TED for Education

TED, Known For Big-Idea Conferences, Pushes Into Education

March 2, 2011, 12:36 pm

By Jeff Young

Long Beach, Calif.—The leaders of the annual TED conference, known for featuring short, carefully prepared talks on big ideas about technology and society, hope to apply their approach to education.
This week they announced TED-Ed, which will provide a hand-picked set of free online educational talks (expected to be even shorter than the conference talks), many submitted by educators themselves but enhanced by TED officials. An online forum, the Ted-Ed Brain Trust, will encourage discussion of how to reform teaching using the videos and other technology.

The system is not up yet, but the online forum is scheduled to open as early as next week, says Logan Smalley, whose title is TED-Ed catalyst. The videos will be added in the coming months, he says.
The project will also create an updated listing of the more than 900 existing TED talks, arranging them by categories that align more neatly to academic disciplines. Typical categories now feature generic headings, like “mind blowing,” and “knowledge revolution,” which Mr. Smalley acknowledges are not all that useful to professors looking for the right talk to add to their lectures.

TED—it’s short for“Technology, Entertainment, Design”—started back in the 1980s and has grown into something of a media venture, distributing its talks free online. The main event itself is a glitzy affair, with a hefty price tag. Its new educational effort will have competition. The market is already crowded with education-related video-libraries, including TeacherTube, Big Think, and a section of YouTube.

Visit http://education.ted.com/

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus, March 3, 2011.

Training Industry News - 10 Preditions for 2011

According to Doug Harward, CEO, Training Industry, Inc. the training industry is bracing itself for more changes during 2011.  His top ten predictions for 2011 include:

1) Total spending for training services will increase by an estimated 7 - 9%
2) Training Department Staffing will Grow by only 2%
3) Selective Outsourcing Continues to Grow While Comprehensive Outsourcing is less popular
4) Learning Leaders need to become Solution Architects
5) Learning Technologies are becoming Social, Collaborative and Virtual.
6) Speed will become the new mantra for training.
7) Convergence of educational institutions to the supply chain of corporate training will change supplier landscape.
8) Learning Content will be transformed for easier consumption.
9) Success metrics for learning will be based on content access, views, involvement and downloads.
10) Learning Leaders will be more focused on relevancy of information.

To view the full article, visit http://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/10-predictions-for-2011.aspx

IT Should Drive Business Innovation

This article from CIO is a great explanation of the role that IT should play in business.  Excellent point from author that it's not enough for IT to "align" with business goals, but, IT should DRIVE business change.

Click here to read the article and learn more about how IT should lead to business innovation.

Dr. Robert Burkhardt shared the following with faculty at Athens State.  I thought you might find this interesting - to determine your learning style, that is teaching styles that work best for you. 

"Stephen Abram, noted writer about library issues present and future, had an entry in his blog about learning styles that I found interesting, and perhaps you will too.  In particular, there is a link to the VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire that, in about four minutes, attempts to identify your learning type.  (VARK has been around for awhile and may be familiar to some of you—especially those in the College of Education—but it was unfamiliar to me.)  Here is the text of Stephen’s blog on the topic, and a link to the questionnaire so you can take it yourself:"

http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire

VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire

Digital Nation in 21st Century

Thanks to Dr. Bill Wilkes for this. 

"Last night on Frontline there was a 90 minute program on the digital nation in the 21st. century, focusing on kids and education.  It was a real eye-opener and I strongly recommend you watch it.  It helps to better understand the kids that are rapidly moving through the education system--kids who never knew a world without the internet and digital technology."

Here is the link to the program.

Apple Announces new iPad

Read about Apple's newest product, the iPad.  What uses do you see for this tool?


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358507,00.asp

Personal Branding for College Graduates

Personal branding - what a great concept to differentiate yourself from others in a competitive job market. Read this blog post to get some ideas of how to market yourself.

http://newgradlife.blogspot.com/2009/11/10-online-personal-branding-tips-for_24.html