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Within learning communities, how do we educate youth about the ethos of TED and get them excited about contributing to the TEDx community?
While we organized our event at TEDxYouth@BIS this year, we found that we were marketing the idea of TED and TEDx to people who already understood and supported this ethos. We are looking for your ideas, resources, and other possible solutions to help educate and involve more youth in the TED and TEDx communities.
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Fritzie Reisner 100+
Young people may have a bias toward action more than discussion, particularly those who feel they already spend a lot of time at school.. Young people often do not pay great attention to the motivational speakers at their graduations, I notice, and many TED talks may ring that way. ATEDxYouth event might draw a broader audience if the plan links it to clear, immediate opportunities for action or experience beyond networking that connect with aspirations kids already have.
In this way you are less selling what may be perceived as intellectual/academic talks (that seem a lot like more of school) as offering something that feels like a practical add-on to their every day stuff.
Jeff Hoffart 500+
Upon reflection, I feel that something that we could have done better at our TEDx event, is get more community members who have connections with the event theme to attend. If we had more delegates and members from organizations such as United Nations, UNICEF, etc..., our students may have had a greater chance for success in making their ideas and action a larger reality.
I guess this comes back to the initial question. We did invite members from some of these organizations, but some of the members did not even know what TED was. So, again, it comes down to the education of our communities. One resource I thought was very powerful, was an info graphic about TED and TEDx: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fidelman/7402394044/
Again, if you did not know what TED or TEDx were, it would not mean much. So, I am interested in further ideas and resources to enable us, and everyone, to be able to successfully make TED accessible to each and every person.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
UNICEF has excellent material online, bu the way, that is focused at kids and what kids can do. You probably know this:)
If you are thinking about grade school kids in your area, why not see if you can get on the agenda at a district teacher training and present a small packet of child appropriate talks on various subjects with examples of how you have used them in your classroom? Another thing that can grab a teacher's interest, perhaps, is a list of well known people and their talks- people kids might predictably want to hear from?
On a smaller level, how about a staff meeting at your school to present that?
Sometimes the personal touch, one teacher to another, is the way to go.
I hadn't realized when I first replied to you that you were talking about grade school kids. I assumed you meant high school kids, for whom almost all the talks would be appropriate.
Tosca Killoran 500+