TED Talks

Have you thought about using TED Talks as a supplement in your courses? TED Talks have a huge range of topics to choose from including Culture and Communication ;). But even if you can't find a topic that directly relates to your course you could post them in Blackboard as examples of well thought-out, succinct, engaging presentations--something the students can strive to imitate in their own presentations. You could also have students look through the different talks and share their favorite as a way to introduce themselves at the start of the term.

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks--taken from their website:

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize."

The talks are all under 20 minutes and speakers go through a long selection process to be chosen. 

As an example, here is a talk by Susan Cain, "The Power of Introverts", that I think is good to keep in mind  both in the classroom as well as other group settings. Share it with your students!