I’m at EdCampPhilly today, and I am in awe of the free and enthusiastic collaboration, learning, networking, and empowerment going on around me. As an unconference, the schedule is blank from the get-go. Participants are responsible for adding sessions to the board, with the intention of facilitating a conversation rather than lecturing at a given time/space.
After last year’s first EdCampPhilly (the inaugural EdCamp!), I was inspired to be part of a team to organize EdCampNYC. Since then, the map of EdCamps has grown impressively and internationally!
This morning, I offered Getting EducaTED: Teaching With Ideas Worth Spreading. I shared a recent experience teaching Data Visualization to 7th grade math students last week. We began the mini-unit by watching a Hans Rosling TED Talk about HIV data and then explored Gapminder World. (I wrote about it in my last post.) I’ve since appreciated that you can use Gapminder to teach Science, Statistics, Math, Social Studies, etc.
I also mentioned a few other TED Talks I’ve shown students:
Emily Pilloton’s Teaching Design for Change
Chimamanda Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story
John Hardy’s My Green School Dream
Anthony Atala’s Printing a Human Kidney
In the session, other participants shared useful ideas, sites, links:
- Use the TED app to easily search and watch videos
- http://education.ted.com – A component of TEDED is suggesting similar videos on any TED Talk page and developing units that incorporate these videos
- Using Google Analytics to create charts (makes sense, since Google bought Gapminder)
- Infographic of plate tectonic action in Japan at http://japanquakemap.com
- http://shapelock.com plastic beads that can be melted and shaped together like clay
- Link to Teaching with TED: http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com
- Link to 15 TED Talks for Teachers to Watch: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/12/10-ted-talks-for-teachers-to-watch.html
Sadly, I was a little verklempt at standing at the front of a large auditorium, being slightly sleep deprived, and fearing for humanity on Judgment Day, so I didn’t take tons of notes at the session. However, Meenoo Rami (@mrami2) started a GoogleDoc for participants to add inspiring TEDTalks that would be awesome to use in a classroom. Access Meenoo’s shared document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ONu43EPlV-gjWsG65eCQfyDcVX6iG8ugdSXZdqPyc04/mobilebasic?authkey=CJW0rtsM&pli=1&hl=en_US
Karen Blumberg 