Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ddeubel]

I just thought that to share a great way to avoid heat exhaustion.

Put on the air con. Open up a "cool one". Watch a random TED Talk in HD.

The best lectures you'll find. All under 20 min or so.

If you don't like your random selection, just use the scroller and find something to your liking....

Share your fav. random find here...

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[The Gipkik]

TED Talks is a very good program, but it is beginning to irritate me. The endless optimism of the wonders of humanism and scientific potential strikes me as problematic. For example, watching the first random program on TED, it was followed by a very long commercial about the wonders of the oil industry and how they have the technology now to find oil almost anywhere and extract it. And at the end they say, and I'm paraphrasing, "let's find all the oil that we can until we find alternative forms of renewable energy." And the commercial, just like TED Talks, was all about the power and the glory of the technology, the orthogenetic wonders of human ability. Gods we are!

[ddeubel]

Yep, however reluctantly got to agree with you there.

what is it about any large organization -- how it tends to become middle of the road and "flaccid" as it grows. There must be a law of social inertia that states all organizations will grow towards the center and bla....

Still, lots of gems if you cut through the commercial crap. But like you - i'd like a lot more angry criticism than just rarara....

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[thevagrant]

I watched a good talk with Richard Dawkins about atheism. He points out that the majority of the intelligent thinkers of our time happen to be atheist, yet the political landscape and general public are terrified of supporting them simply because of their non belief. Consequently, we lose out some highly intelligent leadership. A good speech with thoughtful criticism.

[4567654]

TED's a great resource for the classroom too, especially if you can get the transcript. however, compared with Fora.tv and the teaching company video lectures, TED is random, unorganized and erratic. sure, there are some great ones, but a lot of the videos are entirely without context, and a lot of the content misses the bigger questions. fine for native speakers on top of the topic already, but not great for esl students.

[Daniel1981]

Have you guys ever used any of this material while teaching? I wonder if it might be good for University students if you can match their major to something on TED.

[ddeubel]

It wouldn't hurt to try and now with the subtitling, they are much more accessible to second lang. learners.

However, I'd let them watch on their on dime/time. Then present based on your standard criteria. here's how Nellie did this. http://integrating-technology-efl.blogspot.com/2009/07/pmelt-presentations.html

Here are my top 10 ted talks - but I'll have to update soon, this is a year old.... I'll have to add Benjamin Zimmer for sure - its my top talk. http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2009/11/09/top-5-videos-to-inspire-teachers/

DD
http://eflclassroom.com