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Blending, learning, googling
2007-05-28 09:49:00 Text has dominated learning for 500 years, but no longer… Here’s a post I meant to link to last week but never got round to. Jeff Jarvis notes how Google plan to include video, photos, and news into their search results. He says: This promotes other media to the exalted rank of text… You should be using whatever media best communicates information in the form the user wants. I completely agree. Although he’s talking about news, I would argue the same applies to here at ChinesePod and SpanishSense. It’s the end of the Gutenberg era. As is happening with news, no longer does text dominate the learning landscape. Now, audio and other forms of multi-media are all on an equal footing. There now exists a whole new variety of tools and channels with which to learn and communicate. Each one of them can add depth to the input, add more ‘dimensions’ to the learning. Crucially, it’s up to the user to decide which forms suit him best, to con... More About: Learning , Learn , Blend , Lending , Lend
Learning on your own terms
2007-05-26 11:06:00  In recent weeks I’ve been thinking about learner autonomy more and more – learning on your terms. Below are some notes I took on the topic, some of them proimpted by Phil Benson’s excellent Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learn ing . “The autonomous learner is one that constructs knowledge from direct experience, rather than one who responds to someone’s instruction .”                                                                    Since learning is multi-dimensional, we must take an eclectic approach. The individual needs the freedom/empowerment to experiment and discover what works for him, to  align his behaviors with his objectives. We are not a replacement for the classroom or for formal teaching, particularly if the learner himself wishes those things. This is why blended learning is effective: it embraces the various modalities and practices to suit th... More About: Terms , Term , Earning
Who is behind Praxis Language?
2007-05-23 11:09:00 You may have come across references to ‘Praxis Language ’ in recent times, so let me give you some background to it. In September 2005, myself, Hank Horkoff, and Steve Williams put together the resources to begin the ChinesePod project. The experience has been kind of like watching a child grow. Over time, we’ve come to believe that the animating idea behind ChinesePod has a broad and potentially disruptive application. In fact, we’ve developed an almost messianic belief in the thing. Why? Well, any start-up needs to take advantage of some social trend. ChinesePod is actually riding 2 mega-trends: the rise of Mandarin, and the spread of web 2.0 and other technologies. I think we’re looking at great social and economic change out there. It could be a question of ‘right time, right place’. But it’s hard to predict the future. My own view is that there’s a revolution in learning going on. I guess we’re in the middle of it, ... More About: Behind , Axis
The 21st Century Campus
2007-05-20 05:07:00 While Blackboard created a lot of angst in the e-learning community last year when they tried to enforce their patent on learning management systems, they are the dominant e-learning provider (helped by their WebCT acquisition) in the United States with ~80% market share. While I personally disagree with their use of proprietary, closed systems they have a series of white papers that closely fit with our vision of the future of learning. Of particular interest (p.14-16 of this Leadership White Paper - PDF link): A successful 21st century university is student-centered institution, unconstrained by time and place, that operates simultaneously, in a local and global context, constantly measuring and communicating its progress, and continually renewing its commitment to student, community, and the economic competitiveness of the country. This also caught my attention: The era of students attending one institution, being loyal to the brand and learning through a single set of offerings... More About: Campus , Century
Thanks for the memory
2007-05-18 12:06:00 I talked with Maria Massarini today about using memorization techniques to learn languages. Let me share my thoughts on the topic. Ultimately, learning a language is a feat of memory. No memory, no learning. This insight is one of the key drivers of how we structure ChinesePod and SpanishSense, yet many people may not be aware of how or why. Despite the centrality of memory to learning, I am no fan of memorization in the sense of ‘rote memorization’, because I believe there are plenty of less painful alternatives. (I’m open to persuasion by the Big Brain on this, of course.) Let me give you some examples of what I mean, taken from the podcast lessons. Recent studies show that ‘acoustic coding’ (processing the the sound of a new word/item) happens before the ’semantic coding’ (the meaning). This is one reason why we present the sounds of the language in the dialogs first before attending the meaning - translations and explanations. You have ... More About: Memory , Memo , Thanks , Hank
The ChinesePod 500 Lesson Torrent is Back
2007-05-18 10:45:00 We have retested the torrent file, and it’s working great. To download a torrent file, you need a BitTorrent client (for example, BitComet or Azureus). After your BitTorrent client is installed, your system should recognize the torrent filetype. Click on the link below and open the file with your BitTorrent client. That will get the download started. ChinesePod 500 Less on Torrent (3.1 GB) Enjoy! More About: Back , Lesson , Rent
We need (brilliant) teachers!
