How TED-Ed Became A Global Learning Phenomenon

Forbes

21 hours ago

TED-Ed Weekend at TED HQ, New York, NY. Photo: Ryan Lash/TED
From Classroom Idea To 5 Billion Views: TED-Ed's Story
What began as a single educator's vision has exploded into one of the most impactful educational platforms globally, TED-Ed. It's the educational arm of TED, the organization behind the iconic TED Conferences. But here, it's not talking experts who are at the center of each short video. Rather, it's a beautifully crafted animation. And this library of animated videos has garnered over 5 billion views (and more than 20 million YouTube subscribers), won awards, and become one of the go-to resources for teachers across the country.
Logan Smalley, selected as a TED Fellow by TED Fellows founder Tom Rielly, has spent the last decade building out this tangential (and perhaps lesser-known) educational platform of animated videos, student programs, and multilingual learning tools, all united by one mission: to spark curiosity.
Logan Smalley gave a TED Talk about his experience filming Darius Goes West, which began his career ... More at TED.
In 2004, Smalley was working as a high school special education teacher in Georgia; the following year, he left the classroom to shoot a documentary. Little did he know that it would be the beginning of a new career.
'I only left the classroom because I had a story—I had a friend whose story I had to help tell,' he recalled, referencing his work on the documentary Darius Goes West. The film, which was selected for Netflix, also landed Smalley on The Today Show, CNN, Nightline, and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Smalley's film went on to become a winner at countless film festivals and landed him a TED talk.
Having experience in both teaching and filmmaking, Smalley envisioned a platform that could bring TED's signature storytelling into classrooms. 'When you're a TED Fellow, you get to pitch a project,' he explained. 'And having been a teacher and a filmmaker, I pitched TED-Ed.'
The team at TED gave him a job: the opportunity to build the project from scratch. 'So it was just me for a year where I interviewed teachers and students about how TED could and should be used in schools—and what TED-Ed could and should be,' he recalls.
After a year of foundational work, TED-Ed received a grant from YouTube, enabling Smalley to test a bold new idea—producing high-quality, animated educational videos at internet scale, each made with a different expert and each made freely available online. 'One of [the things we wanted to try] was an animated new format for TED—TED-Ed animations,'
The response was immediate, Smalley says. 'In the first week, we had over a million views on the first five animations. And the initiative has grown every day since.'
Over time, TED-Ed has produced more than 1,700 animations, which have been watched over 5.8 billion times. 'That's multiple millennia of watch time,' he notes. Though TED Talks may remain the brand's most iconic product, TED-Ed animations are TED's most popular, with more average views per video than many TED channels, Rielly adds.
TED-Ed uses the power of animation to connect with students across the world.
The secret lies in the design. 'We're making them for an online audience,' Smalley says. 'Whereas the TED Talks… are made for a room and then distributed online. Just that one degree of optimization can have a big difference.'
Each video is the result of a meticulous six-month process. Experts collaborate with TED-Ed's editorial team to transform their knowledge into scripts built for video. 'Often the expert knows how to write about the topic, but they don't know how to write for video. So we help them do that.'
TED-Ed then casts professional voice actors—many of whom have become familiar voices to viewers—and layers in original music and sound design. 'You can hear the corn crinkling. It's quite a visceral effect,' Smalley says, referencing one of the program's recent successes, 'The Three Sisters'.
The Three Sisters, one of TED-Ed's recent films on climate and agriculture.
TED-Ed's evolution wasn't just about content creation—it was about access. 'TED is organized by themes every year like awe, joy, inspiration,' Smalley explains. 'Which is awesome for the conference. But not as helpful for a teacher who needs the content to connect to the subject matter he/she is teaching – like science, English literature, climate.'
So TED-Ed restructured TED content for education by tagging videos with curriculum-relevant labels, and more importantly, began making original content for 13 to 18-year-olds. 'One common misconception is thinking animation means kids,' he clarifies. 'But our videos are being consumed by 13-year-olds, and upper high school and college. So this is a different take on animation than say a cartoon show for little kids.'
The goal wasn't just to educate, but to spark inquiry. 'If you were to distill it down, what's the secret sauce to making these interesting for children or teenagers?' he asks rhetorically. 'Curiosity.'
As TED-Ed's content flourished, the team asked a pivotal question: what next? 'We said, OK, let's create a program where students go from consumers of content to producers of content—in which they gain a critical skill, which is presentation literacy,' says Rielly.
Student Darlene Gitta Hamida spoke at TED-Ed Weekend in TED HQ, New York, NY during a Student TED ... More Talk event. Photo: Ryan Lash/TED
The result was TED-Ed Student Talks, a free, flexible 11-lesson curriculum that helps students identify, develop, and present their ideas TED-style. With over 50,000 student talk groups to date, it's now one of the largest student voice programs in the world. 'Many of them have spoken on the TED main stage and received millions of views," Rielly notes.
One standout story is Ayana, a young student who used TED-Ed to express her dream of becoming a filmmaker. She was invited to deliver a talk at TED's World Theater in New York. 'She ended up getting a full scholarship to become a filmmaker,' Smalley says. 'There are so many stories like hers.'
Creating Global Impact Through Animation
TED-Ed's ambitions go beyond the English-speaking world. 'We have 1.2 million subscribers in Spanish,' says Smalley, 'and we've recently won a grant to launch nine additional channels—Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, Swahili, and Thai.'
Animations are uniquely suited for global distribution. 'They're animated, so there's no faces for dubbing, and not relying exclusively on translated subtitles can circumvent the literacy barrier,' he explains.
This global push is particularly valuable in climate education. 'Climate can't be solved in English alone,' he adds. 'TED-Ed is in a position to… reach the people who already care and the movable middle.'
TED-Ed's impact isn't limited to students. They also offer professional development for teachers and sustain a large network of animators at a time when AI is threatening creative industries. 'We're one of the most consistent employers of animators. We help them grow their portfolio, get discovered by millions,' Smalley says. 'Sometimes it's even led to major commercial deals, including Super Bowl ads.'
Asked if TED-Ed is running out of ideas, Smalley laughs. 'We could make content forever about one topic… I wish we could make 1,000 videos a year. There's no shortage.'
And what's next? 'Languages, distribution, and more,' Rielly says. 'All young students deserve free, high-quality educational materials. In 2025, there's no reason whatsoever that anyone should have a dated science textbook or no access in the first place.'
TED-Ed's latest release is actually in the physical realm — a jigsaw puzzle that's garnered over $1 ... More million on Kickstarter.
Plus, the TED-Ed team have just launched their first physical product: a game (filled with puzzles), called Pandora's Legacy. It's garnered over $1.2 million in pre-sales and support; the goal was initially to hit $300,000.'Let's just say both the game itself and the Kickstarter launch have been incredibly successful and a validation of the TED-Ed ethos and brand,' says Rielly.
TED-Ed, now with a 20+ person team, is just getting started. What began as one teacher's pitch has become a worldwide movement. And as Smalley puts it, 'It's just so fun to learn… and I think people kind of forget that sometimes. Imagine if your high school experience was filled with curiosity-invoking, thought-provoking and action-inspiring content every day. That's what's happening with TED-Ed on a global scale.'