This is a course based on the TED talks. If you don't know about TED talks you should look at this article from Delta Airlines Sky Magazine or watch this CBS News video about the TED conference (it starts after a short commercial). Or, better yet, go to the TED web site and start watching some of the more recent talks.

The Course

• The Lecture Page provides a list of the TED talks that each class will be built around.
  • You need to look at the list for each lecture before the class because they will all have a list of talks that you need to watch before the class meets.
  • We will start each class by discussing the assigned talks that you watch before class and then we will watch another talk (or two) and discuss them and how they relate to the earlier talks.
  • The lecture page has links to all the individual TED talks that we will see in class as well as supplemental talks related to individual lectures.
• In addition to the talks we will see in class, there are several "Online Lectures" that you will need to watch during the semester.
• Here is a list of all the talks that I used, or thought seriously about using, in the class (sorted by my very subjective opinion of their entertainment value).
• The class schedule
• A description of the class paper
• The class grading scheme
• The lectures where there is an assignment have the assignment linked to that lecture page. However, for convenience, they are all collected in this list

Note: Some of the files on this site are in Adobe pdf format. If you do not have Adobe Reader (or a plugin for your web browser), you may download a free copy of Adobe Reader from The Adobe Web Site.