TED Curator Chris Anderson on the 'TED-ification' of Education

"Learning needs to be joyful," says Chris Anderson, curator of TED Talks and TED Ed. "TED's mission is 'ideas worth spreading'," explains Anderson, "and the most important part of that mission, logically, has to be kids."

Started in 1984, TED (Technology, Education, Design) is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, typically through short lectures with noted thinkers. Videos of these talks, which started appearing online in 2006, have been viewed over one billion times. In 2011 TED developed TED Ed, an educational resource for teachers and students "to capture and amplify the voices of the world's greatest educators."

Reason managing editor Katherine Mangu-Ward recently sat down with Anderson to talk about the future of education and the use of technology in the classroom.

About 8.5 minutes.

Edited by Alex Manning. Shot by Todd Krainin and Josh Swain.

[DanielBjorndahl]

The talks produced by the Onion satirizing TED are truly inspired

[arcanekrusader]

I've not watched an extensive amount of TED, but when I was subscribed, I found that a lot of the ideas weren't worth spreading. 

[gskibum]

I spent a few months dating a woman who was a compulsive talker. She would utterly dominate every conversation. She was also a high school teacher. And wants desperately to do a Ted talk. :-)

I finally ended the relationship because she could not grasp the concept of give-and-take in a balanced conversation. This experience has made me wonder about other people who have given or want to give Ted talks. Are they also compulsive talkers, dominating the conversations at every social encounter?

[Buffalo]

"Non-partisan" I can't remember the last time I heard that from an actual non-partisan organization.
Now-a-days it always seems to be code for "radical left".

[ssrs]

I have a TED talk request -- Please explain the value of a system (education) that is so expensive and the results are so poor (HS graduates are not even worth min wage).

[timb]

Holy shit, the haters really showed up for this.  Getting annoyed because science doesn't match your political worldview doesn't make the science wrong.  Also, some people are selfless enough to care about things besides their own short-term interests, try to relax and open your mind when something doesn't interest you personally.

[tsummerlee]

"We're non-partisan..."

Lol! Ya, right.

[Fireplug]

He tried to hard not use the word "political" and on a basic level agree with his point that learning must be fun and examined, but when he appears to sit on the fence when it comes what is political then I subscribe to analogy that when it comes down to things political and you are sitting on the fence, is when you get knocked off. What is being driven today as education is political and for him to not acknowledge that makes me suspect that either he is oblivious to what is going on or the facade he is portraying is one of total ignorance and therefore deniability to any political agenda. Anyone can wrap something in a pretty package and give it as something wonderful and be revealed that is was nothing but feces. I pray this is not the case.

[TheRacheakt]

TED 'ideas worth spreading' are all progressive liberal ideas; I have watched many of them, all liberal.

Never are you going to see a TED from a view.