“Everyone should work on any concept to the point that they are an A+ student.”
Khan Academy has been set forth in the pages of our blog as an example of Open Education Resources. For those of our readers who are not familiar with OER or Khan Academy, here is a podcast that features an interview with Salman Khan. Khan explains the videos and the exercises that he provides through his “organization on a mission.”
Khan has also been to TED and submitted a talk in March of this year. TED provides this talk for download both in audio and video version. If watched from the website, the video version has subtitles in 32 languages.
“If children have interest then education happens.” from Sugata Mitra’s TED talk
After recognizing that there are parts of the world where teachers simply would not go, Mitra began to experiment around the world with child-driven learning. In his TED talk, he showcases some of the learning that he saw in students who were exposed to “Hole in the Wall” technology and SOLEs (Self-Organizing Learning Environments). “Hole in the Wall” technology involves computers built into walls in impoverished areas. Children are allowed to play and learn on these computers with limited adult assistance. SOLEs provide groups of students with a place to go and access broadband internet and the ability to learn together.
TED.com is a source that I turn to time and time again. Their talks range from 10 – 20 minutes on all sorts of topics. From time to time, they have some of the big names in education. Ken Robinson has spoken on Creativity and the structure of Education. Daniel Pink has spoken on his studies of motivation. Arthur Benjamin has discussed math education and avenues for change.
TED has made their talks incredible accessible. The website also provides subtitles while the videos role in 35 languages. Transcripts are available on the website as well. They provide downloads of video and audio versions of their talks through iTunes and from their website. Explore the Ted.com page for Mitra’s video to get a sense of the incredible resource that TED is offering (http://goo.gl/hPvF).
