TED introduces new, interactive site for educators, TED-Ed

Teachers will now be able to create unique lesson pans based on TED content thanks to a new subsection of TED called TED-Ed, a press release announced today.

The Kohl’s funded Ted-ED site is optimized for use in educational settings.  Featured videos are tagged into traditional subject categories and come with supplementary materials such as multiple choice or open answer questions, and links to more information on the topic that aid teachers and students in using and understanding the video lesson.

Additionally, a brand new functionality called “flipping,” which allows educators to edit the supplementary materials and have the resulting lesson rendered on a new, private web page, has been introduced for the site.  The creator of the lesson can then distribute it and track an individual student’s progress as they complete the assignment.  Visitors to the site can also plan lessons from scratch sing any video from YouTube that permits third party embedding, which a vast majority do.  These lessons can be offered for wider distribution and the best of them will be featured on the TED-Ed site for others to use.

“Our goal here is to offer teachers free tools in a way they will find empowering,” said TED Curator Chris Anderson . “This new platform allows them to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson plan around it. Great teaching skills are never displaced by technology. On the contrary, they’re amplified by it.  That’s our purpose here: to give teachers an exciting new way to extend learning beyond classroom hours.”