“Innovation in education involves constant collaboration with colleagues — a total last-minute redo of a teacher’s lesson plan because there was something else out there that he or she just had to try, a change in the direction of a class because the students are driving the instruction.” “Innovation in education happens when educators ask, ‘How […]
You might know artist Liu Bolin by his outline. He paints himself to disappear into backgrounds, becoming a ghost-like presence in his images. (Watch his TED Talk, “The invisible man.”) It’s a trick of the eye designed to make a point. In his latest piece, “The Future,” he aims to raise awareness about the United Nations’ Global Goals. The Global […]
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks died on Sunday, August 30, at age 82. He’d announced in February that he was in the final stages of terminal cancer, and wrote a beautiful essay in the New York Times about what that meant to him: Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life […]
Ghetto Life 101 changed my life. I started working on this radio documentary 25 years ago — I gave tape recorders to two kids growing up in the Ida B. Wells Homes in Chicago, one of the most notorious public housing projects in America, and asked them to document a week in their lives. LeAlan […]
Artist eL Seed fuses the beauty of Arabic letters with the modern art of graffiti — an art form he calls calligraffiti. He paints colorful, undulating messages of hope and peace on buildings all over the world — from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to the bridges of Paris (the city where he was […]
The TED community has been doing some big things over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights. Let’s interview our elders. This Thanksgiving, high school students across the United States will have an important assignment: Interview a grandparent or elder using the StoryCorps app. The Great Thanksgiving Listen — a partnership of StoryCorps, TED, […]
Lawrence Lessig may be running for President of the United States. But he isn’t looking to big donors to fund his exploratory campaign. Rather than do the usual candidate song and dance of courting wealthy donors and corporations, Lessig is using the Kickstarter method for his campaign. He’s collecting small donations from individuals through his website, […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJeyWy7jFUk Jessica O. Matthews makes toys, like a soccer ball and jump rope, that generate electricity. Jane Chen invented a portable, low-cost incubator that keeps premature babies warm and saves lives. Erin Bagwell directed a documentary called Dream, Girl that celebrates the drive of female entrepreneurs. When TED asked filmmaker Gilly Barnes to craft video […]
Greg Gage is a reliable source of both shock and awe at TED. Onstage over the years, this TED Fellow has demonstrated his low-cost DIY teaching kits by amputating a cockroach leg to show how neurons fire, remote-controlling a cyborg cockroach to demonstrate how electrical stimulation guides behavior, and taking away an audience member’s free will to show how one person’s brain can control the arm movements of […]
Ever had the impulse to put everything in storage, sublet your place and travel across the country in an Airstream trailer? That’s what Emily Janssen did when she joined the StoryCorps Mobile Tour as a facilitator, someone who helps people record their own StoryCorps interview. She’d worked for StoryCorps before, at their headquarters in Brooklyn, […]
Erin Freschi, a California mom who has worked in education for nearly 25 years, has a nightly ritual with her 8-year-old son, Sawyer. Instead of bedtime stories or songs, Freschi and her son wind down by watching TED Talks. The name of their unique ritual? TED Before Bed. “It started when Sawyer was in first […]
It’s a few months after graduation, which means the luckiest new college grads are knee-deep into internships and entry-level jobs. How to stand out? Business writer Margaret Heffernan suggests: Start by taking a coffee break with your coworkers. Companies grow best, she suggests, when workers are connected by social bonds. Heffernan’s TED Book, Beyond Measure: […]
Body image, beauty and bullying. In TED-Ed Clubs, students are guided through the process of making a presentation on an idea they feel passionate about — and dozens of students in clubs around the world have boldly chosen to talk about how to combat negative body image, distorted images of beauty and the bullying that […]
The TED community has been very busy over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights. Powerful thoughts on slavery’s legacy. Last week, Bryan Stevenson spoke with The Marshall Project about the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In a Q&A, Stevenson shared his thoughts on the deeply entrenched legacy […]
More than 40 years after the Stonewall Riots, even as Caitlyn Jenner dominates pop culture, coming out as gay or transgender remains deeply difficult. In some cases, it’s downright dangerous; in others, it’s enough to tear families apart. But as you’ll discover in these six StoryCorps interviews, love — of each other, and of oneself […]
Comic books usually feature superheroes. This one, however, stars the speakers who shared ideas at last week’s TEDGlobal>London. The graphic novella “Beyond the Edge” was created by the “scribes” at Innovation Arts and gives a three-panel pop rendering of each talk at the event, with special appearances by the day’s performers. There are no villains […]