What is a TED-Ed Lesson

Good morning everybody. My name is Peter Paccone and I am a San Marino High School Social Studies teacher. The title of my presentation today is the TED-Ed Lesson and in this presentation, I'm going to show you how you can produce a mind altering lesson that not only sparks the curiosity of your own students but also the curiosity of learners around the world

So before going any further, let's jump right in and take a look at . . .

. . . a typical TED-Ed Lesson, this one 4:17 minutes long, posted to the internet just two months ago, and entitled Why is the US Constitution so Hard to Amend?

Click here to view the TED-Ed Lesson: Why is the US Constitution so Hard to Amend?

So what is a TED-Ed Lesson?

Well, a search of the internet certainly will reveal that over time the term has been described in a number of different ways, with not one single definition seeming to take hold, but if you were to ask me, I'd define a TED-Ed Lesson as . . .

Something the consists of short, bite-sized snacks of knowledge produced by educators with a lesson worth sharing and animated by some of the most creative minds in the business with topics ranging from quantum physics to overcoming stage fright.

And somewhere along the way, I'd have to throw in that they are not only free but that they are also, as with any good snack, highly addictive. In other words, once you have "watched" one, you will no doubt want to watch 10 more.

But more so than just a video, a TED-Ed Lesson is also an opportunity to . . .

. . . think.

In this regard, notice the red arrow? This red arrow directs you to the section of the TED-Ed Lesson that normally consists of about eight question. Five, multiple choice, three, open-ended, and all eight related to the material covered in the video.

Regarding the video entitled Why is the US Constitution so Hard to Amend?, here's what the Think questions looked like.

Question #1: As described in the Constitution, there are _____ different ways to propose an amendment and _____ different ways to ratify an amendment.

A.  2,2

B.  3,3

C.  4,4

D.  5,5

Question #2: Regardless of the method used, passing a Constitutional amendment requires the _____ government to propose the amendment and the _____ government to ratify the amendment.

A.  State, Federal

B.  Federal, State

C.  Unitary, Federal

D.  Federal, Confederate

Question #3: To propose an amendment requires a _____ majority.

A.  Simple

B.  Two-thirds

C.  Four-fifths

D.  Three-quarters

Question #4: Who said, "The earth should belong to the living"?

A.  George Washington

B.  Alexander Hamilton

C.  Ben Franklin

D.  James Madison

E.  Thomas Jefferson

Question #5: Should the Constitution be easier to amend? If so, how? If not, why not?

Question #6: If you had a choice, who should have the power to amend the US Constitution - just over 50% of the American people, or five out of nine US Supreme Court Justices? Explain.

Question #7: In what ways, if any, would you like to see the Constitution amended?

Every TED-Ed Lesson also contains a Dig Deeper section. 

The Dig Deeper section of the TED-Ed Lesson provides additional resources for the viewer of the video to explore.

And for the Why is the US Constitution so Hard to Amend lesson, the Dig Deeper section contained a link to the following:

• A copy of the Constitution and the amendments.
• A list of the proposed amendments from the time of the signing of the Constitution up to the very present.
• An article written by the PEW Research Center and entitled A Look at Proposed Amendments and How Seldom they go Anywhere.
• A Huffington Post blog entitled The Public and Proposed Constitutional Amendments: We Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."
• A ten question survey that I created and designed to find out whether millennials and the generation that follows will be more inclined than previous generations to amend the Constitution.
• The results of that ten question survey.
• A Forbes article entitled "What is a Millenial Anyway?"
• An Atlantic Monthly article entitled "When it Comes to Politics, Do Millenials Care About Anything?"
• A PEW Research Center survey entitled "How Millenial Are You?

Aside from the Watch section, the Think section, and the Dig Deeper section, every TED-Ed Lesson also consists of something called . . .

. . . the Discuss section of the lesson. This section of the lesson essentially provides the view with an opportunity to not only answer one final question related to the topic presented but also provides the viewer with a question that can be tweeted to others.

In the case of the Why is the US Constitution so Hard to Amend lesson, the question I asked was "Do you think that the millennials and those that follow will me more inclined that previous generations to amend the Constitution?

