The New TED-Ed YouTube Channel and Website Provide Powerful Capabilities For Teaching

TED-Ed combines excellent content with innovative features to deliver a powerful resource for today's educators.

Earlier this month, educators and technology advocates across the world were delighted by the launch of the new “TED-Ed” YouTube channel devoted exclusively to educational content. After just two short weeks, the channel already has 50,000+ subscribers and over a million views – a clear testament to the popularity of the TED brand.

By combining content on the video channel with functionality being delivered through the TED Ed website, the videos have been transformed into a unique educational resource. Each video is paired with a brief multiple choice quiz, a set of questions to be answered in text format, and some ideas about how to “Dig Deeper” into additional resources related to the video's topic.

‘Flip' A Video To Create Your Own Customized Lesson!
Another great idea they've put into place on the TED Ed site is a “flip this video” function that lets you to turn any video into a customized lesson. You can add your own context, and select from pre-configured quizzes or add your own questions and follow-up suggestions. You can then share the custom lesson with students through e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter – it will have its own unique page on TED Ed, and you decide who gets to see it. You can see who viewed the lesson, review how many questions they attempted and the answers they provided, see the number of questions they got right and more (with their permission). Even cooler – you can ‘flip' ANY YouTube video (including one you create)! Learn more about this outstanding innovative idea here.

Browse Videos on the TED Ed Website
On the TED Ed website, the channel's videos have been organized into a few categories for easier access and searching. In addition to a “Featured” video section, there is a subject grouping with videos grouped into 9 different academic subject areas. There is also a “Series” grouping that offers sets of videos grouped into series such as “Inventions that Shape History”, “Questions No One (Yet) Knows the Answers To”, and “Cyber-Influence & Power”.

Introductory Video
The introductory video below provides a great overview of the TED Ed website.

You Can Get Involved
TED-Ed encourages involvement from educators and other contributors in a number of different ways:

• Nominate an Educator (here) - A primary focus of TED-Ed is to provide high-quality lessons taught by exceptional educators. If you or someone you know is an engaging expert that you think should teach others, you can use this nomination form to suggest them to the TED-Ed team.
• Recommend an Animator (here) – TED-Ed is looking for visualization artists interested in doing work on a freelance basis. Submit potential artist's names using this form.
• Suggest a Lesson (here) – If you have an idea for a lesson that you think should be presented on TED-Ed, you can use this form to suggest it.

Congratulations and “Thanks!” to the whole TED team for creating what looks like an amazing resource. These are the kinds of innovations that can truly help to transform education!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
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Reverse Instruction Tools And Techniques (Part 3) – Using Existing Web Based Educational Content
Is Reverse Instruction Education Technology’s Perfect Storm?