After spending more than 8 weeks in the TED universe, I’d like for every student to write ‘a letter’ to TED — or to the organization’s leader Chris Anderson directly — sharing any insights you have about the following:
- What impact you think TED videos can/do have on the world.
- How you think TED could help schools, teachers, and students better use the TED videos, speakers, and related resources.
- Explain what — if any — impact spending this much time watching, thinking about, and analyzing TED videos had on you as a person.
- What types of speakers/topics you’d like to see on the ‘big stage’ at TED’s annual conference(s).
- Anything else you’d like to say to Chris and his team.
Length: 15+ sentences, not including ‘small talk’ and/or greetings/good-bye’s. The 15+ sentences should be detailed and specific.
Write your ‘letter’ in the comment box and hit ‘publish’.
The TEDxClassroomProject 
Dear Chris and TED team,
Thank you for holding this organization together. TED can do some amazing things, including inspire students. I feel like one of the main things TED does is that it gets people interested in topics they otherwise wouldn’t care about. Students that aren’t sure what path they want to take in life can be influenced by TED and end up doing great things. Personally TED’s affect on me is that its made me passionate about topics that I could care less about a few weeks ago.
I feel like TED needs to get into schools. This is something students can easily get interested in and should be exposed to as much as possible. I don’t really have any ideas outside of the project we have just done but you have a brilliant group of people behind you and I’m sure you can find a way.
As far as speakers go you’re doing a great job. I find talks more interesting when the speakers aren’t professional at speaking, just an expert on their topic. Having speakers that speak professionally is interesting to an extent. That type of speaker can start to sound just like every other speaker out there. If the person doesn’t speak professionally then they have to put more of themselves into the talk.
Lastly I’d like to talk about your website setup. It looks good on the home page but I feel like you could make it a little easier to find specific topics. I felt like I had to work to find talks that I would want to spend about a week enthralled in and ultimately I didn’t find the eight that I needed. So just a small amount of re-organizing on the site would be amazing other than that I feel like all of you at TED are doing a phenomenal job and I’ll definitely be back for more.
Sincerely,
Cooper T.
Dear Chris and TED:
TED videos have had an impact on me as a student and a person. The video I think that has changed me the most is the danger of a single story video. Ever since I watched the video, I think of people from different cultures and different places around the world differently. I think the video like this one would be a good video to show in school because it is inspirational and I think its a lesson that the student will hold with them forever.
I think TED i a good place to learn about new technology and interesting ideas. I didn’t know what TED was until we did the tedxproject in my English class. If we didn’t do this project i probably wouldn’t have heard about it until I was older. But however I think there are to many liberal videos on the TED website. I think it would be a good idea to bring some Conservatives to the “big stage”. I also think what made videos fun to watch are the people that are passionate about what they do and look like they know that they are talking about.
Also I like watching the shorter videos, I find that the longer the video I tend to stop paying attention after about 15 minutes, maybe that’s only because I’m 16. Plus I think the videos that are in that time frame are loaded with information and the ones that are longer are kind of repeating things. I have a tendency to repeat things since I am a teenager so hearing other people do it really catches my attention.
TED was a great thing to experience. I learned how to speak in front of a crowd and write responses to people. When I spoke in front of people, I was really nervous but I feel that I did great. I found something that inspired me and really took it to the top. I think other schools should start doing their own TED talks because it is a good resource to learning how to speak out loud in front of people.
Sincerely,
Sarah
Dear TED:
I had a variety of different videos that I had to watch, some were interesting, some I did not like at all. Impacts that TED has on the world: well, I personally think some of the videos are interesting, out of the blue, or just random subjects. Some videos were better then others. I liked ones that were more funny than always serious.
This was a fun project because it was not just work; you could learn other peoples opinions as well. Using TED in the classroom does help people learn how to speak in front of crowds.
On the project we did, we all had to do our own “TED talk”. I personally thought it was scary and I was not very comfortable doing it. If you love speaking or want to learn how to speak in front of many people doing a classroom talk really does help.
TED did not have much impact on me, I find the site extremely liberally based, which I definitely did not like. Most of the videos are just telling you what to do, the website needs videos of other things such as whats actually happening to our country. I did not like that the website only has liberals like Michelle Obama, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton. If you want more people to open up to the videos and actually watch them, have some conservative views as well. I feel like the website is just on one side. I watched other videos that my classmates wrote about and there were a few that were more one on side then the other, have both opinions. I would like to see TED range out and get different views, also have some more talks about life issues, such as things that happen to people, also maybe some “how to” videos would be really nice to watch.
Something very interesting about this project was when a women who actually did her talk replied to my comment. Once I read it, I did not find it as fascinating. She was somewhat rude and she said things that she had no idea about. I did not reply back to her because I probably would not have been to nice.
All the speakers seemed good and outgoing but some need more of a boost of happiness, or louder voices. I really enjoyed learning about TED in the classroom, I would have never known about it if we would not have done so much work with it. I learned how to give responses doing this and how to watch something then write about it. I thought it was a fun project.
Sincerely,
Paryse
Dear Chris and TED,
TED is a great tool for anyone who wants to open their mind. The only issue is that people don’t always know about TED, this project has allowed us to discover this tool, and share it with other people who can appreciate it. TED helps spread ideas and awareness, something we need more of today. The talks inspire people on a level many things can’t. Once people are inspired they can inspire others and eventually something can be achieved. I like that TED spreads stories from around the world and isn’t selectively American or English-speaking peoples. With some of the issues we face today, it is increasingly important for people to be able to share stories from everywhere and anywhere. We need to be more aware of each other and other’s struggles and achievements. TED is a good way to spread knowledge from other countries.
I believe students, teachers, and schools could better use TED if the speakers were more of the ‘unheard of’ people. Too many students and teachers heads get turned by an important person’s name, or popular topic. Sometimes it is the less well known people and less popular topics that have the most impact and give the most inspiration, the only problem is, people don’t know these talks exist and thus the ideas can never be spread. Or they are spread around a small group and even if inspired they are too small a group to have any impact when they try to achieve something inspired by the talk.
I loved the talks involving culture, because that’s something I have always focused on. I think it would be nice of there were more of these talks. In my biased point of view, I think the most important thing for people to do is be aware of each other’s cultures and accept each other’s differences. We can hardly be expected to be tolerant of those different than us if we never know what their culture is or expose ourselves to it. Too many opinions are formed about other people without actually having knowledge of these people or their beliefs.
Thank you for the opportunity to have this project take place and making these resources available to students and schools. We all need to broaden our minds and we cannot do this unless we share the information we hold within us.
Sincerely,
Meighan A
Dear Chris and the TED team,
The TED project was like nothing I’ve ever done before. The videos I watched were for the most part inspiring, and I’m forever impressed by the stage presence that the speakers bring every time they take the stage. It’s that presentation, I think, that made it easier for me to do my own talk for my class. Before, public speaking was something I would panic over and refuse to do if there was any way around it. But this time, after seeing the talks online, I felt a tad more confident in myself. I think after seeing all these people sharing their stories and ideas to a crowd of complete strangers, I felt that I could give a 5-minute talk to my classmates without freaking out.
As far as affecting the rest of the world goes, I think that if more people knew about TED, the world would change for the better. Having all of these great minds getting together and sharing their thoughts with the world will make knowledge much more wide-spread. Let’s say that there was a speaker on TED who talked about the need for better fuel, and someone in Africa heard the speakers rough ideas about how we can fix it, and managed to expand on them and make what was a vague dream, into a reality. The possibilities are endless. The spreading of all these different ideas can trigger a chain reaction in the way people think, the way people see the world, and the way people pursue their goals. I truly wish that TED would become better known by the average person, so these concepts can spread.
One thing I would like to see more of is talks about sports. Being a very serious athlete myself, I would love to hear other peoples opinions on how a sport can affect your life. That, and the emotional side of mental disorders. There are huge worlds out there that TED has only scratches the surface of, that I would be very interested to see grow.
Thank you so much for keeping TED going and making it available to us “normal folks”. I will definitely be looking forward to new talks.
Sincerely,
Alex F.
Dear TED,
I would like to officially show my appreciation for the mission and the faculty of TED. The mission that all of you are striving for is awe inspiring and I would love to see TED grow into schools around the world. The information and sheer amount of revolutionary ideas is amazing and on a general basis, I would like to congratulate you on performing your mission in such a professional and efficient manner. TED has become the future of education and the future of the web. As long as you continue to keep doing what you’re doing, TED will continue to prosper and grow for decades to come.
TED will start to make its way around the world, presenting ideas to people who can revolutionize the world in unheard of ways. I appreciate all of the work that you do and hope that TED becomes a larger part of the curriculum at schools around the world. TED opens our eyes to issues all over the world, giving insight into the global community not just the local community that we seem to focus most of our attention towards. I hope TED becomes more globally approachable to the average person. The only complaint I have is the elitist focus of TED. However, through the new TEDx events, you are making strides to appeal to a larger community. In that regard, I think that you are on the right track.
For a specific talk that affected me as an individual, I would reference the ocean talk of David Gallo’s Life in the Deep Oceans. It has inspired me to think about the ocean in total. It makes sure that I do not forget about the entirety of the oceans and the creatures that live there. His talk gave me insight into a world that is too often forgotten. The ocean is the majority of our planet after all. It is time that we start conserving it. Life started there and we do not want life to end because of its demise. The ocean provides life to the world. Gallo did a fantastic job peaking the audience’s interest with facts and creatures that live in the deep oceans, while still providing a larger goal: To save the ocean and to make sure that it continues to live for thousands of years to come. We need to have more speakers like David so that TED will continue to inspire people across the globe.
On the subject of the annual TED conference, I would like to see more people with issues on the current events of the world. TED seems to focus on ‘cool’ ideas that may or may not affect people due to circumstances in their life. For example, Temple Grandin provides insight into an autistic mind. She inspires people around the world to not look at their medical condition as a detrimental circumstance, but rather as an asset. She inspired me to persevere through seemingly impossible tasks and to do it with a smile. There needs to be more inspirational talks that affect a general audience, and not only topics that will appeal to a limited audience. TED has the chance to change the world, but it can only do so if it reaches the largest population possible.
For my final thoughts, I would first like to congratulate you on the accomplishments that TED has been able to achieve. Changing the lives of others is an amazing mission with good intentions. I hope you start appealing to a more general audience and continue expanding all over the world because if you can affect more people, the more popular TED will become. I would like to challenge you to provide more current issues plaguing the world, not speakers with just ‘cool’ ideas. The ideas need to be informative, inspiring, and most of all accessible. Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
Derek M.
Dear Chris and TED team,
If I told you that this organization didn’t have an impact on me, I would be lying. If someone told me that this website isn’t what its all hyped up to be, I wouldn’t believe them. TED is a site of innovative ideas, of intellectual discussion and growth. There aren’t many places where just anybody can go and have an educated conversation with people you don’t know. Not only does this organization help great ideas spread but it brings people together so they can make a difference.
As a student I really think this could help stimulate intellectual conversations among young kids in and out of the classroom. Our generation is greatly influenced by the internet, if its on the internet we believe it, if its on the internet we want to explore it. Before this, I would go scavenge YouTube for some fun, interesting videos. Now, I go on TED to listen to people talk about things I care about, things I’m passionate about. TED is the beginning of a youth that is much more interested in how they can change the world, rather than the latest fads.
Personally, TED has helped me realize that I can have an intellectual conversation with adults. It has made me believe that even though I’m only fifteen, I can make a difference. Now, I feel that anyone can inspire other people, all they have to have is enthusiasm and a direction.
The most inspiring TED talks, for me, are the ones that are enthusiastic. It’s easy to relate with someone that seems like they want to be talking to you, it’s easy to understand where a person is coming from when you can put yourself in their shoes. Personally, I’m interested in things like religion and health, and I would love to see more discussions about those topics.
TED has gotten average people involved in above average things, and in that way this organization is slowly changing how ideas spread. But, if you would allow more, average, people to be involved with the real life TED conferences, I think this organization could have a greater impact in society.
Thanks,
Jenna
Dear Chris,
Thinking about what kind of impact TED could have on the world is rather remarkable. I don’t know how it will affect other people, but with the way it has affected me personally goes to show the possibilities for what could happen. The videos that I watched brought me closer to the thing I love most. I thought that I had a deep connection with music before this, but now it’s a different kind of appreciation. Now, I recognize every little thing that music has done for me, and my taste has changed dramatically over the coarse of this project. If one video can open the eyes of someone who is musically stubborn, then what else can it do? What I find so remarkable about TED is that there are videos for everyone. Whether you’re into music, science, math, or comic books, there’s going to be something that you find interest in. Whether or not you agree with the video doesn’t really matter, because it opens your eyes to new ideas.
I believe that if TED was introduced to more schools, that students might take a little more interest. The younger they start absorbing these ideas, the better. In some ways, I think that watching more videos like this would be more effective than sitting in a math class and taking notes. What I love most about these videos is that a lot of them don’t come out and say ‘this is this,’ they plant an idea into your brain, and let you interpret it however you want. If children start coming up with things on their own, they’ll not only take more interest in it, but they’ll likely remember it throughout their lives, rather than until the day after the test.
Watching these videos gave me the bravery to tell a story to a classroom full of people, and soon the internet, that I had only shared with one or two other people. Not only did I finally let it out, but I started to write about it. The most remarkable part, though, was that I, a girl who lives for procrastination and doing just good enough to get a passing grade, ended up doing a little extra. Not only did I watch my talks, but for some of them, I looked up the speakers and learned more about them, because I wanted to. School has never really been my “thing,” in all honesty, the only classes I find useful at all are English and Choir, because I want to be a singer/songwriter. Even in those classes, though, I tend to lack interest from time to time.
I’m already impressed with most of the speakers on TED, because, whether I knew who they were or not, they had something to say that was worth listening to. I didn’t know who most of the speakers were at first, but in a way, that made it easier, because they seemed more human to me. Though, I would like to see more talks with people like Nathaniel Ayers, rather than someone talking about him. I love all of the ideas on TED, but there are things other than ideas to be talked about. I kind of want to see more talks about life in general, and how to get through it. Not necessarily like a “life for dummies” kind of thing, just real people talking about real events in their lives, and how no matter how hard it gets, you can still end up on top.
Sincerely,
AbbieLeone.
Dear TED and Chris Anderson,
I would first like to start of saying that TED can be very inspiring to young minds like my peers and I. Hearing talks and inspiration from well-regarded people that speak at TED can allow you to trust what they say and allow us and other people to ‘grow’ from their knowledge. The topics that the speakers talk about not only pertain to us, but, at times, the entire nation and maybe even the entire globe. TED can be the one website that spreads knowledge and resources around the world to help make people understand the conflicts and topics around them. Through the spread of knowledge, people can become better informed citizens and learn more because of the intellect of the speakers that are invited to TED. All that needs to happen is that more and more people follow TED and its affiliated TEDx events.
