Find out five ways you can help build TED-ED, from nominating an educator to volunteering to be a beta tester »

And find out how to track learning progress through the TED-Ed site »