For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning -- building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it ...

Chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam knows that great educational media can be nothing short of explosive. Strap on your goggles and watch his top picks.

On the TED@BCG stage, AI pathfinder Philipp Gerbert dispels the myth of AI as a complex and mysterious tool for business. In reality, he says, even those of us outside Silicon Valley can have an intimate understanding of AI and put it to work today. Gerbert walks us through the ABC's of AI and what it can mean for your organization.

Diana Laufenberg shares three surprising things she has learned about teaching -- including a key insight about learning from mistakes.

Linda Zhang says she knows how to get students excited about learning: Wrap their lessons in real-world problems they want to solve.

Give old things new life and even imagine a futuristic perspective on repurposing everyday items with these fun and thoughtful talks.

National Geographic Learning’s goal is to bring the world to the classroom, and the classroom to life for English language learners at all levels. With National Geographic Learning programs with TED Talks, students learn their world by experiencing it through the stories, ideas, photography and video of National Geographic and TED. TED Speaker ...

AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It i...

Wofford College president Bernie Dunlap tells the story of Sandor Teszler, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who taught him about passionate living and lifelong learning.

Keep the brain sharp and engaged with these talks that make it fun to avoid the "summer slump."

Animals are communicating -- but what are they saying? And can we talk back? Marine biologist David Gruber introduces Project CETI: a team of scientists, linguists and AI specialists hoping to decode sperm whale language. Using noninvasive robots and a machine-learning algorithm to collect and analyze millions of sperm whale vocalizations known ...

Computers can beat us in board games, transcribe speech, and instantly identify almost any object. But will future robots go further by learning to figure out what we're feeling? Kostas Karpouzis imagines a future where machines and the people who run them can accurately read our emotional states — and explains how that could allow them to assis...

Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds -- within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being. And then, says Nick Bostrom, it will overtake us: "Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make." A philosopher and technologist, Bostrom asks us to think...

Here's a paradox: as companies try to streamline their businesses by using artificial intelligence to make critical decisions, they may inadvertently make themselves less efficient. Business technologist Sylvain Duranton advocates for a "Human plus AI" approach -- using AI systems alongside humans, not instead of them -- and shares the specific ...

An advocate for women's health, Barbra Streisand founded the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center -- whose director is TEDxWomen star Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz. Together they pick some great talks for women and, really, anyone.

What if building intelligent systems and innovations was as easy as drawing connections on a computer screen? Joachim Horn has made this possible. SAM Labs' K-12 STEM, STEAM and learn to code courses put the brainpower and experience of engineers in the hands of anyone. SAM Labs enables students with imagination to go from idea to prototype almo...

Words by teachers, for teachers and everyone else who just needs some solid and worldly advice.

Despite her best efforts, comedian Julia Sweeney is forced to tell a little white lie when her 8-year-old begins learning about frog reproduction -- and starts to ask some very smart questions.

The path to skill around the globe has been the same for thousands of years: train under an expert and take on small, easy tasks before progressing to riskier, harder ones. But right now, we're handling AI in a way that blocks that path -- and sacrificing learning in our quest for productivity, says organizational ethnographer Matt Beane. What c...

Conversing onstage with an AI persona she created just for this talk, Mariana Lin, one of the principal writers for the voice of Siri, shares what she's learned designing artificial personalities -- and calls on tech companies to get more creative when bringing AI to life in all its messy, complicated glory.

Early education is critical to children's success -- but millions of kids in the United States still don't have access to programs that prepare them to thrive in kindergarten and beyond. Enter the UPSTART Project, a plan to bring early learning into the homes of children in underserved communities, at no cost to families. Education innovator Cla...

Brute computing force alone can't solve the world's problems. Data mining innovator Shyam Sankar explains why solving big problems (like catching terrorists or identifying huge hidden trends) is not a question of finding the right algorithm, but rather the right symbiotic relationship between computation and human creativity.

In this talk, musician and educator Anita Collins makes a passionate case for music education as an indispensable part of school curricula, describing how learning to play music is the neurological equivalent of a full-body workout.

You spend a quarter of your life at work. You should enjoy it! Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the minds of some of the world's most unusual professionals to discover the keys to better work life. From learning how to love your rivals to harnessing the power of frustration, one thing's for sure: You'll never see your job ...

Self-driving cars were just the start. What's the future of big data-driven technology and design? In a thrilling science talk, Kenneth Cukier looks at what's next for machine learning -- and human knowledge.

How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.

We all strive for happiness -- but we spend most of our lives learning to be unhappy, says Srikumar Rao. In this practical talk, he teaches how to break free of the "I'd be happy if ..." mental model, and embrace our hard-wired happiness.

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Our talks featuring sharks -- arguably one of the more misunderstood creatures of the deep blue sea.

What's a proven way to lower your energy costs? Would you believe: learning what your neighbor pays. Alex Laskey shows how a quirk of human behavior can make us all better, wiser energy users, with lower bills to prove it.