I do think that TED already is a good resource for schools and the entire ‘faculty’ that attend schools. If anything about TED could streamlined for schools, I would have to say the people at TED need to have better representation or advertisement. Before this assignment was given to us, I had no former knowledge of the TED site or the talks that it provided. I think that in order for schools to find information and talks that pertain to them, the TED site needs to be regularly available. Just as YouTube comes up as the first hit on a Google search for a certain topic on video, TED should be high on that list as well. If TED is more readily available, then more and more people will be able to use the resources that the TED can provide to us.
All these talks that we were forced to write a summary about seemed to lose their ‘requirement’ feeling, and became more of an enlightening and enjoyable process. It was fun to go home and watch interesting videos for class and actually get a grade for the summaries of the videos. Many of the videos that I watched left a ‘mark’ on my high school career and my soon-to-be professional life. I chose many talks that dealt with the topic of architecture because I was interested in that topic, and that interest only grew because of these videos. Those talks were very inspiring to me, and actually Mr. Long gave me a book written by Daniel Libeskind, who was one of the people that I wrote a summary for his talk. The words of the architects that were in my videos are still ‘stirring’ in my head as I type this response to you and TED. The topics and ideas that they talked about will not be easily forgotten, if at all they ever will be.
I believe that there are enough architectural speakers that have already spoken at TED, but I would like to see more speakers that will give talks of other ideas. The type of topic that I most readily want to see is more talks from athletes that perform on the world level. To my knowledge, there are not many speakers that fit that criterion. Now, it may just be that they are too busy, they do not have any topics, or you and TED simply do not want them, but I believe that would be an interesting addition to the TED site. I am not saying that the athletes only talk about sports, but about topics that have motivated them or ‘things’ that have arisen due to their popularity and fame. Talks about sports would simply be mundane and banal, because most people can ‘flip’ on ESPN and listen to SportsCenter and athletes’ accomplishments that day. So, I would like to hear more about how they overcame some situation and achieved athletic fame and popularity.
I really thank you for what you have done to this site and TED itself. I found myself enjoying almost every video that I saw, and like I said, the project became more of an enjoyment than actually work. So I would like to say that whatever your vision is, I would greatly like to see it come to fruition. I think that what you have done with the site is incredible, and I hope it can only get better. You have gained another follower and I cannot wait to see what you and your team has in-store for TED’s future.
Dear Chris and TED team,
I have truly enjoyed my experience with the TED website. The sheer amount and variety of information from the vast variety of speakers was amazing. I loved a few, hated some, and others just made me go, huh…interesting. There were speakers I knew, speakers I never would have thought of and I could tell each of them were speaking on something they truly believed in.
I found that I was truly sucked into the longer talks. They left me thinking while the short ones just left me smiling. Those were sweet funny or touching without much long term impact, at least for me.
I was honestly surprised by the variety of talks that drew me in. I looked at everything from economics to cooking to culture and the humanities and every one managed to appeal to me and touch off something I personally, could relate with or at least understand.
I think in a way that is the beauty of TED I could go in and select a talk on the progress of medical research and in half an hour I could be watching an artist tell me about sugar scultptures. I think that TED really fits the way people think in todays world of instantanious information.
It feeds into our desire to know more about anything at all, and that is a difficult thing to provide in clear consise chunks like each and every TED speaker, I viewed, manages.
I think one of the real advantages TED has over say wikipedia for quick easy to access information at your fingertips, would be the emotional impact these videos leave you with. I have yet to find a wiki page that made me laugh or left me crying, and I think that is a quality that will draw people to the TED videos.
However I think this quality is something indefinable in the speakers themselves not so much as the information they are presenting and that compilation of people who LOVE what they do, and love sharing with others what they do makes TED as engaging and interesting as it is.
Sincerely,
Gabriella B.
Dear TED
I believe your site is one of the best resources a teacher can give to his/her students. I must admit I hated learning when I was little; I still did at the beginning of this year. I would always take the easy way out (the one that required the least amount of learning). I thought school was a waste of my life. Then Mr. Long showed us TED and all that changed. I could finally learn about what I wanted to learn about. That’s what I think is so great about your site is the wide range in talks. There’s no way anyone can’t find a video they are interested in. You have talks about absolutely everything. I have been exposed to hundreds of new ideas I didn’t contemplate before. I’m beginning to think about much bigger topics than I used to. I’m now actually interested in learning. The only talk I wish TED had is one about gaming engines and how they work. I think your site will change the world by inspiring students to become world leaders through creativity. It already changed my look on life from hoping to survive to the weekend to hoping maybe someday I’ll be the one on the stage.
Dear Chris,
I never really had an interest in TED until my English teacher brought this project up. I mean I have heard of it but I never spent time to watch videos unless asked to. Once we got started doing this project of analyzing our eight assigned videos I began to realize what some of these talks could do for the world. I began to watch videos I wasn’t even assigned to because I was curious and I wanted to be inspired. By watching these videos, people could help save the oceans or just learn how to be a healthier person. Almost all of the talks I watched inspired me in someway, whether it be I did more research on that topic or actually took action into someone’s idea. If every single person in the world watched TED videos, I think our world could be a better place.
I think schools, teachers, and students would better use TED if it was more known. As I said, I did not really know about it until two months ago. Maybe if TED had more school related events, it would become more known to the educational world. I think TED would do great things when involved in schools and with the student body. I think children and students have such a bigger imagination that adults and teachers. With bigger imaginations, so much more can be accomplished. If TED was involved in every school, I believe many kids would take action on some of the videos they watch and maybe our world will start changing, instead of just throwing a great idea out there and not doing anything about it.
I loved the TED talks about beauty and the ones focusing on cultures. Even though I asked to have many talks about the brain, I realized that was not what interested me. Learning about what other cultures define beauty, inspires me. All the time I spent watching the videos assigned to me made me realize, I really don’t have as big of an interest in the brain as I thought I did. Once I watched those videos I didn’t stop watching all TED videos and boycott the organization. Instead, my friend showed me this one video on beauty and it really interested me. I began watching more and more videos over beauty and different cultures. Although I was not inspired by the first couple of videos I watched, I learned what I was really interested in and began watching those videos.
I would love to see more kids on the TED stage. Of course, many people think kids aren’t capable of giving such a talk in front of so many people but many young kids could care less how big their audience is. Because kids have such a large imagination, I think they could inspire so many people. I would also like to see talks that were shorter. The shorter talks seemed to interest and inspire me more than the thirty minute talks. I also would really like a question or a big idea to be said at the end of every talk. The talks I have watched that posed a question at the end seemed to inspire me so much more. In our classroom, we did our own TED talks and almost every single person’s I watched asked a question at the end and it caused me to think about their topic a lot more than I would have if they did not ask a question.
I would like to thank you for buying this organization and allowing to be seen on the internet. Not all of us can afford to go see an actual TED talk and making all the talks available to the rest of the world shows that you really care about the speakers’ ideas and how they inspire people. I believe that soon, TED will be involved in almost every school and things really will start changing. Thank you for everything.
Sincerely,
Angela
Dear Chris Anderson and the rest of the TED team,
I have really enjoyed the opportunity to watch and analyze many of the talks on the TED website. I believe these videos can all have a profound effect on the world. The innovative ideas and inspirational stories that were put on display through these talks can easily fill a whole room with excitement, anticipation, and/or newfound compassion. These talks can and will inspire people across the globe to pursue their dreams, find hope in humanity, and explore new technologies.
TED has done a great job with making information on the topics and speakers easily accessible to schools, teachers, and students. There really isn’t too much more that TED can do. It is just up to the teachers and school systems to adopt TED into the curriculum. That is probably the biggest hurdle of getting TED more involved in today’s schools. Many teachers struggle to find a way to connect TED to their mandatory curriculum. There is not a teacher on the planet that would not find at least one video that was interesting to them. They just don’t know how to connect their material and TED effectively.
The videos and ideas I’ve seen on TED have greatly impacted how I look at the world. Honestly, I was highly skeptical of the project’s relevance to my life and the material I was learning at school. But as time wore on and once the project began, my opinion changed. Many of the videos I was assigned were centered around two major themes: never giving up no matter what adversity you are faced with and pursuing your dreams no matter what stands in your way. These talks and topics gave me a new found optimism on life. By the third week of the project, I was hooked and my outlook and life began to become much more optimistic.
As far as I can tell, TED has a great balance of speakers from doctors who talk about almost every major global issue to a regular person who acquired notoriety thanks to hard work and perseverance. The only type of speaker I would enjoy seeing more of would be athletes. I understand that many are not the best public speakers and many have egos that would not fit on the TED stage, but there are still many out there who have highly interesting and inspirational stories that could apply to a greater audience. Take Josh Hamilton for example. His story of fame and fortune at such a young age, falling into drug addiction, and eventual recovery to baseball stardom would apply to much more than a baseball fan or young ball player.
Thank you for letting our class analyze these videos. My eyes have been opened up to a variety of topic that I had previously ignored. These talks have inspired me to never give up, to pursue my dreams, and to help those less fortunate than me. I have really appreciated this opportunity.
Thanks,
Deron M.
Dear Ted,
It feels like we’ve known each other for forever, even though I know it has only been a few weeks. My how the time as flown. As you know, I will be leaving very soon, and I don’t believe we will see each other for a long time. As such I thought it appropriate to write you this letter, to help remember the time we have spent together, and to give you a few last minute pieces of advice.
I first heard of you from my teacher, Mr. Long, approximately eight months ago from today. At the time, you seemed like an interesting idea, but I hadn’t given you much thought besides that. After all most people don’t really think about things in depth until actually confronting them… the next time I heard of you it was with rapid excitement from a friend, who, completely mesmerized, told me in depth of a series of talks that could revolutionize my way of thinking. Having forgotten about Mr. Long’s first introduction, I decided to visit your website with the hope of at least getting my friend off my back. It was there I watched your first video. I was mesmerized. My first video was about human understanding, and the way people learn. I watched with rapt attention, as he completely defined all the thoughts I had on school, and its system. I felt as if the speaker said what I would say, If only I could organize all my thoughts enough to convey them. From then on I was hooked. I came back to the site nearly every weekend, just sitting and enjoying the pure waves of knowledge and ideas emanating from the computer.
Then, about 8 weeks ago, I learned of Mr. Long’s plan to do the TedXproject. At first I was excited! This was amazing; finally a chance to analyze what I had already been thinking about in the first place. However, I soon learned the depth and difficulties faced when trying to convey your point in a neat orderly manner for everyone to understand. The difficulties in the project, and the time line for it’s completion made me soon slip up on my analyses. Stuff was left out, thoughts were incomplete, and overall the quality decreased. However, throughout this I still adored you. I loved what you were doing. Your very concept was amazing. Everything you did was a hodgepodge of intelligence, quality, and charisma. You are a revolutionary, who has the ability to inspire and create.
So what advice do I give to someone in this position? Simply this: “Keep up the good work.”
I know you are going to do amazing things, and inspire people to do the same. Now, as the TedXproject comes to a close, and our “acquaintanceship” is close to its end, I wanted to tell you exactly how much I respect you. Very few things in this world are created unbiased, and even fewer of those things gain popularity. You have the potential to do wonders. Keep it up.
I hope to see you again soon,
Ryan Stoll
Dear Chris Anderson and TED,
A couple months ago I knew absolutely nothing about TED. It is interesting to think that I would not be the person that I am now if it had not been for the TED videos. Most of the videos I watched had a big impact on my life. The others were interesting and enjoyable. Through this TED project I have found that I have a love for Biology and that even things that are out of the ordinary can touch someone’s life. I wish that more people knew about TED. I know that if more people around the world could be introduced to TED they could be inspired to change the world as well. I believe that everyone has a voice to share.TED videos are a way for people find what they are passionate about and what they can do to make an impact on the world.
This TED project has given my class the opportunity to discover what we are passionate about. I think that watching videos can be beneficial to anyone, but even more so for students. Students, like me, are only now discovering all of the different issues in the world and what we can do to help.We have a chance to take what we have learned and apply it to our lives now so that we can better the future. I watched a video by Randy Psauch called Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. This video inspired me far beyond the other videos I watched. I did not think it was possible that one person’s story could have such an impact on me. If more schools worked with TED than more students like me could have the opportunity to be inspired.
The speakers that you have come speak have done great jobs. All of the speakers have different styles and different ideas to spread, but every speaker is just as passionate about their ideas. The passion that comes from these speakers is the drive that we all need to pursue our dreams. At first I did not know how I would be able to sit and listen to someone else talk for too long without getting extremely bored. However, listening to what others had to really opened my mind. For someone to get up in front of so many people and share their personal views of the world left me in awe.
More people need to be exposed TED. I have seen the impact that it has had on my class as we did our own TED talks. Watching the videos inspired us to spread our own beliefs to our fellow classmates. If your organization can have that much impact on a sophomore class than I can only imagine what kind of impact it would have on people all over the world. I have learned from this whole experience that no one can speak for everyone in the world, but they can speak to them.
Sincerely,
Erin M.
Dear TED,
Your organization has brought ideas, creations, and people of all countries together in a way where humans could not fifty years ago. Even though many are not able to voice their ideas on the official TED stage every year, you give everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions and creations in the branches of TED like TEDx Youth Day. From robots, to smart boards, to information about our oceans TED reveals astonishments of what Mother Nature and humans are capable of doing. By being apart of the TEDx project, I was exposed to many different views and designs from all over the world. The amount of collaboration used in this organization allows us to integrate and learn about cultures we might not be aware of.
I believe that TED could link schools everywhere, like how TED links people and cultures of the world. The teachers will be able to aid their students on how to convey their ideas to a much wider audience than they would be writing to in the average classroom. Also students can choose the topics that interest them, which allow the students to be more passionate/interested in what they are writing about. The TED format can be relevant in any subject. In our Chemistry class, we were able to research topics of Nuclear and Biochemistry that interested us and my classmates were able to comment and ask questions on the topics. I believe these types of projects are going to be the new techniques in teaching.
By spending so much time watching, thinking and analyzing the TED videos made me realize the many diverse ideas we have in the world. Instead of being selfish and thinking that America was the only country that could have relevant ideas, I learned so much about the cultures of others and the intelligence of people all around the world. There is a TEDx event at SMU this fall and I am really interested in helping out as well as watching all of the creations and ideas presented.
I know that TED does not like having actors on the TED stage for various reasons, although to learn how they made it in this hard profession or to interview the directors and writers would shine light into many people’s eyes about how difficult show business is as well as how creatively straining it can be at points. Although my interest is biased because I am an actor and my passion is acting. Although I do love seeing the many different technological advances people are creating like robots, smart boards etc.
Thank you so much for allowing us to analyze and create are own talks. It’s been a wonderful experience getting to know many of the TED speakers on the computer screen as well as in our “LUNCH-N-LEARN” talks. My sister, who is in 7th grade, has gotten hooked to TED and has been showing all of her friends. They love seeing how topics they love are being discussed around the world. Maybe one day I will be on the TEDx stage showing the world my passion and creations.
Sincerely,
Emma L.
