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Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:27:11 +0000

Is there no better day to do a weekly digest than Friday?

Well, probably, yes – there is – there must be…

But our week’s just too busy to deliver the goods earlier. Let’s hope that’s a good thing.

So, without further ado… here’s our weekly retrospective:

Zeitgeist

Welcome To The Future: Envisioning Technology For 2012 And Beyond via and by Michael Zappa @envisioningtech

This was posted on Monday, when, according to the U.N. the world population crossed the 7 billion mark. It’s a quick overview of predicted technologies and their relative importance. Enjoy!

Paul Zak: Trust, morality — and oxytocin via @krustelkram

“Paul Zak researches oxytocin, a neuropeptide that affects our everyday social interactions and our ability to behave altruistically and cooperatively, applying his findings to the way we make decisions” for example on Social Networks.

Education

College has been oversold via @clipperhouse:

an economist perspective on Higher Education, maybe most interesting for the (outdated?) concept it perpetuates of wage-oriented degree-picking in an age of non-linear employment

Why Serendipity Is A Core Requirement For Tomorrow’s Career Planning inspired by @cringely

“In a linear map you are at point A and draw a straight line to point B, C and D, etc. If the territory is predictable and fairly stable, these maps will lead to the desired result. But if the territory is changing quicker than you can make or update your maps, they will lead you anywhere but where you want to be.”

Technology

Wikpedia Book Creator via @briankotts (if you don’t follow him yet, do it now!)

With the Wiki Book Creator everyone can now compile a book out of the Wiki articles of their choice and download it as PDF, ePub or even order it directly as a dead-tree, er… paperback. Pretty cool, huh? Finally we can now enjoy classics like IP over_Avian Carriers or List_of_problems_solved_by_MacGyver directly on our Kindles, e-readers and mobile devices.

Other

updated book shelf
new Japan-related posts on jp.learnoutlive.com
this blog is now proudly supporting the adfreeblog.org movement

Have a Great Day and Enjoy Your Weekend!

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:09:29 +0000

Wow, it’s Friday again!

We started out with this weekly digest on Wednesday but now it got pushed right to the edge of the weekend. Will we ever manage to crank it back to its former position? Does it even matter? Questions over questions… Maybe you already started your engines to enjoy the last rays of autumn-sun somewhere in the countryside, far away from tweets, subscriptions and whatnot.

Or maybe you’re eagerly awaiting the day’s work to finish… In any case, here’s our weekly summary:

Education

If Professors Stop Lecturing, Will Students Stop Checking Facebook? via @losangelista

“You might think that students taking classes with some of the world’s most prestigious academics wouldn’t spend lecture time checking their Facebook profiles. But it turns out that Harvard students have a pretty tough time disconnecting from the web. Harvard Crimson staff writer Hemi H. Gandhi writes that Facebook use in Harvard classes “has become so ubiquitous that no one even questions it”—not even professors.”

Why Education Needs an Occupy the Classroom Revolution via @briankotts

“Over the last few months, the Occupy Wall Street movement has grown from a small collection of hardcore activists to a groundswell of everyday Americans frustrated with the lack of opportunity afforded them in the United States. Of course, the irony of society having 24/7 coverage of our country’s ills is that some members of the media portray those same news consumers as uninformed and lacking a clear, concise message.”

Programs in Australia: 94% Drop-Out Rate via @EnglishOutThere

“What’s happening in Australia is illustrative of some of the many difficulties involved in implementing a successful Chinese language program in an English speaking country.”

The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks

“USA Today says that at some point this year, student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion, surpassing even credit card debt. Felix Salmon says the number is closer to $550 billion. Either way total student loan debt is rising as other debts have tailed off. Delinquency has increased, too, since the height of the financial crisis.”

Zeitgeist

Facebook Profiles are the new Resume by @KirstenWinkler

“It is an open secret that colleges, universities and employers love to scan the Facebook profiles of applicants. A recent article on Mashable gives seven reasons why recruiters prefer to connect via Facebook and not LinkedIn. Not surprisingly, from the applicant’s perspective it’s exactly the opposite as they prefer to connect via LinkedIn and thus the dedicated network for business as they want to keep their private life private which is understandable in my opinion.”

