TED Talks

Everything in life happens for a reason. Everyone you meet in life, you meet for a reason. Especially teachers.

If you did not know, TED.com is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.

With over 32 million views, Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson leads the pack with the most viewed TED talk of all time. He challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. You can watch his TED.com talk here:

Onstage at TED2013, Sugata Mitra made his bold TED Prize wish: Design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other -- using resources and mentoring from the cloud. His inspiring vision for Self Organized Learning Environments, earned him the TED.com prize. You can watch his TED.com talk here:

As the Executive Director of the NYDLA.org I was introduced to the world of Alternative Education (or Democratic Education) via Tamra Excell, NYDLA.org Board Member and founder of www.CMASAS.org 

Inspired by her life, and acting in her memory, The Christa McAuliffe School of Arts and Sciences honors Christa McAuliffe by educating the next generation of leaders, scientists, philosophers, artists, and others to be fully-prepared for the dynamic world of the 21st Century.

CMASAS.org opened in July 2009 and is headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon and is the culmination of over 25 years of combined experience, knowledge, and perseverance in alternative education. They combine the latest in online educational technology, integrated various online curricula, with the Personalized Education Philosophy.

Sir Ken Robinson. Sugata Mitra. Christa McAuliffe.

Everything in life happens for a reason.

The AERO conference is a unique event. There is no other one like it in the USA. It is a gathering of people who are involved with revolutionizing education, and who already have some of the answers. They demonstrate and work toward a learner-centered approach, one that empowers students, teachers and parents. It is based on the fact, confirmed by brain research, that children are natural learners and do not need to be forced to learn. In fact, if students are forced to learn it extinguishes their natural ability to learn, something that, unfortunately, happens in 95% of all schools.

One of this year's keynote speakers is Sugata Mitra, the very same winner of the TED Prize mentioned above, famous for the "Hole in the Wall Experiment" in which he put a computer in a wall in a slum area of India. Over the next few months the children not only taught themselves to use the computer, but also taught themselves English!

Sir Ken Robinson presented at previous AERO events:

I am proud to announce that this year’s NYDLA.org 2015 New York City Regional Conference shall be held in partnership with AERO. It will be my great honor and privilege to share the stage and give a keynote address with such amazing thought leaders in the world of alternative education. I will continue to blog on this as the event comes closer.

Don't Miss the NYDLA.org AERO Conference, May 20-25 at LIU/Post University, near New York City!  See www.NYDLA.org/events for more details.