Dear Chris and TED team,
TED videos opened up my eyes to many problems in the world I was unaware of as well as many solutions to issues I was aware of. I think the website is a great way of getting people to sit down and seriously think about worldly issues and what role they play to help solve issues. Not everyone can spend money to go the actual TED conference to hear about people’s great ideas that will solve things that may not always have a global impact, but an impact on someone. The website was a great way of broadening the ideas. This way, you do not have to have thousands of dollars to learn about what’s going on in the world, you only need the internet. I personally had never heard of TED, but when I brought up the name to my parents my step-dad had already heard of your organization. I think that slowly, but surely, Ted will become more and more popular and could possible receive its own television show. This would be another great way of reaching the public while at the same time bringing people together through different passions.
The TED organization is a possible way of bringing together schools and teachers. I think schools could come together, whether it is physically or through Skype, and have their own mini discussions over specific TED videos. Each video has a different problem as well as solution. Students could come together to first off research the problem and then later discuss what they believe to be the best solution. The point of TED talks are to inspire people and get them thinking. Not all of their remedies are necessarily the only solution. Their results may not fit everyone. Teachers and students could come together to discuss what they believe to be the best remedy whether it be just for them or an act everyone could do. They could then blog their ideas or post videos on YouTube. We are supplied with endless sources of technology that allows us to get our ideas out there for people to hear our voices. It is time we use those resources for some good and do what we can to help our big blue planet, or in this case green planet.
Watching and analyzing these videos has taught me many things. First off, there are people out there genuinely concerned about our world and its problems. It is so easy to get caught up in our busy lives and schedules it becomes even easier to forget about the big issues. TED is a good reminder that our world is not perfect, it is in fact far from it, and that there are many problems to be solved. It has also made me appreciate the things and life I have more. After hearing endless stories of people who like William Kamkwamba don’t have things such as electricity, it makes you realize how much we truly take for granted.
I along with many of my classmates agree that TED does have a very diverse amount of speakers. The only thing missing is children. I saw very few videos of talks from kids. I know we may seem too immature for this type of thing or as many adults like to put it, we’re naive due to our little amount of life experience. I disagree. As our TED talks prove we have experienced more than most people think and we have many ideas and passions that people should hear of to discuss and such. I think children give a great insight onto things going on that adults cannot. Children’s outlook and priorities on life differentiate greatly from those of adults, so why not let their voices be heard.
Last but definitely not least, I would like to thank you for this great opportunity you have given me. This project helped me with two things, my fear of public speaking as well as being able to talk out a rough life experience that many can relate to but is extremely hard to talk about. If Mr. Long would have never assigned us this project I may have gone through life and never talked about my problem. By doing this project I let out my story which proved to be a bigger deal to me than I had expected. I want to thank you more than I can truly express. This was an experience I will never forget, and an interesting way to end my year as a sophomore student.
Thank you more than you will ever know,
Brittany
Dear Chris Anderson and the TED team,
During the project we did with TED for the last eight weeks I found and watched some very interesting talks. TED is a great way of sharing ideas. If more people watched TED videos and listened to and carried out what TED speakers said, I think the world would be better place. TED displays so many great ideas form the world and how it can be fixed. Having watched these videos, I think some of these ideas should be implemented.
There are many great things to be learned from TED. Out of the 640 talks, different speakers talk about a whole range of different topics. As well as informative talks where things can be learned, a lot of the talks relate to current events. This can also inform kids what’s going on in the world while they also learn.
Watching interesting TED talks has got me thinking about certain topics and I can relate a lot of them to my own life. As a person, I feel that I have found many things I would like to apply to my life. Some of the talks talk about making the impossible possible and how to start a movement. I would definitely like to know how to do these things and apply them to my life.
As far as speakers go, I like to see speakers that are enthusiastic about their topic. Even if they aren’t great speakers, when someone is genuinely enthusiastic about their topic, it usually shows. I also preferred the shorter talks. Some speakers either lost my attention after fifteen minutes, ot just had too much information.
Lastly, I would like to say that I am highly greatful to be introduced to the TED world. Watching TED videos also showed me how to go about doing my own TED talk. I will definitely be keeping up with the TED website to see what new things there are to learn.
Sincerely,
Aditya M.
Dear TED,
In my opinion I think Ted is a great site to go to. I think the TED website have a great impact on the world because of its structure. The TED website allows people to look at different videos from a different category at anytime. It also allows people to learn things they didn’t know.
I think TED videos would be a big help to schools because of may different topics to choose from. TED would help, because when a science class is learning about robots they can watch a video that have a subject on robots and learn so much from it. There are a lot of video topics that are topics that we learn in school. I think kids would learn from most of these TED videos. I think taking the time to watch the TED video was helpful to me, because I learn things I didn’t know before.
I think analyzing about the videos helped me understand the topic more. I think the writing helped me get the thoughts and comments on a very strong path. I would like to see all types of speakers and topics on the “big stage” at TED. I think more speaker should share different topics at TED.
I think TED should be more than technology, entertainment and design. I think Ted should be more in everyday subjects in life. Last of all I think Ted is a very good educational site. I think Ted would be used in schools, so kids can learn more.
Sincerely,
Brittany C.
Dear TED team and Chris Anderson,
I think that the idea of creating TED was amazing. You take some of the greatest thinkers, the most creative thinkers, and most incredible artists and put them in a room together to share their experiences and grace us with their knowledge.
In a way TED is like the news except its not day to day. Some of the talks talk about developing technologies such as robots are going to Mars. These developing technologies are relatively unknown to the average person, so this is a way for them to be informed. The stories are also inspiring. Some talks help show people that anything is possible, like William Kamkwamba and how he harnessed the wind. People can take that and say if he could do it, than so could I. I also think that TED talks do a good job of explaining things. An example would be Jane McGonigal’s talk about Gaming Can Make a Better World. She explains why some people play video games. I loved that talk because it was exactly how I felt. I can get away from the world when I play xbox.
I think that you guys need a better PR agent. I think that if you maybe got some commercials on TV about TED then more people will learn about the website and be willing to watch the videos. Honestly I had never heard of TED until Mr. Long introduced the class to it. Also if more people learn about TED from commercials then maybe teachers will learn about it and use it in their classrooms. Maybe, if your budget allows, you can stream some talks live on TV. I’m not really sure how students would be able to use TED talks in class besides analyzing them like we did, so I’ll leave that up to you. It would be nice to see that TED became interactive in classrooms, maybe offering a TED elective class in schools. The class could be like a public speaking class, getting grades from performing talks. The class could hold a TED event within the school every month or so.
I loved how all the talks I watched made me think. Especially Benjamin Zander’s Music and Passion. He made me think, why is classical music is dying? Eric Topol gave me new insight on how technology is developing in the medical world and made me question why is medicine researching more preemptive measures and not preventive. I liked how all the videos made me think or I was able to watch a video and have fun with it.
To tell you the truth i was very confused by all the different talks and topics. Some videos are very fun and entertaining and others are very informative. Personally I liked all the fun and entertaining ones, but maybe that is because I am just a ‘child’. I found the jaw dropping category very interesting. I think most people would like to be impressed and have their jaw drop open.
Last thing I would like to say is TED is incredible, maybe with a few flaws.
Sincerely,
Alex
Dear Chris Anderson and TED community,
First, I would like to thank all of you. Inspiration is not something that comes along every day and you have inspired so many people, including me. The impact TED has on the world is incredible. The improvement of the human race and of our planet depends solely on the constant presence of new and innovative ideas and the willingness to act on these ideas. Our world needs change and TED is providing a way to make it happen. The ideas shared at TED events are the best of our time and by giving these brilliant minds a way to spread their influence you are guaranteeing change. By making these talks accessible to the masses through the use of the Internet more people will rise up and take action. TED has been and will always be a way of inspiring others to take the next step in acting on these new thoughts.
In order to make TED more classroom-friendly I think that in the side bar of certain talks it should give information about the topic of the video. I found it difficult at times to understand some of the more complex topics and, although I did search the web for more information about them, it was extremely confusing at times. The high levels of thinking in the TED community cannot always be matched by high school students in an English classroom who don’t have years of experience and knowledge in the specific fields shown in TED.
As a class we have spent 8 weeks on the TED website and, even though some of us may have resented the amount of work this project would entail initially, I think we will all tell you that TED has changed us in some way, no matter how large or small that impact is. I don’t think I will ever forget the ideas and concepts that I saw and heard about through TED. I have already applied some of these to my life. I have taken the advice of Graham Hill and am now a “weekday-veg”. I have even made my entire family do the same. TED has increased my drive to do something great in life. I want to be remarkable like the people on TED. I want to inspire others and I want to influence their actions in order to better the world around us. I want people to talk about what I say the way that we talk about the ideas of TED speakers.
TED encompasses a wide variety of speakers, from famous authors like JK Rowling to unknown people who happen to do something amazing and get recognized for it like William Kamkwamba. I really like to see the TED speakers that are younger. Seeing people who have accomplished so much at such a young age makes me feel like I should be doing more to help and get involved in something that interests me. I also really enjoy talks that don’t have a lot of distractions. I prefer when it is just the speaker on stage with a few slides or pictures behind them so that I can get a visual but I am not distracted by the “shiny objects”. We already have a short enough attention span. The other request I have is that you leave me wondering. I don’t want all of my questions answered. If they are then I will do nothing with the information once the video is over.
I have honestly enjoyed the past few weeks of exploring the TED world. I will always continue to be a fan of TED. These truly are ideas worth spreading.
Sincerely,
Rachel L.
Dear Chris and TED,
I really appreciate the opportunity to analyze the talks on the TED website.
What the TED company is doing can have a huge affect on the World. The inspiring and emotional talks have the ability to change the world. TED has the capability of reaching out to people and to make them see things in different ways. Because of these talks, more people become informed and care about what is going on.
I feel that TED could have a huge impact on schools today. Maybe not doing a full project like we did. But watching these videos that pertain to what they are learning, can be extremely helpful. The TED talks can also teach students about passion. If you watch a TED video, it is obvious that the speakers are extremely passionate about what they are discussing.
This is what I really enjoy about the TED talks.
Watching someone who is also passionate about the same thing that you are is inspiring. It gives students hope that they could be up there one day. Hope is what gives us drive everyday. I think these talks encourage us to work harder to reach our goals.
People are so different, which is what makes TED so successful. Someone may not always be interested in what you are talking about. But it is easier to become interested when you can tell that the speaker enjoys what they are talking about. That is what TED has taught me.
While the talks are very diverse, I was unable to find talks that I could relate to. I am interested in media and film. I could not find many videos that related to this subject.
Also I found the TED website to be a bit confusing. It was a struggle to find videos of topics that you are interested in. The tags of the videos seemed to be a bit random.
I think TED is going to continue to be very successful and inspire people. Lives can change because of TED. You should be very proud of all that you have accomplished.
Sincerely,
Morgan P.
Dear Chris and TED,
First off I would like to thank y’all for giving my classmates and I this wonderful experience, and letting us see how people from all over the world interpret different ideas. I think this helped us not only in the classroom but in the real world. Now that we have watched videos in a big variety of topics, I think each one of us individually have learned something that we will take with us for the rest of your lives. In particular, I wrote a blog over Chimamanda Adichie’s talk, “The danger of a single story.” The basis is pretty much saying don’t judge a book by its cover. I realized that most of the world including me does only have one interpretation of most things. Since this video, I have gained more realistic views on all things I happen to come across. The impact that y’all have put on people is incredible, and I think more people need to find out about this organization for people who want to learn more or people who want to share their ideas.
I think TED will eventually have the potential to use their videos throughout schools to help broaden important topics, or use certain videos to help teach a class. Now not all these videos could teach a class, but they could give a teacher input on ideas to expand on when teaching a certain subject.
When first receiving this project my first thought was, “How does this pertain to my English class?” I quickly learned how much these videos changed my perspectives on different ideas or topics. Since it was a first come first serve basis on which videos I received, I was a little disappointed in some of them. Some of the topics I got didn’t give me any interest and even after watching them a couple times to grasp something to write about I still didn’t like them. But, there were a couple videos I was really inspired by. One for example was a talk given by Jamie Heywood- big idea my brother inspired. Watching this video was amazing to see this one man take it to the max to help other people in his situation to give them a longer life than expected.
Overall, I’m very thankful for getting this opportunity and to turn it into something bigger than just a class project. I’ve really enjoyed getting to have some of the TED speakers take time out of their busy schedule to interact with my class. I think if the future I’ll continue to visit the TED website and keep up to date with all the new videos being published.
Sincerely,
Melissa Harris
Dear TED and Chris,
As far as inspiration goes, you have got that in the bag. It would be very difficult to find someone in this world who was not inspired by at least one of your videos. From what I have gathered, the very purpose of TED is to inspire thought. After all, the slogan goes “Ideas worth spreading.” By inspiring thought, TED opens up the door for new actions.
The impact of new thought and new actions means a world of innovation has been opened up. But I wonder, is the world widespread enough to have a significant impact on technology, society, etc.? If TED could gain more publicity technology, society, etc. can only benefit from it.
I think the education world can especially benefit from TED. As a student, so many biased ideas are being thrown my way whether from parents, teachers, the media, or my peers. By stepping into a world where I can explore what matters to me, and form my own conclusions rather than be told what I should conclude, I have a better chance of escaping the influence of those around me and becoming my own person.
The talks that were most important and interesting to me were those regarding the health crisis. With speakers like Mark Bittman and Jamie Oliver, these talks provide realistic ways to prevent future generations from having shorter lives than present ones.
As far as the future of TED, I think having a segment on the news or something of the like would be an effective tool for gaining public attention as well as for solving problems of society whether it be the health crisis, the internet, etc.
While a segment on the news would be a good goal, I also believe that TED knows what it is doing. With over 600 talks and speakers ranging from Steve Jobs to David Blaine, TED is good at what it does and may just need to keep on doing it.
Thank you for allowing new thought to blossom, new actions to occur, and new innovations to be created as a result. Your impact is vast, and with more public attention I am confident that TED could change the world.
Sincerely,
Kristen
Dear TED and Chris,
Mr. Anderson, how did you come by TED? How did you discover the program? The idea of TED is incredibly innovative and it actually presents innovative ideas, ironically. TED is an amazing opportunity not only to spread ideas but also to give a stage for the development of ideas. I believe that the ideas people have in regards to certain fields are always remarkable; however, these ideas are often inscrutable. With the TED stage present, these people are forced to put these often genius ideas into laymen’s terms.
The TED stage not only allows for the spread of ideas, but also the understanding of ideas.
Spreading something is only useful if the something is useable and/or understood. Too often something great is lost because it is misunderstood or not understood at all. TED allows for the spread of something that can be understood by the most powerful political force of them all, an intelligent mass public. Obviously TED’s impact on schools, teachers, and students has been enumerated by my peers and I can put it in no better terms. The main concern for me is that TED is still relatively unknown. I believe that once it achieves in intellectual circles what YouTube has achieved in the masses, it will be incredibly powerful.
