ChinesePod - a web 2.0 language-learning model

I've been crawling through different language-learning websites on the Internet. It was a pretty samey experience...I'd click on a link that promises to teach me a language online, get delivered to a site that would let me download a few pdfs, half-hearted podcasts, but really just wanted me to buy their book (first authored in the 80s, but Newly Updated!) with accompanying audio CD-ROM. If I was really lucky, I'd get a website offering me the chance to purchase an interactive language learning programme...which would be posted to me on CD-ROM.

The global market for language-learning products and services is estimated to be in excess of $100 billion. So with web 2.0 in overdrive all around, I was beginning to wonder just what's the story with language learning?

But then I found Ken Carroll's ChinesePod. Sigh :)

Don't get me wrong, this educational offering isn't perfect, but they're head and shoulders against the other language-learning sites I've been on.

ChinesePod starts by offering a free podcast every day. And thanks to their buy-in to the Creative Commons licence, you can download the podcast, cut it up, play with it, share it, and even republish it (apparently a French guy has been going through some podcasts replacing the English instructions with French). As long as you credit ChinesePod, they're happy for you to play with their content. A very good start.

But ChinesePod isn't just podcasts. It's split into three environments: 'explore', 'study' and 'connect'. In explore you can check out over 500 lessons at 6 different levels. Topics include 'I've lost my keys' and 'closing a meeting'. You can assess your level of learning with a free listening test, or you can arrange to speak with a real live teacher who will perform a needs analysis. You can pick and choose your own lessons, add them to a calendar and get them delivered by rss to your PC.

When you're ready to study, you can print transcripts or view them on your mp3 player. And online you can get consolidation with interactive lessons and games.

The connect section makes use of social networking principles to provide learners with a well-designed space in which they can ask and answer questions and connect with other learners with the same interests or in the same geographical location.

So what's the revenue model? There are no ads. So once you've exhausted the free content, or when you fancy a bit more, you can subscribe. $9 a month gets you access to PDF transcripts and other bits and bobs. $30 gets you an additional range of guides, exercises, games and tests. And if you fancy the human touch and you've cash to burn, for $200 you can get a needs analysis, a personalised study plan and someone to practise with for 10 minutes every single day of the week.

So it's all good, right? Well I think it's mostly good, if not fantastic. But I've not explored ChinesePod in depth. I have no interest in learning Chinese, but I will be checking out Spanish Sense, Ken Carroll's new baby.

So without having tried hard to learn I'm not the right person to make an informed critique...but I will admit that I have shades of doubt over the instructional design of the content. This is not to say that the ChinesePod team aren't paying their fullest attention to this matter. I think there's room for improvement in how the learning is presented and structured. But ChinesePod seem keen to explore and improve not just the web 2.0 technologies that drive this site but also their learning content.

As a language-learning model, ChinesePod is so different to the rest, I'm delighted and amazed they've got so much right in such a short space of time...just six months after setting up they had 20,000 people subscribing to their free podcasts...and 3,000 people had subscribed to receive a fuller service. But a year ago, interest in ChinesePod exploded...and they had notched up more than 10,000,000 lesson downloads.

ChinesePod and Spanish Sense now have a mobile site which enables language-learning on the go. Oh for the new iPhone...

Waterfall Bad, Washing Machine Good?

I just came across this well-received post and presentation by Leisa Reichelt, who is a User Experience Consultant (someone who creates customer experiences that are both pleasurable and effective).

She's an advocate of a non-linear, user-centred approach to design and build of anything from a retail space or a phone call, to a website.

She's posted a presentation which explains the pros of the washing machine approach (an iterative design process) versus the cons of a traditional 'waterfall' approach (used often in advertising, broadcasting, and much corporate e-learning solutions) where the design and build cycle follow a strict and linear process of

SCOPE
DESIGN
BUILD
TEST

Although I'm not convinced by the washing machine metaphor*, the presentation is worth a watch for an compare/contrast between the two design styles.

*in my experience, you open a washing machine, put stuff in, click on and leave it until it's finished...not much scope for opening it halfway and adding another pair of jeans or switching cycles...

A blank canvas...language learning in a 3D world

I've been thinking about how an immersive 3D environment could help language learning. I've worked on a project where we created an entire house and garden as an environment for learning Irish. The learner could click and explore all the objects in the house, and clicking certain objects opened up language learning games or activities.

This worked well for the average learner - they could see an object, click to hear how to pronounce the name of the object, and also see a text label.

But we decided what went in the house, what was placed where, what the learner had to learn.

What I'd love to experiment with is a 3D environment that has nothing in it. Just a big white space that the learner enters with an avatar.

