TEDx

• https://www.ted.com/
• TEDX is an independently organized spin-off of TED. TED hosts conferences of short talks from leading speakers, researchers, and professionals in their field. TEDx differs from TED in that it shares ideas from a local community rather than taking a global approach. These local communities are also the organizers of the set of TEDx talks and theme for the conference. For example, one such community might be that of a university in which graduate students present short talks discussing their action research projects or perhaps their recent designs within a STEM program. These talks are individually video recorded and organized for free viewing based on genre such as science, global issues, education, or business.

Pedagogical Ideas

In the classroom, TEDX can be used in a variety of ways. Some ideas include the following based on main goal of its inclusion:

• ThunderX: - Students create their very own short talk (5-10 minutes) like that of a TEDx recording presenting on research they have gathered for one of culminating assignments for the class or as a way to share their project ideas and details with their classmates after the completion of a benchmark assignment. Students will upload their videos into an instructor generated discussion forum for student commentary. This may count toward participation that week or may be a variation to a presentation assignment.
• Participate in University hosted TEDX event– Instructors can provide information on yearly GCU hosted TEDx event and encourage students or even a group of students to apply and participate with a topic This activity can increase opportunities for individualized learning, promote creativity, foster critical thinking, synthesize information, and if done in a group can increase student to student collaboration.
• Foster critical thinking & Enhance independent interaction with course material – Since TEDX offers more of a particular local view on a concept or issue, A TEDX talk may be provided by the instructor to students with a request for students to determine what other perspectives were not addressed within the TEDX talk that but are addressed the e-book or other course materials that week of class.
• Assess student learning - Students can be asked to find and post a TEDx talk that relates to one of their discussion questions that week as a CAT. Within their response they would need to post the link to access the clip and provide a brief rationale on how the clip relates to the discussion within class. An additional point can be made within the CAT that each student needs to find a different TEDX clip than their peers.
• Promote synthesis of information – Students may be asked to review information from a TEDX talk, their e-book, and another credible resource in order support their answer to a discussion question or instructor follow up CAT within the discussion forum.

How do you utilize this technology in your classroom?

Please share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions for utilizing this technology to foster effective teaching and learning.

How valuable is this technology for fostering teaching and learning?