Advertising Is As Dead As A Doornail, or: How The 99% Actively Created The 1% by @barrencode

“According to online statistics the “average American is exposed to over 3,000 ads every day” whereas the average child sees about 40,000 commercials on TV each year with an average of 4 hours of TV programming containing about 100 ads.”

How To Use The Net To Escape The Net by @barrencode

“Internet, the final frontier. Endless. Silent. Waiting. This is the story of our daily enterprise to seek out all relevant information and contact others like us. To explore. To travel the vast expanse of data, where no man has gone before…”

Other News

- Yesterday Eti Shani’s Hebrew flashcards jumped to #1 of the Hebrew charts on Amazon! Yay!

- The experiment of inviting people to help with André Klein’s ebook has been a real success. The final version is almost done now, highly improved thanks to the help of the many volunteers and will soon be sent to Amazon’s Kindle Single program. stay tuned for follow-up blog post…

- Jeremiah Bourque (@jbtutor) writing about Japanese culture

…

That’s it for now!

Time to echo the TGIF making its round through the Twittersphere, log off and enjoy the weekend!

Till next time – And thanks, as always, for posting all that great stuff!

P.S: feel free to recommend people to us via twitter.

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:57:48 +0000

Oh, wow – it’s already Friday.

Our weekly digest is certain each week, but the day…well.

Maybe you’re already tired from staring at a screen all week long and can’t wait to jump into the weekend.

To be honest, we’re also ready for a time-out. In any case, here’s what got us excited this week:

Education

Why YouTube Videos Will Never Replace Teachers (via @losangelista @GOOD @briankotts

“The “flipped classroom”—which switches the order of classroom instruction and homework—is the latest education craze. Instead of receiving in-class lectures from a teacher, students watch a video lesson on YouTube. The next day, they head to school and do homework under the teacher’s supervision. Flipped classroom advocates say the model is more effective because students have their teachers and peers with them to give them feedback when they encounter problems with homework.”

Infographic: The Higher Education Bubble

“Higher Education is in a bubble. Not only has total student loan debt in the United States surpassed credit card debt, but much of this debt has been taken out for degrees that are not worth the price of tuition. This is due to the fact that many students go to college with the false belief that a degree is a degree. And the colleges and universities profit off this widespread, but mistaken idea. Not all degrees are created equal.”

The Socially Wired Millennial Learner by @MyESLfriends via @edukwest

“I know, from personal experience that I do not learn languages in the traditional school/class mode. Tried it many times and was never able to sustain the effort beyond one semester at most. But, I had learned a lot of German by attending parties with my grand parents who spoke mostly German at those events. To get attention and to participate in the fun, I naturally learned German to connect.”

Edupreneurialism

Why Education Startups Do Not Succeed via @KirstenWinkler

“The average person in a developed country does not think about education the way a well educated VC or entrepreneur thinks about education.”

5 Quick Ways To Find Students For Your Online Tutoring Business

“When I started teaching online, I signed up on a few marketplace platforms that promised to connect tutors and students.Like many other tutors, I soon found out that simply being listed was not enough.It was not even close to enough.”

Language

The Rise of ‘Awesome‘

“Once it had to do with awe. Now it just means “great”. How did “awesome” conquer the world? Robert Lane Greene explains (and reminisces) … ”

How To Learn The Hebrew Alphabet

“When I first started learning Hebrew, the letters looked like spaghetti to me. All these weird lines, angles and twisty curls. “I’m never going to learn this!”, I thought to myself.”

Independent-Publishing

How To Publish For People, Not Monopolies

“The world of ebooks is booming. Sales are sky-rocketing. And everyone wants to get their hands on a shiny new reading gadget.But behind the hype and excitement geared towards consumers, in many ways the ebook market of today is limited by arbitrary (geographical) restrictions and complicated publishing and payout procedures.”

Kindle: From Idea To Bestseller in 9 Days with @einsofb

“It was 9 days ago that Eti Shani, Hebrew teacher and blogger came up with the idea to publish a little study-aid for learners of Biblical Hebrew on Kindle: A set of virtual flashcards that students can flip through by using the next/previous buttons on their e-reader.Two days ago, it hit three Amazon bestseller lists simultaneously.”

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:47:18 +0000

Hello there,

We hope you had a great week.

Here’s a small selection of this week’s highlights:

Education

New Survey Finds States Cutting School Funding in U.S.