The idea is that as the learner learns words, the objects appear in the 3D world. So if they learn the colours of the rainbow, a rainbow appears in the empty space. If they learn the words for sky and grass and trees, these appear. As the learner progresses in the language, the world fills out. The learner makes the world. If they discover how to say 'I have a blue dog and five friendly sisters' then a blue dog and five friendly sisters appear in the world.

And learners could connect with each other via text chat or audio...populating their world with real conversations.

But learning a language isn't just about learning a word and ticking a box. It's also about retention...so in this 3D world, objects could begin to fade if the learner doesn't use the vocabulary...every time they log in they could be presented with a list of endangered objects that they must 'save'.

Right. Who's got a few million in development funding for me?

Mobile Phones as Offensive Weapons

So Chris Keates, general secretary of teaching union NASUWT wants mobile phones banned from school premises because they're being used as 'offensive weapons'.

Now I understand that mobile phones can be used by students in the classroom for all the wrong reasons - for student and teacher bullying, for covert recordings of teacher performance (which can subsequently be shared on sites like bebo or youtube), for distraction, for cheating, or just for entertaining students bored out of their skulls.

And I do understand that today's hugely pressured teachers can do without the potential for harrassment, ridicule or attack that mobile phones can present. But to classify mobiles as 'offensive weapons' that should be banned from the classroom is just plain wrong.

When I was at school, pupils used pen and paper or chalk and a blackboard to effectively humiliate, bully or ridicule both staff and pupils. Nobody suggested banning these 'offensive weapons'.

Instead of demonising the mobile technologies that are changing the way today's pupils interact with the world they will have to work in, we should be exploring how mobile phones offer teachers and educationalists a fantastic way to connect with pupils. To deliver, create and receive content. To engage and challenge pupils.

Mobile phones are not potential weapons of mass destruction. Used wisely and used creatively, they are potential tools of mass education.

Language Learning Facts

I'm reading How the Brain Learns by David Sousa. It's an introduction to what parts of the brain are used for what function, and is written specifically for teachers and trainers.

At the moment I'm particularly interested in language learning. According to David, a newborn baby's brain is not a blank slate. Certain areas are specialised for specific stimuli, including spoken language.

And apparently the window for acquiring spoken language opens soon after birth (although I suspect it happens even earlier - in the womb). The ability to acquire spoken language tapers off around the ages of 10-12 years. Beyond that age, learning any language becomes more difficult.

In the UK, educators tend to provide language learning only at the age where the ability to learn is decreasing.

In the Republic of Ireland, Irish-language learning is provided from the first years of school, and has been since the earliest years of the Republic's inception. Yet the Irish language has been in steady decline.

So not only must we introduce language learning early so we can take advantage of the developing brain, we really need to analyse what kind of language learning works.

David points out that the genetic impulse to learn language is so strong that children found in feral environments often make up their own language. Children's brains are wired for learning quickly and effectively. As teachers and educators, we need to learn how to best deliver the information they need, when they're most receptive.

Google as My Second Brain

I said yesterday in my Liquid e-Learning: Laptops and Mobile Phones as Thinking Prosthetics post that I know how the American college student who carries his laptop around everywhere feels. I sometimes feel like Google is my second brain. I frequently don't make any attempt to memorise facts as I know I can access them when I need them - why waste my brain space?

On a personal level though, Google sometimes scares me. In the olden days (The Dial-up Connection Era) if I needed to know something (like A Good Pancake Recipe or How Do I Clean my Leather Jacket?) I'd ring my mother. And I would always get great advice (it helped that I knew not to ring her for advice on Cheap and Effective Cocktail Recipes or Useful Lies for Uncomfortable Situations).

But along with the great advice I might also have to get other information - my mother's equivalent of Google Ads. So I'd move along from How To Clean my Leather Jacket to hearing about Your Man up the road who had his leather jacket destroyed that time he was hit by lightning, and from there onto Josey Meehan's cows that Got Loose and went running into...you get the picture.

Google ads are elective information - I can choose whether or not to explore them. And more often than not, I don't have time to check them out.

My mother's information always comes with context, and often with years or generations of experience. And when I make the time to connect with this source of information, it really makes me appreciate the fact that information has always been hard won. That it's taken generations to get things right. That things that make a big difference to me could have so easily been lost. Will there be a whole generation growing up now who will not appreciate the effort behind the information? Who won't have time to listen to the context behind the facts?

Laptops and Mobile Phones as Thinking Prosthetics

An American college student was asked why he lugs his laptop around everywhere with him in a rucksack, instead of just logging into college PC for a few hours. He answered

"It's part of my brain. Why would I want to leave it behind in a computer lab?"

