NCFR members and friends - lend me your ears.

No, lend TED your ears.

Who is TED? The better question is "what is TED?" If you're an educator-or a lifelong learner-you'll want to get to know TED.

TED (stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a website that consists of "Riveting talks, by remarkable people, free to the world." It's a virtual university right on your desktop. On TED, this organization collects the most fascinating mini-lectures by world-renowned experts on some of the most interesting subjects imaginable. World poverty, Web 2.0 networking, neurobiology, climate change, social trends, history-you name it-there is a scholar on TED who has a "talk" available to listen to.

Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Malcolm Gladwell are just some of the experts available on TED. And breadth of thought? Amazing. There's a talk by atheist Richard Dawkins and another by Christian evangelist Billy Graham. Since I found TED, that nagging intellectual itch gets scratched that's there every day except when the NCFR Conference is in session.

The downside is that I've now developed a new vice-listening to TED lectures. I rarely shop online or bid for collectibles on the auction websites. I'm not very interested in "stuff." Facebook and Twitter are fun, but I limit these to a few minutes a day. TED lectures, however, may pose the first real threat to cyber-addiction for me. Yikes!

Educators-these are free to show in classrooms as long as there is proper attribution. Where else could one possibly obtain guest lecturers of this caliber and at no cost? Lifelong learners? The TED people encourage you to organize "salon" discussions at home for your friends and neighbors. Think of it as "Twister for the mind." http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/art/big-images/Tele-Twister-Hi-Res-Jan-2004.jpg

Meet my new friend, TED, right here: www.ted.org

Acknowledgement: A big "shout out" here to my friend who introduced me to TED, NCFR Information Technology Manager, Jason Samuels.