2007-05-15 12:13:00 Hi guys, We’re looking for Chinese teachers who live in Shanghai to join our Practice Plan team (formerly known as the 8 week program, sometimes called Octagon, etc). We want to talk to you if you are enthusiastic, experienced, passionate, and an awesome Mandarin teacher. Are you such a person? Alternatively, do you have a tutor/teacher you would like to recommend to us? Benefits include full ChinesePod training and a competitive part-time salary. Please drop us a line at chinesepod[at]gmail.com. Thanks in advance! Eileen More About: Teacher , Need , Hers , Teachers , Teac
Beyond E Learning interviews Jay Cross
2007-05-14 12:41:00 second Here’s the second in the Beyond E Learn ing series. This time I talk with Jay Cross about the learning revolution and how he sees the future. As the man who is credited with coining the term ‘e-learning’ I think Jay has some worthwhile insights into what might come next. The context here is learning in the corporate environment. Jay emphasizes the importance of relating learning to performance. He talks a lot about ‘informal learning’ - in fact he has written an excellent book on the subject. One point that struck me during the converssation was how the ChinesePod approach has much in common with Jay’s notion of informal learning, particularly as we both believe theat learning is best promoted through ‘natural’ methods. Jay also blogged about the interview here. Ken Carroll More About: Interviews
ChinesePod in the Classroom?
2007-05-14 09:21:00 via The Strength of Weak Ties blog, on the debate (distraction vs. study tool) whether or not to allow iPods in the classroom: Better yet, maybe they could find a way to use those electronic devices in instruction. For example, could kids sit in a study hall and learn Chinese if they had an iPod? Sure they could, with ChinesePod, which offers 515 Chinese lessons for the iPod. While we are happy to make Chinese language instruction available to students who learn with the help of teachers in high school or university settings, to date our lesson review is designed more for the independent learner. With the launch of our Practice Plan (also known as the 8 week program) we have been looking at changing this by adding lesson management tools to help our counselors better manage their students’ study. These tools currently include (a) a private blog to manage and archive communication between student and counselor and (b) the ability for a counselor to pre-populate a study schedul... More About: Class , Room
ChinesePod on NBC Nightly News
2007-05-13 13:11:00  We had visitors on Friday. The NBC Nightly News crew came over to the factory and spent most of the day with us. It looks like they may run two stories. One is how ChinesePod reflects the growing interest in Mandarin around the world. The second is for CNBC and looks at the ChinesePod business-model. Both should run within the next 3 weeks. These guys are smooth operators. Anchor Mark Mullen was impressive. I found him approachable, open, and genuinely interested to what we had to say. (This contrasts with some experiences I’ve had in the past with big media.) Here’s an interesting article he wrote on China some months ago. I’ll keep you posted.  Ken Carroll
The Saturday Show is bouncing back
2007-05-13 12:30:00  In the midst of all the changes of recent months you may have gotten the impression that the Saturday Show had somehow disappeared. It hasn’t. You can find it here.  The Saturday Show will continue. Aric, as ever, has lot of ideas for it going forward. If you haven’t been there for a while, drop in and see what they’re up to. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more news about the show.   Ken Carroll More About: Back
Premium Audio
2007-05-12 08:13:00 An interesting Open Source podcast discussion from Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post on how ‘quality’ content will become more valuable in the future (~ timestamp 5:00 - 12:00). link Murdoch Connection The discussion was sparked by Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the Wall Street Journal. Via a Forbes article, Murdoch describes the current media revolution: Fans of small niches can now find new content they could never before. Going elsewhere for news and entertainment is easier and cheaper than ever. And people’s expectations of media have undergone a revolution. They are no longer content to be a passive audience; they insist on being participants, on creating their own material and finding others who will want to read, listen and watch. But then goes on to argue that in this new landscape quality content will be more, not less, valuable: Nonetheless, it would be wrong to conclude from this that the age of content is over. On the contrary, people want conten... More About: Audio , Premium , Remi
