PBS is working with the non-profit TED, known for its 18-minute-long talks given by intellectual luminaries such as Stephen Hawking and Daniel Pink, on a new education-focused special, reports Elizabeth Jensen in The New York Times.

The one-hour special, "TED Talks Education," is the first TV venture for TED. It will air Tuesday. If it succeeds, more joint projects could come to the public broadcasting airwaves, Jensen writes.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting paid for the program’s $1 million in costs. The special, taped in April at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will be hosted by the singer John Legend.

It will feature teachers, students and educational reform advocates such as Bill Gates. "The focus is on positive changes that speakers advocate. Mixed in are clips of students discussing what excites them in school," Jensen notes.

The show has kept the TED talks to between 5 and 8 minutes, though, since TV viewers generally don’t want to sit through 18-minute speeches, the piece adds.