Ok, so now that you have acquired a pretty good idea of what a TED-Ed Lesson is, let's take a look at another one more lesson. 

This, a 4:34 minute animated video produced by a fellow San Marino High School teacher, the highly acclaimed Chemistry teacher, Ms. Cynthia Chubbuck.

The title of Ms. Chubbuck's lesson - Under the Hood: The Chemistry of Cars.

Click here to view the TED-Ed Lesson Under the Hood: The Chemistry of Cars.

How TED-Ed Lessons Are Made

According to the folks at TED-Ed, "the most meaningful TED-Ed videos are collaborations between the TED-Ed team and at least one of the following: a curious learner, an exceptional educator, or a talented visualization artist."

Therefore, "if you are one of these types of people, or if you know someone who is, please help guide our effort to create a library of lessons worth sharing by either nominating someone or nominating yourself to produce the lesson."

The nomination form requests the following:

• Contact information
• Short biography of the educator
• Subject area (to be addressed by suggested lesson)
• Possible lesson title
• A brief and focused description of the lesson being suggested
• Links to relevant websites

Click here to view the TED-Ed Nomination Form

If you're nominated, you'll receive an email that will not only direct you to prepare for a thirty-minute phone call with one of the TED-Ed team members, but you will also be provided with a link to a video that describes the TED-Ed Lesson production process.

Click here to view the TED-Ed Lesson Production Process video.

The text from the video reads as follows:

Hi there. If you are viewing this video it should mean two things. Number one, that you were nominated as an educator to play a role in creating a TED-Ed Lesson and number two that the TED-Ed team has advanced your nomination and we would love to have a thirty-minute phone call with you to explore a potential collaboration.

This video is designed to help us make the most of that phone call; it asks you to complete three quick but important tasks before we connect.

But before we jump in, I want to let you know how TED-Ed Lessons are made. Here's a quick walkthrough of our production process.

First, the educator pitches one or more lesson ideas on the phone. Pitches include potential video titles, loose story outline, and at least one explicit learning objective.

More on those in a moment.

Next, we brainstorm different angles and frames of the lesson together. This is also done on the phone.

The goal is to find the best way to tell the lesson’s story. If we reach an idea that everyone is excited about we move forward.

One of two things happens next. Either the educator takes a stab at writing a rough draft of the lesson or a TED-Ed screenwriter takes the first pass and sends it to the educator. The option utilized always depends on the nature of the lesson and the availability of the educator.

Next, the script is workshopped by the TED-Ed production team. Feedback is collected, edits are made and approved by all, the piece is fact checked and, when everyone feels good about it, the script is locked and sent to a pool of professional and insanely talented animators.

Animators pick scripts that excite them and before animating anything they create character studies and storyboards and share them with everyone involved.

If everyone likes the treatment the script is then recorded to audio by a professional voice actor and the animator then spends one to two months bringing the audio and storyboard to life.

You might be wondering why we work with professional voice actors. There are two reasons and we encourage you to think of this creative decision similar to the thinking behind your favorite audio book.

The first reason is feedback. A common request from teachers and students who use these videos is for high quality and consistent audio. And number two, respect for the educator's time.

To make the best lesson possible, and to empower the animator to manage an extremely intricate workflow, we make dozens and sometimes hundreds of alternate audio recording across multiple days for one TED-Ed Lesson. The condition for each recording must be identical for the audio to line up. After many experiments, the TED-Ed team has learned that a controlled studio environment is the only to manage the challenge.

The final videos that result from this collaboration are then published on ed.ted.com and the TED-Ed youtube channel.

From there, they are used in classrooms around the world and the average lesson receives over 100,000 views and some even over a million views.

So that’s how TED-Ed lessons are made.

And if you're interested, here are the three simple steps we ask you to complete before the phone call.

Number one. Please brainstorm and use the think section of this page to submit at least three great titles for your lesson. We've learned that viewers love videos that deliver on expectations set by a title and they generally dislike the ones that don't. You're operating title will help you write your script and will help you frame your script for the TED-Ed screenwriters and animators.

Number two. Describe the core learning objective or the line of inquiry your lesson will take. What exactly are you trying to explore in your lesson.

