TED-Ed clubs is an exciting new venture by the people over at TED-Ed, which aims at getting students aged 8-18 to develop – with the help of an adult facilitator – their own TED style videos to share their ideas with fellow students all over the world.

To me it seems like a great way to inspire student inquiry, and as a means for getting students to present their ideas to a broader audience of their peers. Sure students could probably just make videos on their own (and many classes do this), but the opportunity to engage globally with peers as a community of engaged learners, sits at the heart of a lot of the transformational learning practices we often advocate for.

Literature in the field of learning sciences points to students often engaging more deeply with content when they know there’s an audience for their work, and I would imagine this is especially true for a brand as well known as TED.

There are a few steps that a club needs to take in order to become a TED-Ed Club, but registering (in addition to being added to the TED-Ed Club network) provides educators with supporting materials and hands-on support with TED-Ed staff.

I’m excited every time I see a new opportunity to support students in learning about topics they are passionate about, and providing them with the support to share that passion with a larger audience. There’s also the corollary benefit of students getting the opportunity to work hands-on with a range of multimedia tools, and develop their speaking and presentation skills in the development of their videos (skills that I feel should not be overlooked as part a student’s academic repertoire).

As a bonus below, I’ve posted a bonus TED video made by a young student on hacking his own education