Chris Anderson about global connectivity and the future of children

Written on 10th December 2008                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

When covering an extraordinary gifted person or a brilliant invention, we often include a video presentation from an influential annual conference that attracts great minds who have “ideas worth spreading”. For many, the; TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Conference, is the highlight of the year.

The private not-for-profit foundation of Chris Anderson – born in Pakistan, Oxford-graduate and magazines magnate – adopted the conference in 2002 and Anderson became curator.

At Le Web, he shared his motivation for the free online videos of TED presentations. Anderson: “People like Swedish professor Hans Rosling are brilliant. If you sat down with them, you’d learn a lot. Thanks to the free videos, everybody can hear them speak. And you know what? People online responded the same way as people off line. That means the best teachers can become global rock stars”.

These rock stars might start a revolution, considering the fact that everybody whose connected to the web will be able to learn from the most inspiring people of the world. This also goes for kids in developing countries. Anderson showed a picture of a couple kids in Pakistan. He notes that the parents of these kids – who are as old as he is – didn’t had the opportunity to learn. But the people who were born the last couple of years, will have a cell phone that’s “more powerful than the computer you’re looking at right now”.

Anderson: “Will they look at games, violence, and pornography? Or will they look at information that might take them out of poverty? If you’re working on such a service, I salute you. What you’re doing is a gift of love to these children.”

Chris Anderson, Hans Rosling, learning, leweb08, TED

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Online language learning becomes fun, Babbel.com receives funding

Written on 29th July 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent

One of the problems with online language training sites is that the content is ridiculous, and the user interface usually is unintuitive and plain ugly. (Online) language programs come and go, but usually never really take off. The guys at Berlin based Babbel have made an interesting attempt to finally create an appealing way to learn languages. The program offers English Spanish, French, German and Italian.

The language training program offers some new learning approaches, think of interactive word-n-picture matching and describing images. All words have spoken audio to get an idea for pronunciation. The site tracks (signup) your progress, and reminds you what to review.

For my review, I subscribed for (advanced) Spanish. The site has a big amount of words to learn, displayed in categories like Birthdays, Furniture and Traveling. Looking at the wordlists, I have to say that the site would fit best for people that are beginning to learn a language. I guess the site can use its funding to cover a wider level of students. Also, the site is great for memorizing words, but it would be great if there was a way to learn the grammar.

The company was originally funded by the four founders but received VC funding from VC Fonds Berlin. When I asked about the funding details, Thomas replied: “The only thing I can say that each of our investor is bringing a six-digit Euro amount into the company.”
The site offers great and free language training, and the good news is that more features can be expected with the new funding! Also, they actually have name that you won’t forget that quick.

A showcase of the new features with descriptions and screenshots are available at http://www.babbel.com/ENG/tutorials

Other language learning programs that we reviewed:

• Learnit
• lingustv

language, language tool, learning, Spanish language

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Learnit: learning a new language just got interesting

Written on 28th May 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France

I don’t often get excited enough about a new application to actually use it, let alone write about it, but given this is a European focused startup amplifier, there could be no better home for an article about this application.

From an ideas point of view, it is very interesting. Using the bombardment technique abused by marketeers to indoctrinate you, Learnit are instead using indoctrination for a productive purpose, teaching you a new language.

Teachers know something, they say you have to repeat the process you are trying to learn 50 times before it sinks in. Learnit does this by repeating and repeating the ten words that it allocates you to learn that day.

As an analytical mindset, I find learning French very hard, I don’t do well with teach-yourself CD’s, schools seem to be inefficient and a drag on time. There must be a better way to learn a language.

The beauty of Learnit is the elegance. It tells you what the curriculum for the day is and then silently just hangs around in the background waiting for that moment that your attention wanders and you’re ready for another dose. It’s like learning in your time when you want rather than having an agenda that is set, such as traditional methods – miss this class and you miss an episode.

A great example of elegant design

From a technical point of view and as an app developer myself, I’m also impressed. This is a fine example of merging and mashing up data and tools provided by others to create something unique and, most importantly, elegant.

So if you’re struggling away learning a new language, try Learnit. It just might stick on my own radar for longer than most of the ‘five-minute wonder’ apps you see these days.

language tool, languages, learning, learnit

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