Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Join the Tribe & Enjoy a TED Talk



The other day, I caught myself sending an email to the faculty of the Hood School. The subject line read "Growth Mindset TED Talk."
The email provided the link to an 11-minute video of a gentleman named Eduardo BriceƱo speaking about one of my favorite topics, the growth mindset. In my personal and professional life, I frequently reference TED Talks. Each of the emails that I send or discussions that I have about this site and it’s content is a way of issuing a membership card into the club of "TED talk people.” I love being a member of this club. The videos give me a glimpse into an interesting topic or provide me with a new intellectual discovery. But just as important, each one I see or recommend makes me part of a group of millions of folks around the world who have checked out these videos. What links us is our desire to learn; TEDsters feel part of a curious, engaged, enlightened, and tech-savvy tribe.

What is a TED Talk?
By now most everyone has heard of the TED Talks. TED is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “spread ideas.” TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design and started in 1984 as a conference where innovations in the three areas above were presented. With the advent of the Internet and new ownership, TED has taken off. A roster of speakers that runs from Bill Clinton to J.J. Abrams, from Desmond Tutu to Isabel Allende have presented. Their topics range from biophysics to graphic design, covering all that Roman playwright Terentius might have had in mind when he said, "Nothing human is alien to me."

TED is a great place to learn, in fact if you were starting a top university today, it might look similar to the TED format. TED has gathered the very best minds from around the world, from every discipline and shared their work. Since we're living in an age of abundant, not scarce, information, they have curated the lectures of the best minds carefully and covered a vast array of topics.

One individual with whom my stakeholders are very well acquainted with and whom I have written about previously is Sir Kenneth Robinson. Sir Ken has delivered several insightful talks. As a start, I suggust you check out his TED Talks. He has a very dry wit and insightful comments that help us  understand that we can always do better and we always need to do better for our kids and our collective future.

Since its launch, ted.com has added over 1,100 talks. the most popular TED-conference talks, plus TED-approved talks from other conferences and events. Collectively, the TED Talks have been viewed more than 500 million times. If you want to learn more on a vast array of topics please visit www.ted.com. Also, “There’s an app for that.”

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