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The following article is based on a talk given by the authors at the TESOL Macedonia -Thrace 2013 Convention How do great ideas spread in a connected world? How can educators use such ideas to inspire their students and help them learn?
TED
You do know TED, dont you? Then I dont have to mention the many astonishing ideas presented by brilliant people at the TED conferences each year. But did you know that TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design? At first, most of us relate the second letter with education instead. In fact, TED has been a lot about education, since its much more than a conference. TED is a platform for sharing ideas, which educators around the world have been tapping into in order to inspire their students. Not surprisingly, the most popular TED talk, counting more than 20 million total views to date, is Sir Ken Robinsons talk about schools killing creativity. context within which the English language can be used, and to help them gain a different perspective on a variety of issues, change their attitudes and spark their minds through contact with dynamic users of English.
Talk Selection
TED talks are a brilliant resource for listening and speaking classes at (upper-) intermediate and advanced levels for young adults and adult learners. They are presented in a casual manner, but introduce advanced vocabulary and colloquialisms at the same time without, however, overwhelming the students with sophisticated lexis and syntax. Several criteria should be considered in the selection of the talk appropriate for your class. In terms of content, the selected talk should be of general interest to the target audience. Young adult learners who are about to start their careers need positive messages which will make them believe that one day they can make a difference in the world. Another important criterion is the level of difficulty. Although there is an option of watching each TED talk with English subtitles, talks delivered by native speakers or ones with near-native but clear accents, and with a challenging but not intimidating level of difficulty will help your students engage in the process, maximize language learning benefits and capture their attention. An interactive transcript provided for each TED talk enables you to go directly to the part you want to watch and focus on. However, it is worth emphasizing that talks delivered by non-native speakers, or speakers of languages other than English, can be equally engaging, inspiring, and entertaining. The goal is accomplished if your students leave the classroom with upgraded language competence and cultural awareness, and walk away with a message, a memorable line Finally, learning English is not only about expanding vocabulary and learning new structures. It is about connecting with the world. TED talks make students global citizens who are willing to experiment, explore and discover, and embrace diversity. A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. A language is a flash of the human spirit. Its a vehicle through which the soul of each particular culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed, a thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities (Wade Davis: Dreams from Endangered Cultures) Once watching TED talks becomes a new everyday habit for your students, English gets integrated into their lives in a natural way, and from a mere tool for passing standardized exams it becomes the key to meaningful communication.
Going Mainstream
Although TED started appealing to a constantly increasing audience via the Internet, offering all the talks for free on the TED website, as well as on YouTube, iTunes and via iOS and Android mobile apps, it has also started spreading via mainstream media in order to reach a wider audience and create conversations around those ideas. TED Books offers longer narratives based on TED talks and NPRs TED Radio Hour focuses on specific themes by grouping talks and interviewing speakers. TEDs latest initiative was a TV special focused on education. TED Talks Education featured 8 speakers, including Sir Ken Robinson and Bill Gates. All talks are available online.
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ily become inspiring teaching content, supporting the flipped classroom model. This means that students become independent learners and in charge of their own learning process. They learn about new ideas by means of a foreign language, and vice versa, they learn the language while discovering those new ideas.
Flip it! The advantages of using the TED-Ed platform to create flipped lessons
It is a given that our students are digital natives. They often take the use of technology in class for granted, and they enjoy online tasks more than the ones printed on paper, even if they are exactly the same tasks. Another advantage is that TED-Ed gives students access to the lesson at any time, at their convenience. Their answers are tabulated and the instructor can provide online feedback and use student responses to generate further dialogue. And finally, lessons uploaded by any teacher can be available to any user and shared, just like the ideas promoted by the talk you chose to flip.
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