“The great majority of states have cut per-pupil funding for elementary and secondary schools for the current school year, our new survey of state K-12 budgets finds. Funding in most states is now below pre-recession levels, after adjusting for inflation.”

Adapting to changing perceptions via @EnglishOutThere

“What was once a generation gap has morphed into a digital divide that teachers must navigate.”

Simple Ways To Spot The Golden Calf In Education Technology

“Selling more iPads to schools and aggressively marketing new apps or software will not change the fact that the education system and its general approach as a whole is not adequately tuned to the requirements of our situation, today.”

Language Learning

Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Tell Languages Apart (thanks Kimiko for sharing)

Zeitgeist

The Lost Art Of Writing Letters

“Before the telephone, email and Skype, writing letters used to be the only reliable form of communication between two people separated by physical distance.”

Other News

Eti Shani from Learn Out Live’s Hebrew department released her first Kindle electronic publication: A set of 99 flashcards containing basic vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew: Hebrew Flash Cards - If you don’t own a Kindle or would rather like to print them or get them in epub or PDF format, here’s the indie-pub version.

We congratulate Sylvia Guinan @silversal for launching her new homepage at http://salis.gr/wordpress

That’s it for this week,

Have a nice weekend!

P.S.: do you like these Weekly Digests? Are they useful or just cluttering your inbox/feedreader or timeline? Tell us on Twitter, Facebook or by leaving a comment.

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:24:14 +0000

Hi there,

We hope you had a great week.

This is our weekly summary of everything that showed up in and around our networks and is simply too good to be shared only once. So, if you don’t follow us on Twitter yet or don’t have time to read all our posts during the week, here’s everything at one glance.

Social Media

brilliant article in the Atlantic: The Rise of the Zuckerverb: The New Language of Facebook via @elenischool

“By adding verbs to the “brand-new language” of social connectivity, Zuckerberg told the f8 audience that Facebook was going to “make it so people can express an order of magnitude more things than they could before.” In his presentation, he used that word, “express,” over and over again. But on closer inspection, the new verb-driven language of Facebook is a weirdly limited vehicle for human expression.”

Jason West (@jasonoutthere) asks via @EnglishOutThere ”Is #socialmedia eroding #Englishwriting skills” and answers it by saying “…use it to learn how to#speakEnglish, I say!” sharing with us this article: Is social media to blame for poor writing skills?

“Some university students cannot write a proper sentence, a fact that deeply concerns Daniel Keyes, an associate professor of English at UBC-Okanagan.”

Education

a somewhat cynical but not entirely false depiction of the “profession of teaching” via @briankotts via @ShellTerrell 10 Reasons Teachers Make Great Punching Bags (editor’s note: compare this list with this UNESCO recommendation):

“1. Teachers are over-worked. For all the vacation time we are supposed to have, many teachers work additional jobs to make endsmeet. They don’t necessarily have the time to fight the political and economic systems that are at work against the profession.”

the next article is a bit older (April, 2011) but reminds us that Student Loan Debt Is Greater Than Credit Card Debt and slowly approaches 1 (one) trillion dollars:

“Last June, for the first time in history, Americans owed more on their student loans, a record $833 billion, than on their credit cards, $826.5 billion. The amount owed on student loans increases at a rate of about $2,853.88 per second, meaning we’re on track for total student debt to cross the $1 trillion mark sometime this year.”

Will the Real Digital Native Please Stand Up? via @briankotts via @tomwhitby via @Campus_Tech looks back to the year when the term “digital native” was first coined and what happened since then:

“A decade has passed since author, game designer, and educational thought leader Marc Prensky heralded the arrival of a new generation of students whose immersion in information technology distinguished them in fundamental ways from previous generations. Because they had spent their entire lives “surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age,” Prensky wrote in a two-part article published in 2001, these “digital natives” were “no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”"

Chris Dawson (@mrdatahs) asks Can a “gadget guy” also be an “education guy”? [includes video presentation] via @AJCann:

“I’m inclined to think that talking about gadgets (and I mean that in the broadest sense) is an opportunity to talk about what we really need and don’t need to support teaching. Sometimes it’s just plain fun, because gadgets fill our lives and our students and teachers can often derive some value from them if they know they exist and have a chance to think about cool ways to use them in a classroom that’s relevant and timely. All of us, though (even the most gadget-inclined), have to know when to say when, and understand that, as the student at UBC pointed out, evaluate “their applicability to educational practice.””