Personally, I was affected rather unusually. It seemed to me at a certain point that the focus of the TED talks was not necessarily the topic of the talk. To specific people in certain fields the talks could be instrumental in their development. But at a certain point some talks begin to take on a similarity. It seems as though when the topic does not matter the talks begin to fall into a semblance of uniformity.
The reason I bring this up is because when I see a talk that stands out or changes the status quo, it draws my attention like a hungry kid to an ice cream sundae. And then, I begin to watch the video again and again until I can understand all the subtleties about each and every minute of the talk. The truly remarkable ones are where it isn’t the words or the presentation that conveys the message. Rather it is the body language and movements of the speakers that convey the message.
When I first heard of the idea of TED I was hoping that the type of speakers brought to the stage would be varied, diversified and different. And lo and behold, it was perfect. The variety of speakers was incredible, it allowed for any person of any background to find something or someone to relate to and connect with.
Ultimately, I believe TED’s magic lies in its ability to connect to its audience, whoever it might be.
Dear Chris and TED,
I think it’s truly remarkable, the things that TED has accomplished. So many intriguing and inspiring people have spoken on that stage, quite simply talking about what is near and dear to them. At least as I see it, countless people’s lives have been changed by hearing even one or two of these talks. I’d say it has a huge impact on the world that is at least aware of what is going on here. People from all over the world speak there at TED. It is like some sort of link that connects us all, giving us all a voice and an ear.
For me as a person, somewhere around 95% of these talks have spoken to me very personally. The creativity talks were what spoke to me the most, giving me new methods of thinking and seeing things. Others simply spoke of situations that we should be aware of, which opened my eyes to a new world of which I had not even known of before. TED is an incredible source for exposure to the world.
Speaking of that, I would like to see more speakers talk on the topic of creativity. There surely has been several already, however in my opinion there can never bee too many. Creativity is an ever-changing subject.
I believe TED, at least now more than ever, is making an impact on the schools as well. For the talks that aren’t as inspiring, there are the educational ones. Aside from that, I believe the TEDx Talks that we gave ourselves should be a great opportunity for other schools as well. It is great practice, and perhaps schools could organize TEDx events for the students to talk at (if they choose to). Similar to a talent show, but less competitive.
As a final thought, I think it’s great what you have done. You’ve connected people from all around the world, and to top it off it is a non-profit. The talks aside, that alone is inspiring. Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Connor M.
I think many TED talks are very inspiring. They could inspire people to go to great things. Many of the subjects of the talks are simply amazing. The speakers have alot of great ideas to improve the world. I think TED is a great thing to reflect on and analyze in class. Unfortunately, it is relatively unknown in schools. TED could be what really starts a revolution in schools. Schools could become more modern and take advantage of the technology that is available to them. It really helps to work on something relatively current in class, not some old book you don’t care about. I think it would be great to have some official TED forum or something for each video specifically for students. It would allow students to discuss the talks together, and not just in a classroom setting. TED has made me think more about issues, and how to solve them. I really think about things now, much more than before. I think TED would benefit from a wider variety of talks. Although there are many different talks now, many are still in the same category. I think there should be more talks that are not science related.
Dear Chris and Ted,
At first when hearing about the TED project we were going to do I wasn’t real sure about it. I thought all the presentations would be good but they wouldn’t relate to me. One day when we were in class, I typed in Basketball on the TED website, what I got was the best basketball coach ever to coach the game, John Wooden. This is when I realized how amazing TED is. You have so many varieties of videos that fit for all types of people.
I think TED should be used in the classroom to an extent. The way our class used it I think was perfect. Every other day would be like a regular classroom. I think schools still need that everyday type of classroom. Also though, its good to have something like TED that really helps people go in-depth with what the speaker is talking about. TED opens up a whole new level of thought and how we look at the world.
Watching the video on John Wooden really inspired me, and I actually used one of his quotes in my presentation that we did in class. Also another video that inspired me was the video on David Blaine. Both of these men have the mentality of doing things to the best of their ability and to never quit. When David Blaine held his breath for 17 minutes he never quit and pushed through the pain and proved to everyone that the impossible was possible. Nobody thought it was possible to win all the National Championships that John Wooden won, and the reason he did it was because of hard work and the mantality of doing everything you can to reach your goal, which is true success.
I would honestly like to see more people like John Wooden and David Blaine on the big stage. Now I know my word probably doesn’t matter but I think people would rather listen people like that talk, then listen to some speaker that thinks they know how they can help the economy, which there is most likely going to be a flaw in the idea anyway. So I think there needs to be more inspirational speakers on the big stage.
All in all I think TED is a really good organization. The reason I think that is because it gives the people that have great ideas to be able to let the world know. I hope that TED will keep growing and keep getting known world wide.
Sincerely,
Daniel
Dear TED and Chris,
The TED Conferences are truly unique and remarkable in that they offer a place people from across the globe can unite and discuss ideas that might eventually “change the world.” Actually, I would like to see some more discussion, instead of one-person talks. It would be helpful and creative if there were also “TED Groups” where multiple individuals can sit in a round-table style setting and converse to one another about their ideas. This would be a better offstage setup, but could still be recorded for the TED website. I enjoy watching many of the TED talks, and am glad they are all available online, but what isn’t nowadays… So many incredible, life-changing ideas are talked about at the Conference, but the people watching look around and see no such change in their day-to-day lives. The TED Wish project is a great concept, but I think TED should (if they can, I honestly do not know how things work there) endorse more and more projects that the speakers discuss. More steps have to be taken to utilize the ideas shared at TED. But otherwise, you are all doing a great job sharing the Talks, and many of them truly are outstanding.
In the future, when schools become more creative and modernized, I can see TED becoming a great teaching tool. Eventually classes will be held in Internet-cafes, and still be helpful to educating the students. When that day comes, TED could be the teacher. There are enough videos and topics on the TED site so that a class could watch one video a day for years. These reflections we have been writing were very be in beneficial to my writing and critical-thinking skills. TED could become a class, a news-source, and a place students go for guidance. Teachers could one day have a “TED of the Day lesson” where an hour is spent discussing and video and seeing how it pertains to them. This could also help boost students communicating skills. Although I did not attend all the TED Skype chats I wanted to, I see that as becoming a crucial part of education. Teachers could themselves become obsolete. TED speakers could simple Skype and talk to students for their daily lessons.
The hours I spent watching TED videos has definitely been the most educating thing I have done on the Internet. Watching Rives is even more entertaining and amusing than “Cute Panda Sneezes” or “Laughing Baby.” The videos themselves didn’t actually change me as a person, but rather how I think and see certain situations. I can easily say I’m more open to new ideas now than I was before we began this project.
You guys shouldn’t try to regulate the types of speakers that come to TED. It is more “real” if there is a balance of all generes of speakers. Although there are a few that are uninteresting to me, all the people at TED are there for a reason… because they have an idea that will affect lives, even though they seem unimportant. Keep up the great work!
Pax Vobiscum.
Alex D.
Dear Chris and the TED team,
I can honestly say that your TEDtalks and the overall TED experience has been quite eye-opening. First off, the videos that I have seen in class and on my own time have definitely made me realize other things in life that I have, until now, been oblivious to. I have learned of some of the newest technology to inspiring stories about saving some animal life. The videos have had an impact on how I view the world, and I have told me entire family about this and they feel the same way. The videos, I think, can have all positive effects on something. Obviously, there will be subjects that people don’t agree with, but I think, overall, the people that have been chosen by you are perfect for what they do. They’re actual experts, and know what they’re talking about, and it makes me want to be one of those people.
For schools, I think that TED can be used as an excellent aid. Whether it be on the topic of the video, or just public speaking itself, it can help students and teachers learn. It can also expose students and teachers to new ideas and studies that are breakthroughs. I also think that these videos want students to learn more about various topics, that they otherwise would have no previous knowledge about.
As a person, these videos have actually opened up some ideals that I have obtained from being exposed to these videos. Because of how interested I was in many of the videos, I would actually do some research on them and learn more, and go deeper, into the subject. Some of these subjects interested me so much, that I’m seriously considering a career in it.
In my opinion, I think that there should be a bit more of the speakers that are younger. I mean, there are a plentiful amount, but talking about some of the topics that everyday high school, or college kids can relate to. Other than that, the choice of speakers that you have chosen for TED are quite wonderful and they embody the spirit of their talk fabulously.
Lastly, I would like to say thank you for allowing me to share my story with my fellow classmates. I would never have been able to muster up the courage to tell people what I have been hiding from everyone. After seeing many TED talks of people sharing their stories of heartache, I realized that if they have the courage to speak in front of hundreds of people, then I can speak in front of 20. Thank you so much for creating TED, and allowing me to become more aware of the world outside of my own.
Sincerely,
Beth
Dear Chris and Ted,
I have found many interesting ideas navigating my way through the various Ted talks. What I found most compelling were the vast amounts of speakers who provided a nice contrast ranging from eloquent speakers, to speakers that take a step back and allow their works to speak for themselves.
I loved the concept that Ted creates, in providing these speakers a tool through which they can expose others to their passion and viewpoint. I feel Ted is very effective in reaching out to a wide audience by setting up topics that can evoke humor, grief, curiosity, and a broad range of other emotions that each individual can relate to.
I particularly love the talks that bring a mystic antiquity by interweaving the past with the present, as well as the cutting edge developments that are redefining our modern times. I feel as if I am looking through a window at the countless opportunities that are taking place right in front of me. Personally I loved the videos that were more inspirational, they just seemed more relatable seeing as how everyone has experienced failure at one point or another. It was quite surprising to hear about even the most successful people taking a fall, then picking themselves up again. I also enjoyed the subtitle feature as well as the transcripts that were available; t definitely made the overall talk more comprehensive and allowed the audience to easily review an interesting talk once over. The subtitles which were offered in different languages provided a nice touch, that just shows how Ted is developing globally.
Some of the other talks that were quite interesting to me were the ones that brought a cultural touch. I feel it is important to be able to connect internationally, in order to gain exposure to different perspectives all around the world. Ted has provided such a wide expanse of knowledge ranging from the most specific of expertise to big general topics that are more conceptual. What I believed was most important was the passion and attitudes from most of the Ted speakers, one could really believe that they cared for the topic of their speeches, which in turn allows the audience to care as well. It seems Ted has really provided a platform for passion as well as dreams, allowing a meaningful exchange of human experience.
Sincerely,
Vivian H.
Dear TED,
This whole project has surely been an experience. On the whole, TED proves to be a very enlightened organization. I highly respect the mission of informing the masses and believe the organization has succeeded on the whole in claiming (and deserving) a very prestigious reputation. On a global scale, for those who can access this information, TED provides an online institution for the sharing and multiplication of ideas and generally interesting, relevant information. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that TED is one of the many organizations helping to expand our knowledge and open our eyes. I hope that TED can continue to do what is has been doing, and stride forward in hopes of a brighter future.
I had never previously heard of TED before Mr. Long imposed our acquaintance, but I am genuinely happy it became part of my school life. I wish in some way TED could be used more often as a reference point in school, both by teachers and students. Part of the problem here is that simply not enough people know about TED (or at least on my level that’s how it seems). I think it would definitely be a viable resource if more people knew about it.
As a person, the integration of TED into class has opened my eyes. The general idea of TED really struck me in a kind of grand, global knowledge kind of way. The videos I analyzed were of course extremely interesting to me, and inspiring as well. But what really made the difference for me was what TED was (and is) striving to accomplish via these videos. I feel the knowledge that is being sent forth into the world has not only impacted me, but will impact many people in some way or another. In an “I heard I through the grapevine” kind of way, I hope TED’s message of exploration and questioning can impact and inspire even those who have no access to the TED site itself.
In terms of recommendations for speakers, I don’t really have many, but I’d definitely love to hear more regarding oceanography. Part of the thing that I like about TED is the variety of talks available, and although I’d like to heard more about certain things, I think some of the greater discoveries arrive where you don’t expect them. I guess what I mean is that I feel there’s an advantage to serendipity, so just keep up the variety and good work.
Thank you,
Rachel M.
Dear TED,
I really admire the concept of TED because it allows people and especially students to be informed of the new ideas already popular. As well as discussing already popular ideas, TED seems to discover quirky, inspiring, and remarkable people. I believe that the TED community may lead to a successful, informed younger generation. Being from the technology generation with new developments and innovations each day, I can say with no doubt that adding TED to the mix will do nothing but aid in enlightening students in important topics. If teachers encouraged students to watch just a few talks each week, or even watch the videos themselves and discussed them in class, I think it would improve students awareness.
TED shows public speaking at its best, worst, and everything in between. The speakers seemed to have a great range of speaking ability. For example, if someone was on TED to show an instrument, they go on excited to show it but may not be trained in public speaking. They would be trained professionally or skilled in their art, and may not be used to an audience like the ones at TED. We did our own TED talks and it was a great opportunity to practice our public speaking and I especially enjoyed explaining a topic that means so much to me: Chan meditation. I really enjoyed this assignment as well as learning from the speakers on TED.
One video that really stood out to me was William Kumkwamba on building a windmill, shown to us in class by Mr. Long. It influenced me to be more hopeful to succeed in my aspirations that I thought were unachievable before. If one boy in the depths of Africa can achieve such a great success with just an old textbook and an obvious great mind, I can, I must put forth more effort to achieve my success using my opportunities for education.
As for people I’d like to see on TED, one comes to mind more than any other: Nick Vujicic. Mr. Long showed us a video called ‘I love living life. I am happy’, it is about a man with no limbs. He embraces life and happiness more than any other human being I have ever seen. Just watching his video changed my outlook on life and anytime I’m feeling bad, I just think of how happy he is without even having limbs. I believe that he is a true hero, to meet him would be an even more life changing experience especially since his video is already remarkable.
I plan on continuing to watch TED as new topics arise in our industries. I hope that one day TED will become more widespread in teaching and schools.
Thank You,
Katherine H.
BTW: check out another similar person who lives here in the US that ESPN just did a story on. Pretty amazing: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3535608
Dear Chris and TED team,
First of all, I’d just like to say thank you for putting together such an inspirational and influential organization as TED. There are truly incredible opportunities for this organization and I believe that in the years to come the world will be able to see the remarkable impact TED has and will undoubtedly continue to have. TED provides a way to unite with the rest of the world; speakers from all over the world share their knowledge, insight, culture, history, and character to anyone willing to listen, and those that do listen are never disappointed. No matter what the talk is about, it is all but guaranteed to have an impact on someone somewhere, and inspire them to go on and do great things with their lives, as the speakers have done with theirs.
For all of these reasons, I strongly believe that TED videos should be an integral part of the curriculum in many schools. By simply watching a few of these videos I have already been inspired and come to the realization that I can do much greater things with my life than I ever thought possible, which I think is something that kids and adults everywhere should be aware of. The speakers at TED prove that anything is possible, so long as you’re passionate about it and willing to work for it, which is a great message for everyone.
