TED-ED: Videos to Stimulate Critical Thinking

TED is a non-profit society dedicated to furthering and sharing innovative ideas that have been developed by some of the most brilliant minds around the globe. The society holds two annual conferences during which speakers from all different intellectual and educational backgrounds present short, interactive lectures on a topic of their expertise. Many of the speakers choose to incorporate animated videos to provide gripping visuals that help articulate the topic discussed. TED records each of these videos and collects the sub-videos used by speakers within their lectures, and makes them available for viewing online. One of the website's features is a subsite called TED-ED, which categorizes some of the most interesting and educational videos according to subject area, also providing reflection questions for each video and direction for further research.

TED-ED is a site that I would use in class, perhaps choosing one or two days a month to show a video and afterwards have a discussion circle to further explore the relevancy of the ideas or issues presented by that video. Depending on the topic, that discussion can serve as the beginning of a larger project that integrates several content areas. For example, if I wanted to teach a secondary unit on symbolism in advertising (say, perhaps, to a 12th grade English class), I would show the TED-ED video titled The Key to Media's Hidden Codes. Beforehand, I would introduce the word "symbol" and do a careful breakdown of the different types of symbols, giving several examples of words, images, or sounds that function as symbols. Afterwards, as a class, we would take the quick quiz provided by the website and then form a circle to have a seminar discussion about the power symbols have to move us toward action. Questions to consider would include:

• Do you think that it is important to be aware of the symbols around you? Why?
• If, as the video states, the brain is like a sponge, why would it be important to be attentive to the things to which we expose our minds?
• If you were a business man, in what ways would symbols be important to your work? What about other professions?
• Is there an honest/dishonest way of using symbols to influence people?
• How does the way an artist uses symbols differ from the way an advertising firm uses symbols? 

The video and the discussion would hopefully lay the groundwork for students to complete a team project to invent an imaginary product and create a video advertisement for that product that incorporates verbal symbols, visual symbols, and aural symbols.