Language Learning

Via @einsofb: In Timing and language learning effectiveness Steve Kaufman of lingq.com makes a clear but simple point about learning languages: Sometimes what the teacher wants to teach is not what the students needs to learn at the moment:

“Language learning effectiveness depends to a large degree on timing. There are times when we are prepared to learn certain things, and other times when we are not. If confronted with information at a time when we are not ready, or not interested, or do not see the relevance, we will have trouble learning it.”

Via @BarrenCode: Savant learns how to speak Icelandic in a week [VIDEO] featuring Daniel Tammet

Technology

Via @russeltarr: Top 30 Failed Technology Predictions is exactly what it says:

“Throughout history man has been making predictions of the future. With the advent of technology, the predictions moved away from religious topics to scientific and technological. Unfortunately for the speakers, many of these failed predictions have been recorded for all future generations to laugh at. Here is a selection of the 30 best.”

A new study finds that Tablets Make Their Owners Less Social, More Sedentary via @WSJ via @briankotts

“You’d expect that anyone who plunks down a few hundred bucks for an iPad would make a point of using it to read news thereafter instead of messing around with newspapers and magazines, and you’d be right: 42% of tablet and e-reader owners say they are now less likely to read printed newspapers, and 40% say the same about print magazines”

Articles By The Learn Out Live Team:

That’s it for now. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Have a nice weekend!

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:01:16 +0000

Hi everyone, it’s been a busy week.

Here’s a quick summary:

On Books

In: “The Future Of Books: A Dystopian Timeline” @johnbiggs envisions the transition from paper to electronic within the next decade

” I love books but they’re not going to make it past this decade, at least in most of the developed world.”

Read More->

Alarm bells and whistles: Toddler book apps via @michellegallen

“Interactive versions of books for very young children are becoming mainstream. Are they enhancing early reading experience – or diminishing it?” Read More->

From blog to book… but what about the comments? via @englishraven

Jason Renshaw thinks about what happens to the comments once you turn a blog into a book Read More->

On Learning

Humans Make Language, Language Makes Us Human via @brad5patterson via @elenischool:

an introduction to language-acquisition and the concept of “Universal Grammar” Read More->

Tools, Apps & Tricks

The Quest For The Perfect Whiteboard

Conceptboard: a stable whiteboard app for online teachers on Skype? Read More->

How To Create A Simple Google Chrome App In Less Than 5 Minutes

It’s really simple. Read More->

3 Clever Productivity Tricks For Windows 7

Did you know these simple tricks? Read More->

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:35:15 +0000

Hi everyone,

We’re back for a short round-up of recent news in and around our network. So without further ado..

Education

The Robot (R)evolution

@EnglishOutThere found an article in languagemagazine.com about “English teaching robots”:

“After years of development and testing, South Korea is set to introduce its latest English-instruction innovation, a robot teacher named Engkey, to the global market.” » Read More

Technology: A Gateway Drug?

@briankotts posted an article from The Telegraph, titled “Student ‘addiction’ to technology ‘similar to drug cravings’, study finds”

“Withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of gadgets and technology is compared to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”, a study has concluded.” » Read More

Is Google+ The New Virtual Classroom?

@kaylxndr reports on @edukwest that Google+ Hangouts adds Screensharing, Sketchpad, Google Docs and Broadcasting, potentially turning it into a promising tool for online teaching.

“The classic investor question “What happens if Google enters your market?” gets never old. Today the question became more relevant for virtual classroom providers, VoIP services like Skype and live streaming services like Ustream or Justin.tv.” » Read More

3 Reasons Why Technology Won’t Transform Public Education

a critical perspective by @barrencode:

“It was in the early 60ies that a University first experimented with using computers to teach kids maths, according to Wikipedia. That was 50 years ago. That’s half a century! If technology could really revolutionize education it has had plenty of time to do so. According to technologists, the problem is that schools simply aren’t…” » Read More

Japanese :The Perfect Language For Tweeting (?)

an article from the Atlantic analyzes the semantic density of language in regard to the 140 character limit

“For languages that use single symbols to represent entire words, a tweet offers much more space in which to get your point across” » Read More

Practical Tools And Tips

45 Web Sites About Creative Commons and Public Domain Images

@briankotts shared this via @cybrarian77

This is a great resource for finding out about different licensing systems and where to get high quality photos for your projects without paying a dime. » Read More