I understand where this student is coming from. If I have to function without my laptop or mobile phone I don't feel like I'm missing a limb. I feel like I'm missing my second brain.

Check out Donald Philip's article The Knowledge Building Paradigm: A Model of Learning for Net Generation Students. The article is worth a read despite the uncatchy title and the hassle of registration for access. You'll find out more about how technology is not just a desirable addition to the educational experience, but is essential - providing us with thinking prosthetics or mind tools.

The article explores the idea that schools must move from the industrial model of classrooms (which also reflects the traditional broadcast media) to a more interactive, elective model of learning.

Find out how learners are moving from linear to 'hypermedia' learning. How we're moving from 'instruction' to construction and discovery. From just learning material by rote to learning how to discover and filter information. Discover how teachers will have to evolve from being transmitters to facilitators (an analogy that should guide those broadcasters with an educational remit...).

VideoJug - lots and lots of FREE online learning

VideoJug's tagline is 'Life Explained. On Film.' No small claims for this beta website then. But VideoJug do cover some of the basics, even if they don't quite constitute the "definitive online encyclopedia of life".

They've produced a jug-full of professionally-produced, high definition video content, covering everything from leisure, beauty, and style right through to health, money, and my favourite - DIY. It's kind-of a youtube for 'How do I do this thing?'

The videos are a mix of informative "How To" and "Ask The Expert" clips that take users through what VideoJug's experts think they need to know, step-by-step. I've been through quite a few of them...from the 'How to Ace a Job Interview' and 'Epilepsy Basics' through to 'How to Get a Last-minute Date for Valentine's Day'. Some of the content is good, informative and simple. It is always basic. Text captions reinforce important points. The experts range from the energised career empowerment lady to the Ross-From-Friends clone who talks about epilepsy. And himself.

But all this content is free (apart from the Google ads sprinkled around the place, of course). And there is user-generated content as well - but VideoJug are quick to say that all UGC is carefully screened and accepted. I didn't manage to find any UGC apart from some obscure DIY practices.

Anyway. VideoJug. Free online video learning on a scale we didn't imagine 5 years ago, with our narrowband restrictions and libraries locked up tight in LMSs...so get in there and have a nosey.

The BBC's Photosynth Project

The BBC have launched a new project utilising Microsoft's Photosynth technology. They aim to create 3D representations of some Britain's most interesting buildings by combining hundreds of different photographs. Most of the featured buildings have been filmed for a new BBC series 'How we Built Britain', which explores Britain's past through its buildings.

Microsoft describe the venture as being an 'exciting 'research and development' project', which is an interesting definition of a new nation-wide online project.

I'm interested in this project as it contravenes what I know of several BBC technical guidelines - not least the use of Flickr. And the relative speed at which the BBC has moved to utilise the Photosynth technology is impressive. A sign of things to come?

Photosynth - knowledge scraping...

I've just watched this video from the TED talks (after reading Donald Clark's post). It's Microsoft's Blaise Aguera y Arcas explaining a fantastic new technology - Photosynth, which is described as 'a monumental piece of software capable of assembling static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces'.

Watch it. You must. It's amazing! (and yes it's Microsoft. And Blaise is described as an 'acquisition').

But think about the implications of such an amazing technology...OK...it's so cool that we can create a virtual Notre Dame cathedral just from the knowledge scraped from Flickr photos...but it does make me wonder what sort of creations it might make of me...let's say if someone scraped all known digital photographs of me, taken at every wedding, leaving do, birthday party and reunion from the 21st century, I'd say a fairly interesting but utterly unrepresentative portrait might emerge. I guess buildings don't tend to wobble, no matter how much red wine they contain...

Interesting thing I'd like to see...a photo portrait of a famous dead person, scraped from every public photo ever taken...let's see Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana please.

But all this is 2D and 3D interpretations of our seen world. If we can snap it digitally, it seems we can make it cool, sexy, interesting.

So what happens all our world's invisible stuff? Our emotions? How we think? The ways we learn? How we speak, communicate?

Watch the video. You'll get a brief glimpse of Bleak House as a novel laid out in columns of data...we can zoom right into the tiny pixels of the print. It made me think...

What I'd love to see a language montage...a way of identifying words according to how, when and where they're used. A way of charting the emotion, the usage, the power of language. A way of zooming into the 'pixels' of meaning and nuance.

I guess though that a language montage is particular to each person. We don't use the same words or phrases to express the same things.

This links (tenuously I know) into an idea I had about recording a language learner's conversations for a week or month or so, and analysing the results to provide the learner with the language they need and use.

But I digress. Watch. The. Video.