In order to help TED reach its full potential, however, I believe that it needs to get its name out there a little more. When we were first assigned this project, I had never heard of TED and had absolutely no idea what it was about, which I know was the same for many of my classmates and my family as well. I think that if more people knew about TED and what the organization is striving for, its influence would spread much further and more rapidly, and more people would be given the opportunity to learn about other people around the world, important topics of the present, and hopes for the future. The more people know about it, the more likely it is that TED will become a greater part of not only students’ academic curricula, but their perspectives and livelihoods as well.
Although I found myself drawn into every TED video I watched, I would have to say that my favorite topic for TED talks throughout this project has been psychology. Be it Philip Zimbardo discussing how people are evil or Tony Robbins explaining his take on why we do what we do, any talk involving brain science was always extremely fascinating to me. I would love to see more talks on how our brain works and why we are the way we are.
Finally, I would just like to say thank you for creating such an incredible organization that provides such great opportunities and promise for the world. While each video inspired me in different ways, be it to change the world or simply think about something I’d never taken the time to think about before, they all truly were inspirational to me, as I’m sure they are to anyone who sees them. I sincerely hope that TED continues to strive for great things and grow in ideas and influence. I look forward to seeing what incredible speakers and ideas you will present to the world next!
Sincerely,
Kathy B.
Dear, Chris Anderson
The TED videos and talks are very interesting, they express a multitude of ideas on a small stage. These videos to me are similar to that of the printing press with a slightly smaller impact. The printing press revolutionized the spreading of ideas, with the ability of mass producing books, paving the way for the lay man to read and understand the published ideas of the time. TED is a stage where all kinds of ideas and ways of thinking are displayed, these ideas aren’t just for the viewing of the intellectual, but is on display for all, due to the help of the Internet. Along with being accessible, a TED talk is not just simply a question or a brief topic.
A TED topic is usually one that makes one curious, interested, and aware. I personally like the TED layout, but it could be kind of helpful for students,teachers, etc…, if there was a top 40 thing kind of like for music there’s the best songs in America with Ryan Seacrest. There could be a best of TED, not necessarily a radio show or having to do with America,but instead of videos just being rated jaw-dropping, interesting, or being put on the front page for a limited time, there can be a best of TED, with the opinions of TED commenters, speakers, and staff weighed into the ranking.
TED kind of opened me to new ways of thinking and developments in the field of space exploration, military robots, and a world without oil. One in particular video was of a couple playing folk music, before i didn’t have much appreciation for the arts, but this video and the sweet music produced changed my perception of the violin and folk music.
Although TED has violinists and brilliant intellectuals on stage, I would like to see TED put more athletes on the stage. Not necessarily because they are fast or strong, but talking how they got to where they are. For example In The Blind Side, Michael Oher came from sleeping on the streets to being a millionaire and a great lineman that is currently in the NFL. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to get to the NFL, these ideas are embodied in most of the athletes in the league, and this could inspire people, similar to the way the movie, The Blind Side did. Finally, I would like to say even though I’m not even remotely qualified to, TED is going in the right direction, and you are doing well by exposing it to children and teens, so keep on doing what your doing and keep spreading the ideas and ways of thinking available at TED, to the rest of the world.
Sincerely Adam K
Dear Chris and the TED team,
I would like to start by saying that I have truly been inspired by not only the TED videos but the idea behind TED. I think it’s a great way for not only students but for everyone to learn about what is going on in the world. I have gained a new appreciation for my community and have learned that I can’t hide from the bad things in life, instead I must face them. Even though there were some videos that I did not agree with, there is not one video that has not inspired me in some way.
I believe that TED helps schools, students, and teachers learn about what is happening in the world and learn about new technologies that are being invented everyday. I like TED because I think it helps people learn about crises not only in the world but in their own country that might not be shown on the news, but are just as important.
After spending eight weeks criticizing, analyzing, and watching TED videos, I have realized how aware I am of what is happening around me. For example after watching many videos on school lunches, I have started to eat healthier and workout more. I have learned not to judge people and in order to accomplish things, I must face my fears of the world and help those in need instead of saying to myself that someone else will help them. I believe that if TED can have this much impact on me, then there in know telling how much it has and will have on others.
My favorite TED talks and speakers were those who were passionate about their talk. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, but if someone is dedicated to their talk and knows what they are talking about than that is all that matters. Although I think the best talks are those that can be serious yet have some humor at the same time.
I would just like to say that I have learned a lot from TED, whether that be being able to speak in front of my class or just learning about life in general. I think TED is an amazing organization and will continue to inspire those for many years. I really appreciate the hard work and dedication by the TED team to pull off such great events and for all the great speakers. I have truly enjoyed the past eight weeks, thank you again.
Sincerely,
Shannon L.
Dear Chris Anderson and TED,
After spending eight weeks searching the videos I can only say that I have come to appreciate the opportunity of being exposed to so many ideas. The TED talks provided a new path to explore topics that I had not thought about. I picked a cross section of the videos ranging in topics from art to medicine. All of them led to further exploration and I had a difficult time narrowing down which ones I would actually use for my reflections.
As a student, I feel that TED opened up the classroom for discussion. If more schools participated in projects like ours they would benefit from having access to such a vast fountain of knowledge. I had never heard of TED prior to this project and think that perhaps it could be better marketed to attract attention from the educational community. TED can be a great tool in providing information across a broad area of subjects. I may not replace the normal web sites for in-depth research but I feel that it can point students to other areas sharing the same interests.
TED has made me more passionate about life in general. I have always been interested in doing work within my own community by volunteering at local food pantries and shelter. Watching the TED talks from people around the world outlining the extreme living conditions has made me realize that there is so much more we as humans can do to help others. I gained a greater respect and appreciation for what the various TED speakers who actually work with people to try and give them a better life. It reinforces my desire to be able to make a difference in someone’s life no matter how small it may seem.
I think that TED provides a great array of speakers who are very passionate about their topics and I hope that trend continues. I do not think it matters whether you agree with their message just listening has allowed me to hear about different issues. I simply feel that one has to respect their opinions. I would, however, suggest that TED include younger speakers like Adora Svitak. I did not include her in my chosen discussions but I was amazed by her poise in speaking in such a public venue at her age. She gives hope to the possibility of future TED speakers from my generation. Overall, TED does an incredible job in having something for everyone and that should not change.
When we first started this exercise all I could think about was the amount of work involved. Somewhere in the process I began to get excited and realized that I had the opportunity to hear people from all cultures and educational levels expressing ideas promoting further discussion. I heard from rock stars talking about human rights’ violation to doctors discussing the best way to stop the spread of diseases. I can truly say that my TED experience has been one the best in my educational life to date. TED I will be keeping my eye on you. Keep up the good, no wait, the great work.
Sincerely,
Katie
Dear Chris and TED,
If TED was a universe, I would like to live in it. The scene would be just the same as our own, with trees and woolly mammoth bones under thousands of layers of rock and oil spills, but the strive to know Truth would be the only immortality sought after. There would be no materialism, no physical life and death, but rather the eternal conquest of knowledge, and human bodies and minds serving as the carriers and crusaders of such knowledge. In our world, we are told things since the earliest age, taught things in school so we can go out and have a good job and have a big house and a full belly, but there are only so many people who want to keep learning until they die. The citizens of the TED universe are interested in one thing: the Truth, the absolute knowledge, the last thing there is to know. It is this selfish hunger that binds humans of this realm together to seek out this Truth, always learning more and creating more things to learn more. In this eternal circle humans can be hungry and happy, because they are not slaving away in this journey, they will forever be unsatisfied. This is the drive to go further and further into knowledge, along the way always doing what they love.
After you watch one TED video, this is the universe you are now a resident of.
In this time and place, you watch one video to just know something, and while you watch the speaker is in the world researching something, taking and idea that you are know learning about and going farther with it. Then you are hungry to know more. As a resident of this universe, you habitually encircle yourself with questions, and challenge yourself to take the next steps that maybe nobody has taken yet, starting your journey as an intellectual. The foreigners to this land are instantly inspired, and as time passes eventually everybody has the drive to know more. In this realm, the TED website is only the capital city, and the rest of the world is where the crusade takes place.
If everybody in the world watched one TED video relating to a personal interest, this could very easily be made the reality that encompasses us.
In terms of accessibility to students and teachers, we as a class seemed to get along just fine. Just having access to the website can lead to endless insight for students to explore. The only suggestion I can offer is that TED keep expanding and gathering speculation in the general public so as to encourage people to chase the game afoot.
I am proud to proclaim myself as a citizen of the TED universe. There has now been a mandate embedded into my soul: to know the unknown, to endeavour eternally. On a trivial level, I find myself constantly referring to TED talks in common conversation. Going deeper, we realize that we are altered on a fundamental level. Our curiosities are pinpricked, and like a crack in a dam, little by little the pieces holding us from flowing/thinking freely and limitlessly are removed from the wall, until we are entirely free to wonder and explore and be natural humans. This is the erosion occurring inside of me as a human right now, and I am completely changed.
The only person I would want to see is Ravi Shankar, just because he has influenced the world in an unbelievable way, which many people today take for granted. Other than that, I just want to see more.
I would just like to thank TED for returning us back to our human instincts. On some level, we are simply composed of curiosity. At this point in out human history, curiosity is slowly being smothered to death. We are raised in systems that tell us what we want to know and what we need to know. Sure, there are places where you can find an interest, but one will never read something in a chemistry book like “Oh entropy is so fascinating! That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life!” It is not until one see things like “Jonathan Harris: the Web’s secret stories” one realizes that they want to unite people across the planet through a common mean, like stories and emotions. TED opens up the root of the human in its bare-naked environment. We are simply inspired now, and maybe we can unite together, despite our differences, and start the knowledge revolution.
Rock On,
Darcy S.
Dear Chris and Ted,
Throughout doing this project in the past 8 weeks I have been able to view many topics in ways that I have not paid much attention to. Students around the world need to see further than just textbooks and power points. This project allows us to go outside of playing “student” and enter the real world. TED allows us to go beyond school and view the major current events around the world as it is still going on.
Because TED provides so many different subjects we are able to see almost everything just from our room which is incredible. TED is a remarkable source that acts as a free encyclopedia for everyone to access. With all of this knowledge we are able to view way more than other students could have just a couple of generations ago. We dedicated so much time toward TED that we are more aware toward what is really going on around us. These videos have exposed so much to us in the past 8 weeks and because we have not only done our videos but also seen our peer’s videos we can compare our perspectives with the speaker’s along with our peer’s in a controlled and respectable manner.
Because we have spent so much time analyzing these videos we go deeper than just watching these videos and forgetting it the next day. We really get to know what happens and think up our own ideas of the topics. One of the major things I liked about this was actually getting to meet some of the talkers who were nice enough to spend some time with us. Because of this connection we were able to meet some of the people whom we have dedicated so much of our time towards. I felt like we were able to connect with the speakers instead of feeling a gap between us, the audience, and the speaker.
I think TED dedicates much time in choosing who is going to present which makes it very unique. Ya’ll select various types of talks that include comedy, global issues, and many other subjects that allow us as students to decide which types of videos we would like to see from a large selection of talks. And because we all have different personalities we all have different videos that we prefer. Every personality has so many videos to choose from.
If more schools were to allow their students to focus on TED more and more students would be so much aware of how the future is changing. This is important for we, the students, because we are the future.
Thank you for this opportunity
Sincerely,
Edward C.
Dear Chris,
TED impacts the world by just doing what it was designed to do and that’s to spread ideas. The bigger and better ideas that can be spread throughout the world and to more people the more problems we can solve. The one thing I think TED did to really expand these ideas is to put it on the Internet. It’s not just a select few who can watch and listen to these talks anymore, the whole world can. With the whole world listening , we broaden our horizons of thinking, and all the people watching can form ideas of their own and might solve a problem another speaker might have had, you wouldn’t have been able to do that if it was just a select audience.
Another way TED is impacting the world is they are searching for interesting people that may be over looked otherwise. Although some of these people are celebrities and everyone knows them, a lot of them are just normal people. Some of the kids, and musicians on TED may not be internationally known but TED finds them special and that can mean a lot to some people.
In schools today we are really coming apart from the classic original idea of schools where teachers are just giving students information they need to get through the rest of their academic career.
Now school are moving more toward life lessons and how this information will help you in the real world both academic and socially. TED helps push this idea because these are people talking about the what’s in the real world they aren’t lecturing. TED could help teacher and students better use TED by maybe having a teen TED site and those are all the topics that are big ideas in the teen world. That would make TED talk a little more interesting and would make students want to learn more. For some videos — if you aren’t in that profession or know the subject well — you have no idea what the speaker is talking about, so by categorizing the talks for teens, or children, or parents, it would make TED’s audience a little wider.
Spending this much time watching these video I can say I’m a little more well rounded person and its all thanks to TED. I absolutely love the site. If TED keep doing what they are doing by sharing ideas changing the world will be so easy anyone can do it.
Sincerely, Daniella
Dear Chris and Ted,
After working on this project for over eight weeks, I became a habitual act to visit your site. Even after I had finished all of my required post and was finishing up my extra credit, I found it interesting to just browse through the videos and fill my head with all the innovative ideas. I feel like these video can really inspire others to come forward with their ideas or creations. I also feel that the TED conventions are a great way to spread these new ideas. It is these ideas and new creative ways of thinking that will help build a better tomorrow.
In particular, I think that these videos can be very helpful in the school setting. I think that teachers should be viewing some of the videos on TED for a better understanding of students minds function and learn more effective ways of teaching.
After spending two months analyzing and thinking about how I will reflect on the talks I have watched, I think that as a person I have learned to respect and realize the importance of the creative ideas and new ways of thinking presented in this videos. I also feel like a more informed citizen after viewing the videos that I came across.
I would like to see more TED talks over new creative ways to think and new ways of explaining or teaching. These are the videos that interest me the most. I also would like to see talks about how unique things that existed in nature have been analyzed, and then that technique or ability has been copied into some new technological advancement that pushes the boundaries on human knowledge. Such as the talk where they took the properties of the geckos pads to create an adhesive.
Lastly, I would like to say that I think these TED talks are a great way to spread ideas for the advancement of mankind. I have heard countless new ideas that were definitely worth spreading. I look forward to the new videos that are posted and look forward to learning more about whatever the talk is over.
Sincerely, Keith
Chris and TED,
When we first started watching the videos online, I had no idea what to expect. Some of the topics that are addressed are very interesting, and it would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone, and not just those who know about TED watched some of those videos. I think that if everyone took a few minutes out of their day to really watch and care about what is said in some of the talks, there might be a few more people who are aware of what is happening, of what we are doing to our planet, and to ourselves.
I also think that this is something alot of schools would be interested in. A lot of the classes could do something similar to what we did. Maybe they won’t do exactly what we did, but I really liked learning about some of the topics.
Some videos had more of an impact than others, but if I had to say something, I would say that I am more conscious about what is happening and going on around me. Maybe I’m still not interested in politics, but I can say that I’m more aware of what is happening to the earth, how we are affecting the environment, and how we can affect it in a better way.
