Anya Kamenetz of Fast Company writes about the TED phenomenon: “By combining the principles of ‘radical openness’ and of ‘leveraging the power of ideas to change the world,’ TED is in the process of creating something brand new. I would go so far as to argue that it’s creating a new Harvard — the first new top-prestige education brand in more than 100 years.” One college professor and TED-lecturer, Barry Schwartz, thinks TED is better than his university environment. “Well, people who come to TED are open to being changed by their interactions and conversations,” says Schwartz. “They’re in an environment where they’re going to learn something new every five minutes. You could create something like that on a college campus, but generally that doesn’t happen.” [%comments]
The Magic That Is TED
and 
. You can also watch it on 
We had an opportunity to participate in a local TEDx event. It was unlike any event I have ever attended. The short presentations were thought-provoking and really inspired some great conversations.
For example, scientists from Argonne presented talks on climate change and the scientific process as well as how the increasing convergence of powerful mobile devices, social networks, and location-based services are impacting privacy, which are available on-line: http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2010/news100428.html
I can see how the TED paradigm could impact education. I know learned a lot in just one afternoon.
Ted doesn’t really focus on proven or scientifically accepted ideas. Nor the humanities for that matter. It’s bread and butter are ideas that are intriguing intellectually. Thus I don’t think it is a good substitute for University which should first focus on teaching subject matter expertise and thinking skills in a safe environment.
Ted makes no warranty that what it speakers say has any relationship with the truth, is logically sound, etc.
Barry Schwartz talks about the experience of actually attending TED over a few days, and tries to compare it to university experience over a few years.
This seems like somewhat strange for two reasons:
1) Does anyone at freakonomics know how expensive it is (registration, stay, etc) for regular people (that is, non-invitees)? I imagine it is very expensive — my uninformed guess would be a few thousand dollars at least. So in a sense, only an order of magnitude smaller price than university education, and that too only for a few days.
2) Just because one can hear about new ideas every five minutes does not mean that one can retain them all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacing_effect
On the other hand, I agree that having university students attend something like TED every few months might serve the purpose of providing inspiration. And I readily admit that I have learned much from watching TED videos, including Barry Schwartz’s.
Your link to TED doesn’t say what TED stands for. Neither does the Fast Company article.
If I have to ask, does that mean I’m not in the idea-hungry elite?
A university is more than a series of lectures. I enjoy watching them, though.
TED is pompous and silly and unweighty and inconsequential, but its biggest crime is that it doesn’t know it! Folks at TED like Tom Rielly and Chris Anderson are so self-consciously punch-drunk on themselves as “idea-ists” that they’ve lost sight of what really might matter–solutions that might actually do something/anything to help!
TED isn’t at all like a good university. In a good college class a professor and students engage in a discussion that will examine an idea in depth, critique it, review antecedents, imagine alternatives, and so forth. In TED, you get a “star” giving a quick, sexy presentation to a rapt audience, which is then forwarded in video form around the web where it is received unquestioningly as a profound and/or scientifically supported insight. The fact that Barry Schwartz thinks a university is supposed to function like TED lowers my opinion of Swarthmore.
Also, not every good idea is new. Need a bask of knowledge upon which to build. Although, it is also important not to be constrained by the knowledge. So a good university creates a good base, but also allows the student to go further.