The Ideal Lesson Graphic
2007-05-10 03:46:00 What is the ideal lesson graphic? With the launch of V3, we got one message loud and clear: the ideal lesson graphic is not a random stock photo. Fair enough. It’s not that we’re stock photo aficionados; in this case using stock photos was the best way to get the graphics all done for the crossover to V3. We couldn’t use the old ones because of the different format and style. OK, so we know what the ideal lesson graphic is not. But what makes it good? The resounding message we got in user feedback was that the graphics should have Chinese characters in them or at least some sort of Chinese style. With this in mind, we’ve been experimenting with the style of the lesson graphic. Take a look at the following examples: Newbie - Requesting a Glass of Water Newbie - Mosquitoes Media - 盗款买彩 Upper Intermediate - Chinese Onomatopoeia Elementary - Ordering Xiaolongbao Newbie - Colors Song Intermediate - A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son Upper In... More About: Graphic , Less , Lesson , Esso , Graph
Changes to the blog today
2007-05-10 03:22:00 Later today we will move this blog over the Praxis Language. We’re doing this to simplify things. I will blog at the new url and both SpanishSense and ChinesePod will link to it. My posts there will concern the broader issues - learning, web 2.0, linguistics, etc. For Chinese-specific items, I’ll post in the ‘Connect’ section, rather than the blog. There shouldn’t be any disruption for you. All previous posts/comments will be moved to the new url, so if you have old threads or duiscussions here, you won’t lose them. From your perspective, the experience should be more or less the same as before. The ‘ChinesePod Weblog’ link at the bottom of the page (throughout the site) will take you directly. There’ll also be an automatic re-direct for those of you who may have bookmarked this blog. Hope that doesn’t cause any hassle. See you at Praxis! Ken Carroll More About: Blog , Today , Changes , Chang , Chan
What does ‘learning on your terms’ really mean?
2007-05-08 14:54:00 We’ve been busy over at Praxis Language, talking about, amongst other things, the meaning behind the slogan Learn ing on your terms. Link. Ken Carroll More About: Terms , Real , Really
‘A Reality Check for Newspapers’
2007-05-08 14:39:00 Jason Fry’s impressive article in the WSJ yesterday echoes much of what we’ve been saying around here for some time. He talks about the foolhardy attempt by some Belgian media outlets to sue Google for linking to their content without paying for it. More generally, however, the article describes something of the havoc that traditional media are seeing. The center is losing control: Whether or not content creators like it, this is the age of fragmentation. In industry after industry, consumers are voting with their feet against old methods of packaging and distributing information. They want to pick and choose what’s of interest to them, without having to pay for or wade through what isn’t. While people are consuming content on their own terms … If you put executives from a TV network, a record label and a newspaper at a bar and let them get to sharing their troubles, they’d find themselves telling much the same story: Their content is being cho... More About: Reality , Newspapers , Check , Paper , Real
Power to the people
2007-05-08 11:03:00 The Praxis Language slogan, Learning on your terms, reflects the shift towards a learner-centric future that I believe is inevitable. Learning on your terms is about empowerment, something you choose to do yourself, not something that we (or a teacher) can do to you. OK, now listen up, everyone. I’m going to teach you on your own terms. Just do as I say… Er, no. The act of formulating your own goals, choosing your own inputs, etc, helps you focus and commit to your course of study. It allows you to align your behaviors with your objectives. In my experience, this motivates more effectively than someone telling you what to do, or making the decisions for you. (Methinks we all had enough of that in school.) Now, for the first time, technology offers learners the chance to be much more in control of their learning. Yes! (This type of power shift is being effected by the internet and is happening across every industry that I know of.) Self-directed learners achieve more... More About: Power , People , The People
Can Software Replace Teachers?