How To Create A Custom WordPress Theme In 7 Minutes Without Any Code

by @barrencode:

“Anyone who has ever set up a WordPress site knows the challenge of finding the right theme. There are basically three options: 1. Go theme-hunting on Google. Wade through endless galleries of (mediocre or worse) themes until your eyes hurt or you find the right one. 2. Buy a premium design that (hopefully) doesn’t look…” » Read More

5 Ways To Sell Your Digital Goods Online

by @barrencode:

“There used to be a time when the only way to make a living as an author or musician was to go through publishing houses and labels that would help you create the work, package it, distribute it and sell it. This way still exists but with the disappearance of book stores and physical music…” » Read More

Miscellaneous

New Hebrew Worksheet Project:

This is an experimental new sub-site by the Hebrew department focused on qualitative and affordable worksheets for Hebrew learners and educators. Find out more at morimor.learnoutlive.com

What Does The Shofar Symbolize?

an article by @einsofb explaining the ancient tradition of blowing the Shofar at Rosh Ha Shana

That’s it for now. Thanks again to everyone for sharing the good stuff and have a great weekend!

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:58:41 +0000

Here’s a quick roundup of everything that caught our attention last week, quickly sorted through for you based on topics and (hopefully) correctly attributed. Thanks to all contributors!

Education

Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast via @NikitaShraim

Education Is A Cow That Anyone Can Milk by @BarrenCode

Is Coding the new Literacy? [VIDEO] – a talk between @kirstenwinkler and @JeffreyMcManus:

The Digital Colonization of Analogue Language by @paulmaglione

What Does “Student-Centered” Learning Really Mean? – ‘How much real learning is going on in this “student-centered” digital environment?’ via @rliberni via @bcbailey64

3 Teaching Skills For The 21st Century by @BarrenCode

Technology Does Not Make the Classroom Succesful- the Teacher Does via @rlpearson

The Impossible Crusade of Education Technology Against The Human Spirit by @BarrenCode

Off campus is on trend – “STUDYING without setting foot on a university campus will soon be the norm, academics believe.” via @briankotts via @smh

4 Simple Ways To Save Your Local Library by @BarrenCode

About Writing

18 WordPress Shortcuts That Will Help You To Write More And Click Less by @BarrenCode

What I’ve Learned From 10 Years Of Writing & Independent Publishing by @BarrenCode

News From The Learn Out Live Network

Jeremiah Bourque @jbtutor gave his Japanese Blog a makeover. Now it’s called: “Together With Japan” and ”It’s about the people!”

Eti Shani @einsofb has published more illuminating articles about Hebrew culture on her Curiosities blog.

André Klein’s book “How To Teach Online Without Selling Your Soul” is continuing to sell like hotcakes on Amazon (due to popular demand the hot summer special of the PDF version has also been extended)

That’s it for now…

Stay healthy wherever you are,

And keep on sharing the good stuff!

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network

Learn Out Live! Weekly Digest

Weekly Digest — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:50:38 +0000

There have been so many great articles, links and news posted in our network, lately that we chose to collect a few of them before they fall into Social Media evanescence and we can say thanks to the people who posted them.

Articles

Technology Does Not Equal 21st Century Learning via @ShellTerrell

A Teacher’s Manifesto on Technology (Doug Johnson) via @teachitso

both of these blog-posts deal with the fact that technology alone will not transform education. The first one delves into the skills and differences between 20th and 21st century education, the second one demands to limit the tech-craze to certain contexts and prerequisites. highly recommended for anyone who’s engaged with elearning, teaching online or education technology

Does Your Language Shape How You Think? via @BrianKotts

A thoughtful (and rather long) article about the (false) preconception that the language you speak dictates the way you think.

How To Quit The Education Factory And Leave For The Green Fields Of Learning

a case for non-linear approaches to learning.

Media

New Book about Blogging Released

building blogs for business without “selling your soul”

FREE audiobook “A Mindful Guide to Online Living”

about online relationships, working from anywhere & more… click here to download directly

The Learn Out Live WordPress Department

What used to be the Media department is now all about WordPress training and coaching.

That’s it for now…

Have a great week!

…wherever you are!

About the author: Weekly Digest collects news, articles, links in and around the Learn Out Live network