5 TED Talks Describing Future of Online Education

TED is a non-profit organization that began in 1984 for the purpose of combining technology, education and design in ways to provide free educational opportunities to people pursuant to the catchphrase “ideas worth spreading.” As online education developed and advanced, TED created “TED talks.” Speakers, some well-known but others just remarkable in their fields, record talks of less than 20 minutes. A live audience is in attendance. They are educational or motivational and designed specifically for TED online education.

TED online education talks have subtitles in different languages. Transcripts of the talks are provided for those who want them and they can be downloaded and printed. All TED talks and transcripts are free online.

Here are five TED talks describing the future of online education:

1. “What we’re learning from online education”

Stanford professor, Daphne Koller, PhD, is a co-founder with Andrew Ng of Coursera.org, which offers free TED online education courses from top universities to the public. It is an educational opportunity for all students, especially lifelong learners.

Koller and Ng are also using their online education videos to study the way people learn. Student responses to quizzes and participation in online discussion groups are all studied in order to understand how people process knowledge.

2. “Let’s use video to reinvent education”

Salman Khan has created the “Khan Academy,” which is a series of teaching videos students can watch online. Khan believes students should view the subject matter online at home and then do their homework in class when the teacher is present to help. He started with developing online curricula for math and now offers many other subjects. He believes TED online education is the way of the future.

3. “Schools kill creativity”

Sir Ken Robinson presents the most watched-ever TED online education video. It was produced in 2006. Sir Robinson believes that traditional schools stifle creativity and that new ways of learning need to be explored. He says that, unfortunately, our schools train students to be good workers instead of creative thinkers.

Robinson has been the speaker for several TED talks. He continues to encourage online education as superior over traditional “factory-like” education, which he claims is outdated.

4. “Education innovation in the slums”

Charles Leadbeater‘s talk can be viewed in 28 languages. Leadbeater visited the slums in several countries that included Brazil and East Africa where kids commonly drop out of traditional school by the age of 14, if not younger.

To encourage learning, computers are being placed in community centers and TED online education implemented. The technology is fascinating and the students can find topics that interest them. In this talk, Leadbeater shares his experiences and observations of the success of online education in these countries.

5. “A powerful idea about ideas”

Alan Kay’s view is that computers and online learning are better methods of teaching math and science more than traditional methods, and are actually more effective. Kay has worked with computers since the 1960s when he first worked for Xerox. He has used his skills learned from working with Disney, HP and Apple to develop educational online methods to reach even reluctant learners. In this talk, he reiterates and emphasizes his belief that computers and online learning techniques can teach children and adults how to think.