2007-05-07 05:58:00 Preamble First of all, I don’t mean our beloved academics Ken, Jenny and John with this question. I am referring to teachers who use published learning materials and have a direct, two-way relationship with students. They could be language teachers, grade school teachers, or even university professors. The motive behind my question stems from how we might further develop our Practice Plan product which supplements our Premium subscriptions with a ten-minute daily phone call from one of our Chinese counselors. While the daily phone calls fill a gap in our service by providing (a) student motivation, (b) an outlet for questions, and (c) feedback on speaking skills, it is a different kind of business for a us - a service business, rather than the media business we have grown up with. The Debate A quick Google scan on the issue, reveals a very polarized debate. On one hand, you have the software developer corner who focus on the economics of education and sees a lot of ‘inef... More About: Software , Teacher , Place , Hers , Lace
Why are you learning Chinese?
2007-05-06 11:57:00 Here’s something we haven’t talked about for a while: Why we’re all learning Chinese . There are lots of new people entering the community since V3. I’m seeing some new ideas and attitudes - particularly in the ‘Connect’ section. Some people arrive here on a mission: they were already determined to learn Mandarin before we ever met them; others are just visiting when they try it out and get hooked on the language. Either way, it’s not always clear what motivates our community to want to take up the study of Chinese, to proceed with it and eventually succeed with it. Are your motivations mainly practical? Mainly for reasons of personal development? A strategic move for the future? Something your boss told you to do? (I’ve mentioned the newcomers to ChinesePod above, but of course I definitely want to hear fom the stalwarts, too!) Ken Carroll More About: Learning , Learn , Earning
Cinco de Mayo
2007-05-04 17:02:00 Cinco de Mayo (’May 5th’) is a bifg celebration in Mexico and indeed in parts of the US. So, Viva Cinco de Mayo to all. You can read more about it here and here. If anyone has more to share with us on Cinco, please feel free! Ken Carroll
Cinco de Mayo
2007-05-04 17:02:00 Cinco de Mayo (’May 5th’) is a bifg celebration in Mexico and indeed in parts of the US. So, Viva Cinco de Mayo to all. You can read more about it here and here. If anyone has more to share with us on Cinco, please feel free! Ken Carroll More About: Cinco de Mayo
Re-ordering of Everything
2007-05-01 03:06:00 An interesting discussion on the ‘Re-ordering of Ever ything’ inspired by David Weinberger’s new book “Everything is Miscellaneous” on the Open Source podcast. You can listen to this podcast here: link The core premise is that in the physical world traditional rules of taxonomy dominated, with everything having to be in some place and things only being in one place. Digitization has fundamentally broken down this old order and as a result a new taxonomy of knowledge is emerging. This ‘folksomony’ powered by user labeling or tagging allows consumers of media to graft their own mental map of the world onto content thereby adding and enhancing it. This leads to the interesting situation where authors are no longer the ultimate authority of their own work, as this power shifts to the reader who gets the last word by adding their own categorization schemes. If we produce a lesson on giving a taxi driver instructions, a student could easily bundle... More About: Order , Thing , Erin
Is Spanish hard?
2007-04-29 03:13:00 Over at the Language Realm, an interesting post on the relative ease (or otherwise) of learning Span ish . Ken Carroll More About: Hard , Nish
Tell us your pain points
2007-04-27 06:23:00  In a previous thread, Fu Da Wei made an observation about how he could readily understand Spanish simply on reading it. There’s no question that, for an English speaker, learning Spanish is much easier than Chinese. (Fu Da Wei is a newcomer to Spanish, and he’s also studying Chinese with us.) With Chinese, reading doesn’t offer the same learning potential to the novice as Spanish does. With Spanish, there are so many cognates and basic similarities (to English) that you can guess meanings and get through simple texts, even at a newbie stage. (Reading is a really good way to receive input valuable.) With Chinese, however, you need to memorize a fairly wide knowledge of the characters before reading becomes viable. (We’ve relied more on audio with ChinesePod to get to that point.) I’d like to develop a discussion here on what you, the learners, see as the ‘pain points’ in learning Spanish. What are the most difficult things about learni... More About: Pain , Point , Points , Tell
Schedule and Topics
More articles from this author:2007-04-23 13:24:00 Since launching a few weeks ago we’ve had loads of feedback from users (thanks to all who have contributed) and are responding to it as fast as we can in the audio content. There have been tons of good suggestions, and we have our own improvements we want to implement too. The thing is, all ... More About: Schedule , Topics , Topic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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