Most TED-Ed lessons are around 3 minutes long. They have a certain amount of focus and leave the learner satisfied, but also excited to learn more about the topic.

Number three: Prepare to collaborate. We have worked on over 350 lessons to date and they have been viewed by learners nearly 50 million times.

Each collaboration involves dozens of people and there isn’t a single instance where the educator, screenwriter, voice actor, and TED-Ed producer, haven't created something more awesome than they could have created alone.

We learn so much from each and every lesson and we can't wait to learn from you. We look forward to connecting soon. Thank you

Side Note:
When I recently asked Cynthia Chubbuck to describe what it was like to produce a TED-Ed Lesson, she described it as a "wonderfully collaborative experience." She then added, "I really felt like a respected colleague, giving input and suggesting changes throughout the entire process."

I too thoroughly enjoyed working with the entire TED-Ed team to produce my lesson on the amendment process. What a great experience!

I can't wait to begin work on the development of a second lesson. Want to take a guess at what this US Government teacher's next lesson might be entitled?

How to Use TED-Ed Lessons in the Classroom

According to the TED-Ed website:

On the TED-Ed website, you can search for TED videos on YouTube through the search bar. Once you find a talk you like, you can use the “Share” feature to add context to the video or define learning objectives for your students. In the “Think” section you can add multiple choice questions or pose open-ended questions for your students to ponder. In the “Dig Deeper” section you can add links to articles, references, and the class blog. Using these tools, you can provide a deeper context for the talk, encourage students to engage rather than just watching passively, and spark deeper discussion both online and in the classroom. You can also browse other teachers’ lesson plans, or share your own and see it featured on the site. You can create custom URLs for your discussion so you can share it exclusively with your students. Best of all, you can use the site to track student progress to see who’s on board and who needs help. It’s all of the best collaborative and engagement tools right next to the best ideas around.

The Most Popular TED-Ed Lessons

The image appearing below, from the ed.ted.com website,  reveals the most popular TED-Ed Lessons

Click here to view this image up close

Side Note:

A little over a year ago (June 2015), an article appeared on the educators.com website. The article was entitled The Ten Most Popular TED-Ed Videos for Students. Some months later, blog.ed.ted.com came out with an article entitled Top 5 TED-Ed Lessons of all Time.

Generally, there's agreement.

1.

How playing an instrument benefits your brain

2

How sugar affects the brain

3.

Questions no one knows the answers to

4.

The unexpected math behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

5.

What are those floaty things in your eye?

6.

How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries

7.

What makes tattoos permanent?

8.

Should we eat bugs?

9.

Just how small is an atom

10.

The loathsome, lethal mosquito

Each of the above-referenced videos has been viewed somewhere between 4,000,000-6,000,000+ times.

Side Note:

Given that this is an election year, I'm including a below a very good lesson that is perfect for the season.

The Electoral College

TED-Ed - More Than Just Videos

Sure, TED-Ed's primary mission is to "spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students from around the world . . .and this means to help all other educators produce a growing library of original animated videos.

But the TED-Ed mission also includes a commitment to:

1. Providing an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lessons
2. Helping curious students around the globe bring TED to their schools and gain presentation literacy skills.
3. Celebrating innovative leadership within TED-Ed’s global network of over 250,000 teachers.

TED-Ed has grown from an idea worth spreading into an award-winning education platform that serves millions of teachers and students around the world every week.

Closing Thoughts

Over the course of the past two years, I've grown to love all things TED.

And I say this not just because TED-Ed was able to capture and amplify my voice and thereby help me to spark the curiosity of learners around the world.

My love for all things TED also has to do with the fact that I want to bring to my students the TED-Ed Lessons of others. There's real quality there.

I also want to (and in fact do) bring to my students various TED-Talks. A couple of my favorites:

• Your Kids Might Live on Mars Some Day: Here's How They Will Survive
• Everyone Around You Has a Story the World Needs to Hear  

And I want to bring to my students an opportunity to deliver a TED-Talk like presentation, hence the steps I took this past year to create a TED-Ed Club on the San Marino High School campus.

To summarize, I think that what TED has to offer not only has helped me to become a better teacher but it has also helped my students to become better prepared for college, career, and civic life.