As far as the website goes, I really like the homepage, but it would be easier to navigate through the website if It was based more on topic rather than just all piled together. And I think the videos could be a bit shorter. For some of the videos that last for more than twenty minutes are hard to watch and really pay attention to.
Sincerely,
Mary M.
Dear Chris and TED Team,
I have really enjoyed being able to work with all of these videos.
I really think that the TED videos have a large impact on the world. The issues and topics addressed in the videos inspire people all over the world, and they bring those topics to the attention of the world. They make people think about topics and issues that they would not usually think about.
I think TED could help schools, teacher, and students use their videos by mainly making them more aware of the videos. I know that before Mr. Long introduced TED to us, I had no idea what it was. Now that I am aware of it I absolutely love it. TED could gain such a bigger audience if more people knew about it. I think a big way to increase the knowledge of it is through the schools.
After this project I really feel like I am part of the TED world. TED has had such an impact on how I view so many different things. The videos have also brought certain subjects to my attention that I would not have thought of otherwise.
I don’t have a specific person that I would like to see on the TED stage, but I do have a type of speaker. Many of the speakers I have seen talk are so passionate about their subject. They all know every little in and out of what they are talking about, and they make it personable. Each one of them brings along a story to go with their idea. I think that the future speakers on TED should continue in this manner. The most interesting speakers are the ones that are extremely passionate about their subject, and that show you why they are so passionate.
I just want to say that this experience has really opened my eyes to so many different things in the world. Like I said, these talks have made me interested in topics I didn’t know I liked. They also really helped me when I gave my own talk in class. The videos are what helped me be passionate about a subject that most people don’t know I am very passionate about. It’s amazing what these last 8 weeks have done.
Thank you so much,
Devon H.
Dear Chris,
First of all, I’d like to thank you for making this forum available to the world. I really enjoyed watching several of them and providing a synopsis to my class.
The power of video is truly amazing and when coupled with the internet it is revolutionary. The rapidity of the spread of ideas is extraordinary. It shortens the time between creativity and reception tremendously. I love the fact that in one afternoon someone can give a ‘talk’ and by that evening the whole world has access to it. Giving a voice to us all is inspirational.
I’d like to see more links in textbooks to TED talks from the past. These links can guide students to the talks and then in to the comments and from there a whole universe of ideas is open to students. With the spread of technology devices like the Ipad students can access textbooks as well as TED talks from their seats in the classroom.
I was reading recently about a study that stated the extreme increase in human intelligence has less to do with a genetic mutation from homo habilis-neandertal-homo sapien and more to do with a collective intelligence. The TED talks/videos definitely play into that idea. The more we are exposed to ideas from around the world that may be similar or polar opposites can only lead to the furtherance of the collective human intelligence. It bodes very well for us as a species. Instead of fearing a larger more diverse population, this creative ‘soup’ can make for a recipe for greatness. It is a very interesting theory and one that I can see being played out through the use and distribution of TED videos.
At the annual conference, I’d like to see some attention paid to the ever increasing economic meltdown occurring in Europe with a nod to it perhaps being a cautionary tale for the US. This looks to be a topic that will have a huge impact on all of us. I would be interested to see a debate between differing economic schools about the future of the European Union.
Thanks again for the access to such a wide variety of subjects. I really enjoyed the time we spent on this project in our British Literature class.
Sincerely,
Alex Ellithorpe
Dear Chris Anderson and everyone at TED,
Before this project, I did not know what TED was, but now I am very familiar with it because of our project. Since technology has become a big part of our lives I think the internet is a very good way of sharing information. With most people having access to a computer in the world, this is a great way of sharing ideas and thoughts with people. This way we can spread information easier and everyone can contribute to these ideas.
I think the TED can really benefit schools, teachers and students. To start with, I loved having the TED project because it was a good way to practice my writing and also when we had to create our very own TED talk, I had to talk in front of an audience which is not easy. In my opinion, I think that overall this would be a good project that other schools could do. It is a lot of practice and at the same time you get to watch videos that actually mean something. It was very interesting so see many ideas people had, and also watch videos that were just fun to watch.
I think the biggest impact that the TED project had on me was being able to practice watching videos and writing about them. I struggle with writing, so it was a good way to practice writing. Also, another thing I liked was that our responses to the talk were completely our opinion and we could say just about anything we wanted about it. So with that in mind, I felt like I could not be wrong since it was my opinion, which really relaxed me more with writing about it. Also, talking in front of a crowd is really difficult to do.Working and creating my own TED talk was very beneficial to me. Being alone on stage and having all eyes on you is not something everyone is comfortable with. This TED project is a really good practice of both writing and speaking.
For me, I really liked the talks about technology in the future. Since technology is something that is thriving now days, it is interesting to see what more ideas people have thought of and how soon they think they can accomplish these goals. I love technology and all of the new gadgets that all the companys produce each year. So, I would really like to see more talks about future technology. Also, I enjoyed the talks that were just for fun, and more relaxing like the entertainment part of TED. Both of these types of videos I really liked watching.
In conclusion, I think TED is wonderful and all of the talks and speakers are very interesting. I think that there should be a way to advertise TED better and make it more known throughout the world since it is such a great experience everyone would enjoy. Also, I encourage other schools and teachers to do a TED project like we worked on. It is a great way to learn and become a stronger writer.
Sincerely,
Haley M.
Dear Mr. Anderson and TED,
TED videos have can and do have and immense impact on the world. One of my talks was about how oil is processed, used, and disposed of I found this to be interesting because it was about something that everybody uses but not very many people really know about it. TED could really help out in the classroom, because it’s not only about school subjects but also the real world. It really opened my eyes to a whole new world. It’s site where you can just hop on and watch a video that is actually about something and significant opposed to getting on Youtube and watching a fat baby dancing.
I really appreciate TED. Almost every other day I watch a video. I’ve never done anything like the TEDxProject before, I really enjoyed although I couldn’t always translate my thoughts on the videos to words.
I have found all the videos that I have watched to be inspiring. I wish you would post Sarah Silverman’s talk.
I noticed there weren’t all that many videos about Hip Hop. I wished y’all would have gotten somebody like Afrika Bambaataa or KRS-One or even DJ Kool Herc. Bambaataa basically started Hip Hop off as a culture by converting his violent gang the Black Spades into a peaceful Hip Hop society called the United Zulu https://tedxproject.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=moderated#comments-formNation. KRS-One was the first East Coast emcee to take a swing at Gangsta Rap. After the death of his DJ and best friend Scott La Rock and an audience member at one of his concerts he soon flipped and created the Stop The Violence Movement. He has also written books such as the Gospel of Hip Hop which acts as the “Bible” of Hip Hop, stating that in a hundred years from now Hip Hop will be the dominant religion around the world. DJ Kool Herc created Hip Hop music. Rakim, Nas, and Fabolous are some other good representatives of Hip Hop. Rakim developed flow and the use multi syllabic rhymes. Nas took everything that Rakim did and took it to a whole new level. They are both known as some of the best lyricists of all time. Fabolous is big into the “Going Green Movement”. He has been touring to promote and inform others the importance of this movement.
Sincerely Deven P.
Dear Chris
The TED organization enables the opportunity for people world wide to learn new things about Tech Entertainment and Design. But from a students point of view your general audience has much potential yet to be acted on and may enlarge your audience. TED can be incorporated into the classroom… But like anything that gets incorporated into school it eventually gets old and its value to the student becomes more of an obstacle rather than something they can enjoy and learn at the same time. For example the use of a textbook to a student has become outdated and kids will not find value in it anymore.
As I have gotten the opportunity to learn many things about politics,aerodynamics,culture,and Fab Labs. I have been able to expand my horizons and take interests in things that I never thought I would care about. Taking the chance of learning new things will put students in the drivers seat for being a pioneer by making discoveries and solving problems. But the larger audience you can create will increase the chances of people changing the world. Some of the stuff that I have learned from the TED talks I have actually but to good use and apply it to my daily life. I am now more understanding for other cultures and I am better at working in groups.
Since the TED audience is primarily adults the chances of students changing the world are low because their primary interests are not incorporated in to TED. Since Many students take a large interest in sports and other students struggle with learning disabilities and mental disorders. Every young student will eventually need advice in their life. Inviting speakers to lecture about things that not only what the student is interested but what they need.
At a TED event many of the speakers are great people and have a lot of ambition and seek to change the world. But their voices will not change the world through the ears of an adult. Their words need to be spread to younger audiences for they can change the world oppose to adults who just make the world what it is.
Sincerely, David
Dear Chris,
I believe TED talks can change the would because of the really knowledgeable people you have come and talk to the people around the world. The people who talk are some off the smartest people in the world who are trying to change the world with new advancements in technology and research in the environment. I also believe the new technology that has been debuted on TED.
School and students could both benefit by this new technology and it would save paper which could help save the world. Students could also learn from people who are at the top of their fields. It could also inspire students when they grow up to work hard . This would show student where they could get with an education.
The impact your videos had on me was that people really can make a difference in the world. Just one person can invent something that could make every ones life easier. This will make me strive to make a difference in peoples lives in away I can. If I can do that it will let me know that I did something to impact someones life.
The most interesting talks to me were the ones i could relate to. Which was the ones about nature. I am a hunter and I love animals. When i could relate to someone and see what we both have a passion from a different point of view it makes me stop and think. I ask myself why do they think that and how can that help me. Sometimes you completely agree and sometimes you don’t.
I am grateful you and your team put these videos on. I have learned allot and i will visit your website every week to see what I can learn.
Dear Chris and the entire TED organization,
Thank you so much for making these amazing videos easily available online. I found many of them to be truly enlightening and inspiring. To see what great ideas people have for our future is awe inspiring.
I am so glad that Mr. Long told us about your amazing organization and gave us this assignment. If he had only told us about it, I would probably have watched a few videos that caught my attention and would have missed the experience that is TED. However, being assigned videos that I may not have originally had any interest in has exposed me to so many new ideas, and truly thankful to you and Mr. Long for this experience.
I have already begun to tell my friends about TED in the hopes that they also will enjoy all the amazing ideas, talks, and experiences that TED has to offer. However, it would great, and probably more influential, if TED developed a way to make their talks more easily applicable to schools. I suggest that you add some thought provoking questions to the page of each talk and open a forum for the discussion of each topic/question. This would provide an easily structured way for teachers to grade students on their work, and, therefore, could be more easily integrated into existing school curriculum. It could also benefit non-students, because it would provide people with a way to discuss their reactions with other people, and perhaps learn even more from the discussion and differing views.
Seeing so many dedicated people who love their work and are passionate enough about it to want to share it with us through TED, makes me want to find something in my own life about which I can become that passionate. I am still trying to decide what I want to do with my life, and watching so many videos of people who care about their work, whether it be photography, technology, or history, helped me to realize that it doesn’t really matter what I do, so long as I am passionate about.
TED provides such a wide range of topics that there is a little bit of everything. However, I feel that too many of them are simply informational. I love hearing about new technology, but sometimes it feels like it is only saying, “look how cool the future will be!” That is great, but how can we help the future to get there, how are we going to get to that point and what will we be losing in the process. My favorite talks tended to be ones that I could apply to my life now. I especially liked a talk by Doris Kearns Goodwin about past presidents. She was just a normal person who had a passion for history, and she used the lessons she learned from past presidents to live her own life more happily. These are my favorite kinds of talks, ones where the information may not be directly applicable, but the lessons learned from it are, and I would love to see more of them in the future.
Thank you again for this great organization that opens so many possibilities to so many people.
Sincerely,
Susie C.
Dear Mr. Anderson and TEDx,
TED videos can really change views and opinions of anyone who watches them. Whether you become more or less passionate about that subject, they make a difference. If everyone watched as many TED videos as they did the news or MTV then this world might just be a little bit of a better place.
Although I was slightly bitter about this project to begin with, I’m really happy I got to experience it. It was enlightening and all students should be able to share the same experience. But I don’t think TED should “sell” their videos to schools. If kids and teachers want to watch them then great, other than that I don’t think improvements or changes need to be made to make it more helpful.
This took up a lot of my time, especially the hour long video I was assigned to watch. It was worth it though. I learned a lot, some things that I didn’t really have much interest in and others that I thoroughly enjoyed. I suppose as far as a person it didn’t really change me, I am who I am and a few inspirational videos aren’t going to change me. I may be more open-minded or I may have altered my views here and there, but overall it was just a informational project.
There aren’t any particular speakers that I’d like to see but as far as topics I like culture and the arts. Whether it’s dancing and music or just the way nature can be seen as an art form. I liked the videos that were about real things in life rather than the objects we surround ourselves with.
I’d like to thank you guys for really cooperating with us on this project. I appreciated the way TEDx really got involved with what we were doing. You guys have a really cool website that helps spread little ideas into a big world. It’s pretty awesome.
Thanks, Caroline
Dear TED,
Thank you for sharing the ideas of people all around the world. It was nice to see that not all the videos were based in the United States. I really liked the one’s from India because it is nice to see other people’s thoughts on subjects that can influence the world. These videos could change the whole world if people just stop watch the videos and actually act on these ideas. Then we could possibly start new cures for diseases or even help stop poverty in some places in the world.
I think TED could help schools use TED videos better by maybe having a day where they get one of the speakers or employees from TED come talk to the students about their TED talks to get them interested in TED. Or if the speakers can’t go to the school they can Skype like we did. Also TED could inspire them to make their own videos like we did and then the students could see how TED speakers present themselves. I think giving TED talks was a good experience because it gave me more confidence of speaking in front of people and that is an important skill in life.
Watching these videos made me think of how I am not doing anything to help make our world a better place. I think that watching these videos can impact our human race to helping us conserve our world and ourselves, like recycling more or being healthier. I would like to see more topics about helping others, like stopping child abuse or helping children get an education. I would also like to see more speakers from around the world. It would be nice to see more talks like William Kamkwamba’s building a windmill. These talks are very interesting because you get to see how people are effected by how they live. Also it’s interesting how people around the world have the same ideas as ourselves. I hope to see some more videos soon.
Sincerely, Lindsay
Dear TED team and Chris
I greatly appreciate your attempt to spread new ideas and technology, I think this is exactly what the world needs. I also appreciate the care you take in choosing your speakers; I believe this care greatly attributes to the credibility and the reputation of TED. Every single TED talk has something to offer, something to teach you, or something that will simply make your day better. I believe TED can, and will have a huge impact on the world, and I can not wait to see what it becomes. I also enjoyed the fact that there are a wide variety of talks, so everyone can find something that interests them, I believe this will be a big factor in spreading the popularity of TED and, getting into schools and businesses around the world.
I think TED in schools would be be great, students would be exposed to issues, ideas, and technology that will change the world, at a young age (after all if children are the future they should have a clue about whats going on in the world). However, there is much more that TED can do for students. TED can teach students to pursue knowledge, and pursue what they love. This is vital in our time period because so much creativity is being lost. On top of all this, TED can also make learning more universal and accessible.
