Using TED Talks in the Classroom
Ideas for helping students think, learn, and discuss
A few months ago I posed a question on Twitter asking for suggestions for my college English classes. I wanted to gather a list of favorite TED Talks that I could share with my students and build lessons around. One positive side effect of gathering this list was that I learned about many talks that I hadn’t watched before.
If you aren’t familiar with TED, start by going to the TED website to learn more. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and the videos (rarely over 22 minutes) are worth taking your time to browse through.
In a very unofficial, informal survey based on the numerous comments I received on my tweet, here are the top five suggested TED talks to use in the classroom (or just enjoy on your own), followed by a few ideas for how to use these videos with students.
Note that these are not necessarily my favorite videos, but they did come up again and again when I asked others.
1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
2. Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction
