The cult of the hyperpolyglot

Alex Rawlings demonstrates his 11 languages

Many people want to speak a second language, but for some people two can never be enough. Welcome to the world of the hyperpolyglot. 

Ray Gillon speaks 18 languages. To be precise, he only speaks eight fluently. His grasp on the other 10 is merely conversational.

Throw anything at him in Portuguese, Thai, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Bulgarian or Mandarin and he will banter back. 

In the UK, where there has been a growing anxiety over the failure to learn additional languages, Gillon might seem to be a bit of an anomaly. More and more children have been giving up languages since the last government made learning foreign languages optional in England from the age of 14.

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Study reveals words' Darwinian struggle for survival

Scientific analysis of language usage in literature over the last 200 years suggests that words are competing – and now losing – in a battle to survive

Words are competing daily in an almost Darwinian struggle for survival, according to new research from scientists in which they analysed more than 10 million words used over the last 200 years.

Drawing their material from Google's huge book-digitisation project, the international team of academics tracked the usage of every word recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew over the 209-year period between 1800 and 2008. The scientists, who include Boston University's Joel Tenenbaum and IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies' Alexander Petersen, said their study shows that "words are competing actors in a system of finite resources", and just as financial firms battle for market share, so words compete to be used by writers or speakers, and to then grab the attention of readers or listeners.

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How 'Flipping' the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture

Andrew Martin's teaching techniques get students out of their seats during his class on evolutionary biology at the U. of Colorado at Boulder. Some students enjoy the "flipped" lectures that require them to help one another understand the material. Others resent being forced to work in groups.

Andrew P. Martin loves it when his lectures break out in chaos.

It happens frequently, when he asks the 80 students in his evolutionary-biology class at the University of Colorado at Boulder to work in small groups to solve a problem, or when he asks them to persuade one another that the answer they arrived at before class is correct.

When they start working together, his students rarely stay in their seats, which are bolted to the floor. Instead they gather in the hallway or ...

You can buy this article from:
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Flipping-the-Classroom/130857/

A Boom Time for Education Start-Ups

Despite recession investors see technology companies' 'Internet moment'

Harsh economic realities mean trouble for college leaders. But where administrators perceive an impending crisis, investors increasingly see opportunity.

In recent years, venture capitalists have poured millions into education-technology start-ups, trying to cash in on a market they see as ripe for a digital makeover. And lately, those wagers have been getting bigger.

Investments in education-technology companies nationwide tripled in the last decade, shooting up to $429-million in 2011 from $146-million in 2002, according to the Na­tional Venture Capital Association. The boom really took off in 2009, when venture capitalists pushed $150-million more into education-technology firms than they did in the previous year, even as the economy sank into recession.

"The investing community believes that the Internet is hitting edu­cation, that education is having its Internet moment," said Jose Ferreira, founder of the interactive-learning company Knewton. Last year Mr. Ferreira's company scored a $33-million investment of its own in one of the biggest deals of the year.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Boom-Time-for-Education/131229/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

"Die Uni nutzt Methoden wie vor 1000 Jahren"

Er war Professor an der US-Eliteschmiede Stanford - doch Sebastian Thrun, Experte für Künstliche Intelligenz, hat genug vom alten Uni-Geschäft. Im Interview erklärt er, warum er nur noch über eine Web-Plattform lehren will und was Hochschulen mit Ex-Freundinnen gemeinsam haben.

http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/0,1518,817889,00.html#ref=rss