I enjoyed working on the TED project very much. I was introduced to many new, and old ideas, as well as very important issues that I was not aware of. I also loved connecting with the people who were on the TED stage and getting to know them and what they talked about better. Over all I think TED is an excellent program that will provide enormous opportunities. Thank you again and I look forward to working with TED again.
Sincerely,
Kierston Rodriquez
Ted videos have a variety of kinds of videos. They can help anyone, anywhere in the world. They also changed the game inside the classroom. I think it was a lot more interactive and helpful. It got us involved and I really liked that.
The impact the videos have on people are really up to the people. They can either take them seriously, or just watch them for entertainment.
Not that entertainment is a bad thing because personally my favorite Ted talks were the performance ones. I liked people performing magic, poetry, and singing. I also liked the different ideas about technology and where we are going with it.
I think if people tried to learn from the inspirational Ted talks, it would help people all around the world. If people considered even trying or exploring into some of the talks that they watch, I’m sure ideas would start flowing from everyone!
More simple technology (tricks on cellphones, etc.) humorous, or performance talks would make the website a lot more interesting in my opinion. It would attract more viewers and everyone would like watching all of the Ted talks more.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I know this is a very spontaneous question to start with but how did you help inspire TED to get to this level?
It amazes me what this experience has taught me and what I have learned from it. I love how there is so much variety throughout the TED website. I love how you gather speakers from all over the world, interwining everyone in a community simply to express their views/opinions, listen and learn. TED has so much power to do great things and it truly is making an impact, I can see it by just analyzing talks for the past couple months. TED impacts the world one person at a time, and at the moment it has enlightened a group of tenth grade students. Everything about TED is universal, the people on the TED stage come from anywhere and everywhere to teach while people all over the world come to listen. By creating TED you have truly created a universal project for the bettering of societies everywhere. Thank you so much, I doubt you know how many lives you have changed because of TED.
I believe TED could help schools, teachers and students by better expanding and getting the word out to students about TED. Not many schools have even heard about TED, at least in my area but I am sure all of them have heard of Youtube. If TED was spread in some bigger ways to others especially teachers and students, I think it would have alot more impact on the younger generations. I know after spending hours analyzing and responding to talks I have learned so much. I have bettered myself as a person because I have a newfound curiousity for things I hadn’t prior to this experience. I also learned how to present myself better as a speaker by learning through the speakers at TED.
Personally, I love the variety TED has to offer so I don’t have suggestions on what TED is missing. In the beginning of this assignment that became so much more, my classmates and I had the choice to pick the talks we wanted. Yet, as my classmates fought and traded talks, I decided to have my teacher just randomly assign me videos. I had a motto, learn from the unexpected and I did exactly that. It is incredible what someone can do when they keep their mind open to anything. So I believe no matter what topic, someone can always get something out of any TED talk.
You are truly an inspiration to me Mr. Anderson. By expanding TED you have created a world of educators, listeners and opinions that would have remained hidden if it wasn’t for TED. TED is an unlimited, endless experience. There is no limit on what you can experience or learn. Thank you for taking the time to read this and keep up this great organization.
Sincerely,
Amber W.
Dear TED,
What you have going on is incredible. I believe TED is a fantastic idea for this world. The TED organization has and will make a difference in our society by allowing brilliant people to share their ideas freely. This is something, I think we as Americans, take for granted. Just think if you, the TED team, can get going through schools. This will have an impact on our posterity and the way we will run this world. The students will be better speakers and will gain qualities for the real world.
I think the TEDxClassroomProject has made a big impact on my life. It has given me qualities that I will be able to use in everyday life. For instance when I watch Ted talks, I always think to myself, “How is this important to me and what can I take from this”. Also, critical analyzes has opened up a wide path in brain to discover how to become a better writer.
If there was one topic I think you should go further into, it would have to be psychology. Philip Zimbardo is my hero and I am just amazed at his works like the Stanford Prison Experiment. I think psychology can relate to everyone as to why we do the things that we do.
TED, I would just like to say thank you for giving the world a better chance for being a better, smarter place. Godspeed
Dear Chris and the TED team,
First off, I would like say that the TED conferences are a wonderful platform for new ideas to be explored by up and coming people with brilliant minds. The TED stage gives them a wonderful spot to share their ideas, and hopefully influence people to implement them in the near future. This is a service that is very important for the continued development of the world and its inhabitants.
The speakers that are chosen to speak at your conferences are truly amazing and have changed the world for the better. Although a new area to explore I think would be athletes, as they could provide interesting ideas and experiences. They may not be able to effectively present their views and many of their stories maybe repetitive, but a few athletes every once and a while could not hurt TED. If anything, it can only help by providing another perspective on the world and how to improve it.
I just feel that your current pool of speakers is limited. Any expansion in this regard would help improve TED and help TED embody it mission. A more diverse speaker pool would allow more ideas to be explored and more perspectives to be shared. Every once and a while, a speaker or two may slip through the cracks, but should not deter you from this idea. I think the gain is significantly larger than the risk you would take.
That idea put aside, the talks that are given are wonderful. These talks have given me the unique opportunity to explore myself and think about my own ideas. They have changed my view on many topics and they will continue to do so. This only proves that TED is doing its job, which is to change the world and guide its future in new directions that would otherwise be left unexplored.
Keep up the excellent job.
Sincerely,
Brendon O-L.
Dear Chris and TED team,
Initially, I believed TED would be mediocre, and that it was simply another project.
I doubted that I would become interested in any of them, and picked topics that remotely interested me. After watching my first TEDTalk I was to write about, I soon realized how amazing TED is.
It brings intellectuals and people who challenge traditional ways of thought together, and inspires creativity and thought. I never really considered myself to be a person to care about the environment, but after watching Smits restore a rain forest I was struck with awe. I had always been the person who discourages littering and things of that sort, but TED made me take a stand, and I ended up doing my own TEDTalk on an environmental disaster. With TED, and speakers from other countries, one realizes how isolated they are. It’s quite difficult to envision the situations that people such as Kamkwamba had been in, in a country of poverty.
TED should have a place in schools as it does in mine. With the wide selection of talks, it is easy to find something you are passionate about and can talk about. By the end of the project, if you are wondering why something hasn’t been talked about yet, you have the ability to do it yourself. TED Talks don’t even need to be used for English specifically; scientific talks have a place in science, and so on. Something about TED Talks and the speakers simply captivates the viewer and makes them want to listen, unlike most documentaries kids must watch in school.
I personally would enjoy to see talks given on the evils of apathy, as well as something on addiction and how it works. The wide range of TED Talks is simply amazing, and for nearly anything you want to see, you can find it. When I need something to stimulating, something to do, I can easily go look at TED now that I’ve been introduced to it, and be educated and entertained. TED itself is one of the higher quality sites on the web. The only things shown are gemstones, and you do not have to worry about sifting through the dirt to find something worthwhile to watch. Thank you for creating TED.
Sincerely,
Connor S.
Dear TED,
The things you are doing are very amazing. Getting all these intellectuals into one place is an exceptional idea and I’m surprised that it hasn’t been done before. It’s like getting the worlds smartest most talented people into one room and sending them up on stage to go perform for the whole world. The videos are inspirational and riveting to listen to. There is actually a TED video for every situation out there. You are doing a good job at making it easy for schools and businesses to use these videos by actually having conferences at the schools and colleges around the world. This will surely improve the want to do public speaking and make a change in the world. Actually watching all these videos has made me want to get involved myself. Hearing about these videos has made me inspired to make changes in the world just like these people do on a daily basis. I would really like to see a lot of music videos at the next big TED conference. Being a music lover myself, seeing these videos has made me even more interested in the musical arts. Thanks for everything your doing.
Sincerely, Scott M.
Hello, Mr. Anderson,
First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on how widespread TED has become and how much impact it has on the world. I’m constantly seeing TED videos pop up on sites I usually go to just to see “random cool stuff,” and I’m always astounded by the topics the Talkers bring up.
TED is one of the most interesting events I know of, because it doesn’t focus on one specific goal (e.g. cycling, marine preservation, or some other conference for one purpose). Instead, TED Talkers share their knowledge on a massive multitude of concepts, and I think that that’s what makes TED unique, and makes it accessible to all.
School groups (like ourselves) are a great analyzer of Talks for this reason: A student doesn’t get stuck with a Greek essay on philosophy – they get to research a machine that dispenses peanuts to crows. I think TED could actually use these analyses to better the Talks by having the Talkers possibly respond to the analysis as a whole, and address comments or questions.
I think that the Talks changed the way I look at research and progress, mainly in the way that I think about ideas. To me, ideas are no longer things that just pop up, ideas are everywhere, and you just have to seize them. I’d love to see more Talks on music and audio, mainly how we can achieve higher and higher sound quality – I’m a bit of an audio nut, and have been upgrading my sound system for years.
Thanks so much for your amazing program, I’ve been inspired in myriad ways.
–Jackson H.
Dear Chris and TED team,
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching exhilarating, fascinating, and incredibly pertinent videos as a part of what initially started as a mere class project, but finished as so much more.
I say this due to the fact that the content of the talks on the TED website are always so riveting, no matter what the genre or field, and always provide insight into things that most of the general public would most likely have no knowledge about. TED videos and talks can substantially affect society as a whole, as a matter of fact. If the general public were able to watch all of the content on the TED website, it would create a much more cultured, informed, and respectable society, and maybe even spark inspiration in some people, who may just go on and progress in some of the areas in which the talks mention.
I have had the personal pleasure of experiencing a vast majority of the videos on the website and my earnest opinion is that the possibilities if TED got a significant increase in media attention are staggering. Schools would start using the website as a medium for education and independent schools or school districts might even go as far as to integrate TED into a class curriculum, which would educate students while entertaining them at the same time.
TED has had a significant effect on my individual English class, by broadening the majority of our minds in a way we previously thought not possible, and it would be wonderful if more ISD’s and school districts would adapt the idea of using TED as a part of their basic curriculum.
The results could be outstanding, students would learn what they previously thought was only learned through self discovery and self search, and it would provide a more fun basis for learning, in a sense catering to the ever popular idea of educational entertainment. However, when one hears educational entertainment, ones heart does not leap, as the idea itself as a whole is incredibly fascinating of learning and having fun simultaneously, but what isnt as striking is how its being employed in the world today. Educational video games for an example, are more often than not, a let down. And while the following statement does not apply to all TED videos, they have managed to provide for me something I once thought impossible, and that is entertainment that has an educational aspect alongside it.
I highly enjoyed the TED project, and TED is the one at “fault”, so thank you for enlightenment in the form of true educational entertainment.
Thanks, Rivu.
Dear Chris and everyone at TED,
First off, thank you so much for everything you’ve done. It has had an impact on both my social and academic lives. I try to take the principles from each TED talk and combine them, and I can already see how this is going to help me later in life. Please, know that what you are doing IS making a difference, and impacting people lives.
What I’d really like to focus on in this letter, though, is education. I think this is extremely important, and I’m excited to see what TED can do with it. My classmates and I spend just two months watching videos, and it is amazing how we have begun to change our lives. Imagine a world where children from Kindergarten on up are taught using the principles, styles, and spirit of TED. I think education is one of the most important parts of society because after all, knowledge is power. If TED focused itself, or created some type of ‘department’ that focused itself on education I really, really believe that the world would be a much better place. The reason is that I think that watching TED talks and being taught using those principles and techniques can ONLY have an inspiring effect on students, and that can only make things better. I’m trying to imagine it now, and I just can’t see how a person ‘raised’ by TED could turn out badly.
So I leave you all with a challenge:
I believe you can and will. I’m excited to see where TED will take itself in 5, 10, or 50 years. I am 100% positive that we look forward to better tomorrow, thanks to TED.
Again, thank you all so much for everything you have done. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed it.
Thanks and good luck,
Mike N.
Dear Mr. Anderson and the TED team,
During the past eight weeks, my brain has been twisted and turned in many different directions. TED has had the ability to do exactly what our English teacher has been trying to accomplish since the first day of school this year, which is to try and see things from different perspectives. Watching all of the different speakers go up on stage and talk about things that are important to them really opened my eyes.
I think that TED has the power to change the train of thought of people. Therefore, if it can touch enough people, it can ultimately change the world. If people everywhere could begin too see things from defferent perspectives, I think the world would be a more peaceful place.
My equation, therefore, is: TED = World Peace.
If there was one thing I would change about the TED site, I would say that it would be helpful if you made different classifications for the TED talks. Not like the categories on the sides, but have a section called maybe “TED Teen” or something like that. Then have the talks that pertain to teenagers in some way, shape, or form put into that section. I think it would ultimately make the TED site more user friendly, especially since it seems like more and more people of our generation are starting to use TED. We’ve definitely been spreading the word.
I would really just like to say thank you for letting us be a part of your organization. TED opened my eyes to so many things that I was blind to before, and although I don’t think I’ll ever get around to watching every single video out there, I’ll probably get pretty close. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future of this great organization.
Cheers,
Trevor
To any TEDdy it concerns,
To be entirely honest, TED talks do not yet have any major effect on the world. Many of the talks are moving and display paradigm ideas, yet many people have never even heard of TED. I cannot wait for the day when they are a staple of everyone’s inspirational diet. I think that if the Talks were advertised or put on television it would be incredibly effective in spreading these ideas further. People would actually know about them, and even better pay attention to them.
TED talks could dramatically help to improve schools. Teachers would not teach alone. In fact, professionals who have passionately worked and researched will be almost standing in the classroom. Students can learn course material from multiple sources, and make it even perhaps fun or passionate in the process. Make the content available in as many ways as possible for the schools. If the funding arises, sponsor school workshops and conferences. Organizing the speakers to talk to the classrooms through Skype or something similar, if even on their lunch break, could be invaluable to the students.
Having spent 8 weeks wrapped into this universe of dreamers and workers, I can say I have changed. My outlook has become more hopeful with the knowledge that, with effort and diligent work and perhaps a little bit of money, dreams can be made reality. I have been made aware of new technologies and events that excite me for the future. I feel uplifted in general by the joy spread through other’s accomplished visions.
I think that for future conferences, a broader range of topics should be addressed. I know its fairl broad already, but every aspect of life should be there. Anyone and everyone who loves something should come and speak about it.
Many thanks to you for the weekly uplifting thoughts and ideas.
Dear Chris Anderson and TED,
I think that this is probably the most fun I’ve had doing any project.
The TED videos that I got to watch were really interesting. I think that if the TED videos can be more advertised to the world or if more people knew about them than they would have a bigger impact. Just from the couple of TED videos that I watched, I know that I am a lot more aware of what is going on in the world and how advanced we really are in technology. If only everyone knew about all of this than it would allow them to make better decisions and help them with either their companies or just their lives in general.
If TED would maybe hold a huge conference with a bunch of the heads of schools, it would help schools integrate it more. I know it seems like impossible to be able to talk to every school but maybe if there was a video up on the Internet like a conference that was filmed just for teachers. If you were able to do that, then I think it would help schools infinitely. Instead of trying to use YouTube to find a video on a topic, they could use TED to help them find a much better video. Schools now are very old fashioned but are trying to keep up with the technology. If the schools had the TED website as an example, it would help them with learning new ways to try and stay ahead.
