Our students: this week's TEDx Editor's Pick

In the week that I'm giving my own TEDx talk for the first time, at TEDxLondon, I was over the moon to see NoTosh's last project with Thorney Close Primary School in Sunderland hit the homepage of the TEDx talks site.

My own talk this afternoon is about the very shift in vision that enabled the teachers at Thorney Close to let go of many of their reins of learning, and furnish seven and eight year old children with the power, and challenge, to find problems worth solving, or epic questions worth tapping into.

Layton's talk on Why Do Slugs Need Slime? was one of many that passed the "so what?" test of their peers, and their teachers. You can view it on the TEDx site along with a few others, and see more of the thinking behind how we handed over more of the learning process to young people on our NoTosh site.

TED is a revolution... for my students

Now, some grown ups have been getting their knickers in a twist about the TED movement and whether or not it can represent a revolution:

For these children and their teachers this was, to date, the most powerful learning experience they had ever had: read their comments for yourself. That concentration of effort, the real sense of audience, both in the room and out in the virtual world, and the responsibility given to them for their own learning, make this an invaluable life experience for adults and kids alike.

I'd encourage any educator wanting to experiment with handing over the reins of learning, and getting their students to find the problems they will explore, to consider undertaking a TEDx process with them. 

 

Comments

[chris]

Why is it necessary to log in to leave a comment on Downes' blog? Seems the antithesis of what's being aimed at here - opening up the process to all. Maybe he's not wanting comment from the wider world - or people who're fussy about apostrophes. ;-)

[Resim]

Thanks again, this portal very nice! Thanks you.

[Allan Fine]

great post Ewan as a parent I can't tell you how much I value what the teachers in my children's school do I think as a society in general we forget how much teachers give great value to society as a whole.
As a Calgary Marketing company I tried to provide great value to my students as well I am always trying to learn new things for them and sometimes just that part of my business takes up most of my time.

nowadays my two young girls 15 and 18 it's hard to believe how fast they grow and how smart they are as I tried to challenge them also with problem solving, new concepts and new ideas.
Once again Ewan thanks for the great post I will be following you a regular basis now on.