TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

I stumbled upon TED a while back when looking for other video resources besides YouTube and Google Video (both of which are blocked by my district's internet filters). It's a sleek website containing videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design from people in all areas related to those three categories - futurists, computer gamers, scientists, educators, artists, etc.

There are some very interesting and thought-provoking topics, but more importantly, the video interface has some nice features that aren't found in some other video sites. Many of the videos have closed captions (most in English, some in other languages) that can be played in real-time along with the video. Many also have interactive transcripts, in which a user can click on a portion of text and have the video jump right to that segment of the video - ideal for teachers who find part of a video which is appropriate for class, but doesn't need the whole thing.

Here's one that I particularly like: creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson discusses how modern-day school systems are killing creativity. I've embedded it below, but to check out the interactive transcript, closed captioning (in 30! languages), and even to download it as an MP4, you have to visit the video's page itself.

Posted in: video, web apps