EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS POST IS CURRENTLY BEING REVISED FOR CONTENT.
TED.com‘s slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading” promotes the idea that it is the human capacity for imagining and sharing possibilities that counts. Indeed, the website has become so popular that TED lectures are being offered all throughout the world, creating what could be called an educational space outside of the traditional university classroom.
At the same time, TED is a rather traditional space that has been spread far and wide through digital recording and media. The lecturer (usually someone famous) stands on a stage with all kinds of “things” related to academic life and research. there are biological samples, skeletons and other artifacts, which operates almost as a bricolage of a university – a simulation of the university classroom but in hyper-drive
is one of which students and instructors can engineer from hyper-connective environments.
Imagine being able to shape how, what, and why you learn using digital technology and social networking. It would breathe new life into the now necessary post-secondary experience. Students, professors, graduate instructors, and other employees throughout the academy could interact and support each others’ academic goals. All for one and for all sort of thing. Technology would provide accessibility to individuals who otherwise could not attend a regular classroom setting, or even those who cannot afford it. The Digital University Classroom would promote open learning and efficient communication logistics. What is more, each student could tailor their education to their needs, including what goals they wish to achieve, how quickly they wish to achieve them, and how they wish to achieve them. The instructors role would be to provide an example of exemplary work (such as guiding students how to prepare successful reports, projects, and essays) and would allow the instructor to focus more on their own research, or perhaps even include this research into the classroom.
The Digital University Classroom would be 1) free for all members of the university to use and benefit 2) Boast efficiency 3) Help the university to improve collaboration, inclusively, and the development of all programs. Digital technology would serve as a medium for all further development.
The above is an idea. A potential. TED previews such idealistic presentations in the hopes that people pay attention in order to get something done. I’ve noticed over the past couple of years how popular this site is with students and the reasons are quite obvious:
- TED provides insightful, intelligent presentations from a very holistic, humanistic perspective.
- TED provides an array of subjects, from new developments in gene therapy, to poverty in the first world, and how music affects the brain. Such subject matter allows for viewers to be exposed to the various complex, yet fascinating, research throughout the world. The site makes it seem like this research is very much part of our lives and brings it closer to home.
- TED is free for all with a web connection to watch and enjoy.
Far from being just a source of educational entertainment, TED also proposes ideals and prospective and potential solutions to real world problems. It does so fearlessly. While watching a TED lecture both realtime and online member becomes part of the conversation. The website itself is very interactive and asks viewers to comment on what they watch. This is interactive knowledge.
This also may be a reality in the classroom.
I thought that the university classroom itself could be shaped by TED’s lived manta. If lectures from all disciplines concerned themselves with real world issues I believe many students would automatically engage with this knowledge. The way lectures are presented: using a casual, friendly, yet informative, approach allows for people to relax and learn (the best way to learn – no one likes feeling as if learning is a life and death situation or a three-hour stretch until break time). TED lectures allow knowledge to stream into your mind so you can begin to become part of the conversation. TED lecturers profess fluidly and with a rhetoric only matched by the best forms of classical education. Everyone – I stress everyone – can watch this and improve from this.
University lectures should be interdisciplinary – one of TED’s strong points. For instance, engineering students should be exposed to Utopian fictions (teaching ethics through allegory and metaphor), English students should learn some computer science, science students should study art. All education, however, should lead back to real world problems: improving social conditions, providing necessary resources to poverty-striken areas, connecting people from the first to the third world, empowering women; cancer research, getting rid of unnecessary environmental hazards, and helping people generally get from day-to-day, whether financially, emotionally, or even physically. More so, the website even proposes “initiatives,” which are collaborations with viewers to work on global problems. This is a site that parallels Don Tapscott’s ideal in Macrowikinomics: to have a world where businesses and institutions work with, not just for, the general public to solve the big problems and to give insight into how to prepare for a future of problems.
TED Initiatives: Please click – it is pretty awesome
TED is a great structure. Good structures are imitated. The university institution could benefit from copying this structure. Is this idealistic? No, because with digital media it is already in the works. It is about bridging that divide between those who prefer the traditional lecture to those who want a new type of lecture, one that allows flexibility, open learning, and interactivity without compromising the value of an intellectual presentation and discussion.
TED.com is also an excellent example of a world-class website, which offers an open space of communication. Their blog allows for viewers to rate and comment on lectures. In essence, TED.com is part of Web 2.0, hence, it is similar to other social mediums, including Facebook, WordPress, and Youtube. Web 2.0 websites are learning environments on their own. Students can engage with and illuminate what they learn in class with these sites.