There wasn’t any videos that really impacted me. Out of all the videos that I watched, most of them were based on facts or just informational videos. Most of the people that I have talked with say that they have been impacted by at least one of their blogs and when I watched their videos, I would have to say that I was impacted as well.
The best TED talks that I found were mainly due to the topic. For a speaker to be successful, they first have to have an interesting topic. If the audience doesn’t find the topic exciting or interesting than they aren’t going to really listen to the speaker. Sometimes however, the speaker can make the topic interesting. Normally those speaker are really energetic, or really know how to present to the audience. The speaker is good at making eye contact with the people in the audience and he uses the stage well. He doesn’t just stand in one area and try to present from there. Also the speaker is very good at using his PowerPoint slides or whatever props he has with them. He involves the audience in what he is doing so that they don’t get bored. The speaker also needs to keep the presentation relatively short. He doesn’t want to just go on and on on just one area but spread it around throughout his presentation. I would like to say that there should be more talks by people that are Athletes or just people who are involved in sports.
Dear Chris Andersen and TED team,
There is something that I think is really amazing about TED. Right now in the present it is informing and inspiring our world.
But think about it, who exactly does TED reach?
I know the rest of the kids in my high school were driven crazy with TED speak surrounding them for the past two months because they had no idea what it was. It’s safe to say TED doesn’t reach many young adults unless its specifically sought after, which is rare. TED is more of a world for the adult population who are finding a new way to communicate their ideas while getting feedback. This type of mass distribution of ideas creates a dense part of society with all the the new ideas and thoughts moving forward. In reality there is no moving forward though. For TED to be a movement it needs to join with the youth of our world. I know this phrase is so over used that no one even believes it anymore but the children really are the future! Once it becomes a global system used to seek knowledge instead just “one of those boring grown up things” like CNN or the New York Times our world will change.
TED has been doing a great job trying to expand their database to a younger generation. More exposure and more TED talks geared toward the teenage population will surely help TED help us.
Being forced into the TED world was a trying experience at first. I didn’t understand the concept of TED and I didn’t want to. My experience really reminds me of one of my friend’s TED talk. It was based on this concept: we have become so introverted that we have lost the ability to empathize with the suffering world around us. She, of course, put it a bit more eloquently but I can relate to that because I act so concerned with my own life I didn’t want to give TED a chance. After all of the videos i watched I really began to view the world for what it was. I didn’t become a philanthropist over night, but now I know I’m at least more aware of the world around me.
I love all the inspirational TED talks that have been given but my favorite are the random, quirky, unexpected ones. New interesting people should be searched for around the globe.They really bring a splash of life to the already vibrant world of TED.
Otherwise thanks for an unforgettable experience!
Sincerely,
Sylvia
Dear Chris and the TED team,
After several weeks of watching many of the TED talks, I think its safe to say I feel more enlightened and up to date with today’s world wide issues, as well as the new discoveries and new creations.
TED talks have served as a new learning tool for me, and is one of I have thoroughly enjoyed and hope that other students like me can have the chance to use. It is refreshing to be able to learn new things, that actually matter, with out having to sit in a class room and listen to a teacher talk at you. I feel that introducing TED to the class room is a brilliant idea because students get the chance to really use technology for its main purpose. Wouldn’t it be great to have teenager of this age run home to jump on TED and eager to see that latest videos, as opposed to sitting on Facebook and Twitter waiting for the next pointless posts to load?
In the future, I would like to see more videos that pertain to both teenagers and adults. I don’t have any particular topics in mind, but anything that can catch my attention, or any other teenager is great. It would also be great to see more people in my age group on the website sharing mind blowing ideas like the adults.
I would like to thank all of the TED team for making it such an inspiring, educational, and entertaining organization as a whole. I look forward to watching the many videos I have yet to discover.
Taylor
Dear TED,
I believe TEDtalks/videos have the potential to change a person’s mindset entirely. I know first hand the TED talks that are posted make people open their eyes and expand their thinking. TED talks expose the regular person to the world in an unprecedented manner. The speakers on the website don’t beat around the bush, and their presentations show that. I believe TED will one day be as popular as YouTube.
As for schools, teachers, and students abroad, TED can be an effective tool. Since TED speakers address personal issues that have happened, are happening, and will happen, students can get a wide range of ideas. Teachers can even base lessons off of TED talks. She could have a class watch two speakers with different views talking about the same event, and have her students compare and contrast the two. I also believe educators and businessmen could use TED talks to show what good presentations should be like.
Personally, TED has changed me in a good way. I am now less afraid to speak in front of moderately large crowds. TED has also shown and proven to me even a single person can change the world. On top of all this, TED has inspired me to go out and show the world what I believe in. TED has also inspired me to defend my beliefs and advocate for rights.
As for the ‘big stage’, I would like to see more activists/advocates and environmentalists speaking. I’m not saying scientists are bad, but you are more likely to grasp the viewers attention with advocacy. To be totally honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing regular people who do extraordinary things talk on the ‘big stage’ (kind of like William Kamkwamba).
Lastly, I would like to say thank you, Chris, for allowing the super-secret-TED-convention talks to be posted onto the internet for the world to see. They have truly been an inspiration to me, my friends, my family, and the world.
Sincerely,
Samuel M.
Dear Chris and TED,
I can’t help but say that TED is truly an amazing organization. Everything about it is just incredible: your mission, the motto, the speakers, the ideas and everything in between. I have, honestly, never been introduced to a profound organization, quite like this before, and what I appreciate about it the most is the fact that TED brings people, from all over the world, to spread ideas and topics that are needed to be addressed, or shared, today. These innovative and inspirational ideas, that which you have bestowed us, has generated a massive buzz of different organizational movements to help whatever cause they are supporting. I love how these videos really have inspired many people to pursue their goals and it gives me great joy to hear of all the wonderful things people are doing.
From my perspective, I can see TED becoming more as a reference tool, or something to that nature, for our teachers, in the future. Not only do TED talks strike up intellectual conversations between the students and teachers, but its topics can also relate or be applied to the classroom. I found that Bill Gates speech, over zero energy, could be have been an interesting discussion in our environmental class, or even in my chemistry class. Because TED delivers such a broad table of different ideas and topics, they can easily be applied to any class, offered in the school.
After spending the past 8-9 weeks on this TEDxClassroomProject, TED has definitely left an impact on me.
These days, I don’t go on YouTube anymore (well, I never really went on it, often, to begin with), instead I find more entertainment just from watching TED talks, which I kind of think it’s funny.
Most of my friends, or anyone really, wouldn’t expect me, let alone a 16-year-old, to find enjoyment watching TED talks. Besides, there isn’t anything worth watching on Youtube anymore, so I guess I could say that’s partly the reason why I go to TED now. TED shows videos of topics that I’m pretty passionate about, and some of the topics are just cool in general. Like Mike Rowe’s speech, over him celebrating dirty jobs, it was funny and quirky, yet it was eye opening. That’s what I also appreciate about TED. I think I’ve gained more intellectual, worldly insight and have been more informed of the world through videos like Dr. Phil Zimbardo and Mrs. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Plus, on the bright side, I can now hold more intelligible conversations with my peers and other adults.
In the future, I don’t really care who comes and talks at TED, because lets face it, I won’t see every single talk that comes out from now til the day of my deathbed. Also, I trust TED’s judgment whoever they bring up to the stage. There is, obviously, a reason why TED invited them to speak at their annual conference, in the first place, and so whoever the speaker is, they earned a right to be heard in front of the world. But the one thing, I would like to see, is for the speakers to be more energetic, if not then less dull and boring. With no disrespect in mind, but over the past 8-9 weeks, I’ve seen some that have, literally, put me to sleep. Not that their idea or topic was bad, most of them have been fascinating actually, but the speaker was just dull to watch. I wasn’t moved, or motivated, by some of the speakers just because they were boring. So, to keep in mind for the future, it would be nice if TED could help out the speakers a little more in spicing up their speech. That way, people would be more focused and inspired from what the speaker is talking about.
As for my final comments, I would like to reiterate again what an incredible organization TED is. I’m really thankful and grateful to be introduced to an organization, committed to spreading and inspiring ideas that will, in hopes, spark a change in our world. I have become more enlightened and informed of the world through you, and I can’t thank you enough. From these TED talks, I’ve been inspired to go out and find my passion and to possibly make a difference in the world, for example the oceans. Even if I contributed just a tiny bit of effort, I know that I’ve made one difference and that will create a ripple chain effect to inspire others to follow in my footsteps. TED has left a legacy on this world, and I hope that my grandchildren will hear about the power of TED one day. Again, I really appreciate you giving us, 80ish sophomores, a chance to be apart of TED.
Sincerely,
Carl
Dear Mr. Anderson and TED,
TED is a good place to check out what are the idea going on outside of school. It made me thought about how idea get all over the world. Honestly, I never notice there was TED going on before it was told by Mr. Long. After I saw some of the video, I believe the speaker go up there let the world know what his idea. When one person start to care the idea, and he speak up, more people will know or start to care the idea. The idea could also change a person’s life and live better.
There are lots of video about the education and school. The students not only doing the TED for grade but also get to see the real world and learn to let others know the idea. It made the school not just pass the class, but really learn how idea worked. It make the students know the new technology or idea they never thought about before. It make the learning fun for the students and wanted to learn more. The teacher will be the student that don’t know anything because TED has too much of idea for anyone to know.
I like the music “Woza” on the TED, it was music with different language, culture I knew. Woza is soul music from the people who want the world to be peace even though I only understand one sentence was in English. The song made me feel the human shouldn’t be in war. I can listen to Woza for a long time, and I’m trying to download it to listen to it.
TED is my one research website I will be using for my life. I appreciate it.
Sincerely, Wei-Chen
Mr. Anderson,
In a cyberspace populated by vacuous “comedy” sites and stimulation-free social networking hot spots, the content provided on TED is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. I’ve greatly enjoyed analyzing, critiquing, and responding to the copious amount of videos available on the site, and I harbor even greater anticipation for how TED might grow and improve in the years to come.
That being said, as of the moment, I’m unsure of just how much impact TED is having on the important discourses around the world. While the acronym “TED” might be in common usage within certain circles, it’s certainly yet to become a household name, and many of those I’d consider internet-savvy have responded with a confounded, “Ted? Who’s he?” when I’ve informed them of the project. Nevertheless, the site is still in its relative infancy, and even if only one TED Talk was to have the smallest effect on a global issue, I’d say that every penny of the organization would have been spent well. Given a few more years, TED will either have become a part of the everyday lexicon, or have faded into obscurity; either way, you would appear to be doing the best you can to ensure it has the greatest impact it can have, and I commend you for that.
I’ll freely confess that TED has yet to have that profound of an effect on me; while it is indeed entertaining, it has yet to break any of my preconceived ideas or expand my views into bold new horizons. Perhaps I’m just a closed-minded cynic, as this is in no way a knock on how insightful the videos are; still, even though there is a large deal of variety on the site already, even more could never hurt.
As for what that variety might arrive in the form of, I can only speak for what I’d like to see, and my tastes tend to reside more in the abstract/philosophical than in the realm of the mechanical. TED already has plenty of speakers from both camps, but I’d love to see even more views brought to the table. Perhaps a dual-talk with an atheist and a Christian? I’d like to see it, anyway.
Regardless of whatever you choose to do with the site, I greatly honor what you have accomplished, and wish you the best of luck.
Thanks,
Kyle
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I am very glad that you saw something in TED that needed to be spread throughout the world. TED is a very inspiratioonal body that can change who ever it touches. Personally, it has had a very profound effect on me and I feel like there are billions of others who TED can make this same mark on around the world. It has made me see the world differently and I’m sure it can do the same thing for other people also.
I believe TED can help change how schools are run and make them more effective, the concepts presented are very interesting and can change the way people see schools and their functions. These videos have the ability to creat a new school not just from broad talks but from pointed ones such as those of Sir Ken Robinson, and Adora Svitak. Also, focusing on school for a second, I have used TED videos for my other classes as resources for information on new technologies. They have become a great resource for gaining information for projects and papers.TED has impacted how i see the wrold greatly, resulting in my new ability to process information to a greater degree and to see the deeper meaning in things.
I would like to see more things about sports and other sports figures such as John Wooden who is a genius in my opinion. There are also other athletes who have great insight into life that could be spread therough TED.
Finally I would like to say Thank you for supporting TED and helping me to become inspired through these talks.
Sincerely,
Miles W.
Dear TED team and Chris Anderson,
These videos on the TED website have made a big impact in our high school of just about 300 kids by opening our minds and widening our perspective of the world and how it works. Your site has enlightened me about other parts of the world, our own advancements in technology, and how any one with an idea can present it to the world and make a difference in people’s live all over the Earth. I would be very interested to see what kind of impact a site like yours might have in a school of about 3-4 thousand kids. Next the entire world, as many new efforts are being pushed to supply almost every kid in underdeveloped countries with a laptop where they could watch TED videos, speakers, ideas, and formulate their own ideas.
I really liked the idea of giving our own TED talk and I believe if teachers did a similar type project in every school that TED’s videos and ideas would impact a much larger group of people and inspire many students who might usually blow off school. This I believe could give many kids who don’t know what they want to do with their life yet some purpose or interest in seeking out a purpose. Similar to how many students at our school found talks they were interested in at first, but then were even more inspired by the end of it. As for me the videos displaying new technology and troubled countries were probably the most inspiring to me. These made me think of all the very cool and interesting things that come out in the near future technology wise. Also of how easily and how much I could impact the lives of people in other countries.
One aspect of TED I believe would be very informative to young people would be to include speakers or talks about sports. Like professionals telling a unique story about themselves that might inspire someone not just on the field, but in the classroom as well. I believe many kids would gravitate towards these and could be easily inspired within just watching one video of a professional talking about that kid’s favorite sport. Also TED could bring on the spreading of new or unpopular sports to whole range of people.
Once again the TED team has been a big impact on not only myself, but the entire sophomore class.
Thanks,
Alex S.
Dear TED and Team,
I am grateful that you all have created a site and organization like this. I did not stumble upon this web site until my English teacher showed my class videos form here.
I think that TED videos have a great impact on people and the world. I think that there should be more videos of people who can be role models for young people. TED videos could help schools and teachers much more in this way.
More students and children could become more inspired by what they are seeing thanks to technology. I would prefer this over the next newest music video.
TED talks provide a positive image and environment. I learned alot about the world and other topics from this website. When I analyzed a video, I somewhat started to wonder if I could make a contribution to the world or what else is out there that we as people do not know about. They really changed my feelings about writing and reading. Now I want to read more about the world and the problems of the world. I would like to see more people who can relate to others and inspire more people.
Mainly, there should be more speakers that can reach out to children and teenagers. This can make a much more larger audience.
You all are doing a great job and I cannot wait to see more.
Sincerely,
Hannah W.