Central Oregon’s nonprofit i4Education organization has announced that it is rebranding and expanding the region’s TED-Ed talks and master class for presenters. Over the past two years, i4Education, the innovation arm of the High Desert Education Service District, has hosted and led two highly successful Central Oregon TED-Ed talks and trained 20 speakers using the TED-Ed Master Class curriculum format.
Tickets for the most recent annual Central Oregon TED-Ed talk (May 18, 2023) were sold out prior to the event. Inspired by TED-Ed, the new event called “The Shared Experience,” will continue to include talks, and will also welcome other forms of creative expression such as spoken word/poetry, music, visual art and student voice. All of the presenters will continue to center around innovation in education.
In preparation for the event, presenters will also be invited to join a bi-monthly workshop series, modeled after the TED-Ed masterclass. The workshops are designed to help presenters develop their talks, displays and presentations, while also bringing educators together for connection and community.
The Shared Experience workshop series is led by Diane Murray, HDESD’s assistant director of innovation, Geraldine Casimiro, HDESD’s director of Language Justice + Access, and Marcus LeGrand, Central Oregon Community College’s Afrocentric Program coordinator and instructor.
The mission of i4Education is to empower educators to incubate their ideas, share their stories and investigate solutions to the challenges facing our region’s children, families and the educators who serve them. “We believe that elevating educator and student voices about what is needed in education provides innovative solutions and inspiration for both educators and the community. This event is an invitation to come together in support and celebration of what it means to be in education. Courage is contagious, and this event serves to prove that Central Oregon educators are engaged, passionate, and have something important to teach us.” said Murray.
The next workshop for presenters will begin on November 20th, and The Shared Experience event is scheduled for May 23, 2024 at Open Space Studio. For more information, or to register for the workshop series, contact Diane Murray at diane.murray@hdesd.org or get more info here.
This article appears in Source Weekly October 26, 2023.








