Jed Silverstein

Athlete, Brainstormer, Change Agent, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Filmmaker, Idea generator, Jewish

Jed Silverstein is the Coordinator of the Learning Research Team (LRT) and teaches literature and philosophy at Riverdale Country School. The mission of the LRT is to promote faculty collaboration and educational innovation. He serves as the faculty advisor to the RCS TED Talk Team with an upcoming TEDx event scheduled for May 2015. Jed received his PhD in Philosophy from Brown University. He was recently featured in the documentary "Most Likely to Succeed," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. His interests are educational innovation and design, and the application of philosophical theory to pedagogical practice.

I spend a lot of my time thinking about educational design, and how schools can be transformed to respond to the emerging challenges of the coming century.

It is increasingly common for educators to use video for instruction. But I am convinced that video can be just as powerful for assessment of student work. Contemporary assessment practices reflect the pressures and incentives of a factory model of education. Teachers provide obscure and static feedback on student work because they don't have the time or space to differentiate their feedback in a way that produces richer and more constructive criticism. We should use technology to capture the benefits of the old, pre-modern educational system that emphasized one to one instruction. I don't want to go back to the elitism and injustice of an aristocratic society, but it certainly got teacher assessment right with its emphasis on close and individualized assessment. Video allows us to provide feedback to each of our students with the same level of attention and detail that Alexander the Great got from Aristotle.

Education (Children; Adults), Education Arts, English teaching, Education Religious Studies, Teaching & Learning

My wife was an early addict of TED Talks. Once I caught the bug, I was hooked. I am coordinating one of the first student-run, student-led TEDx events in the NYC area. I come to TEDActive this year to learn from interesting and creative people who don't think within the lines.

Acting, telling jokes, and singing.