Favorite TED Podcasts

A colleague of mine recently said how much she enjoyed a TED podcast feature Sir Ken Robinson that I had talked about last year.  That got me thinking about my top ten favorite TED podcasts.  Scanning my iTunes library, I quickly narrowed it down to these:

10. Cameran Herold - "Let's Raise Kids to be Entreprenuers."



I enjoy this because Herold has some excellent ideas about teaching and getting kids engaged and to think critically. What kind of learner would we produce if we focused on some of these skills rather than taking high stakes tests and simply memorizing facts?

9. Dan Meyer - "Math Class Needs a Makeover."




I like this one because so much of what he says about math class can be related to the English class too. Let's engage students in active reading and writing. What I mean by that is actual work that is connected to the real world, and not some remote grammar exercises in their textbooks.

8. Michael Specter - "The Danger of Science Denial"



Specter makes a great point about our burgeoning culture of fear. Listening to many politicians, I get the sense they'd love to rewind time and have the 1950's all over again. I would not. And Specter explains why.

7. Bruce McCall - "Nostalgia for a Future that Never Happened"



One of my all time favorites. The art is great, but so is the presenter's wry humor and style. I am fascinated by how as we age, we tend to long for a past that never really existed. Or at least never really existed in the way we think it did. Nostalgia taints it and makes it seem greater than it really was.

6. Chris Anderson - "on Technology’s long Tail"



Though this one is a bit dated, it is, as the Brits say, 'spot on.' The phenomenal learning potential of the internet and podcasts and videos. It is truly a flat world. Just look at what he has to say about a mostly unknown technology start up called "skype." Look at how that's taken off! There is hope in technology, and, thus, the future.

5. Clifford Stoll - "18 Minutes with an Agile Mind"



Stoll is like Mr. Froiland. Only on speed. How entertaining, dizzying, engaging, and at the very end, touching. Everything that great education should be.


4. Barry Schwarz - "the paradox of Choice"



Happiness is not necessarily linked to freedom. At least freedom of choice. Schwarz makes an excellent case that too much choice leads to constriction and . . . unhappiness. The part about finding the perfect pair of blue jeans is so true.

3. Sir Ken Robinson - "Bring on the Education Revolution"



Robinson's newest TED Talk. And it lives up the his legendary first TED Talk. We need to have him speak at our beginning of the year inservice. We should all be like Ken.

2. Steven Johnson - "Where Good Ideas Come From"



I cannibalized this and turned it into last year's honor's speech. Johnson is one of my favorite thinkers and writers. His ideas on what we call "the slow hunch" is fascinating. Good ideas come from collaboration, not isolation. Yet, how often do we let our students collaborate? How often do we as teachers even collaborate?

1. Sir Ken Robinson - "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"



The legendary TED Talk. It's been downloaded millions of times. And he asks the vital question, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

And we answer - of course they do! Creative kids aren't always quiet. They don't always sit in neat rows. They aren't always punctual. They can see right through the worthlessness of rote memorization. And they often don't 'do school' because it doesn't engage them the way their creative venture do. And it's a damn shame.