Learn a new language with Babbel (not babelfish)

I think this sounds like a really interesting way to learn a language — social networking & multimedia style! Mashable has a good overview & review here:

Babbel is the latest site to teach new languages through a social Web-based immersion program, where the majority of the content is packaged into lessons created by Babbel. So far, languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German are supported. Each lesson package contains material pertaining to a different theme, such as travel or business, so you can learn a series of words and phrases within context.

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Although I do like that the information is presented in multiple ways as it SHOUlD create a richer learning environment appealing to a variety of learning styles, I didn’t find a lot in the way supporting documentation, research, etc. on the site. It seems to be all about language and play… but hey if it works (but how will they know?)

I also wonder if they will expand to other languages — seems like kind of a short list, hmm?

Educational uses for social networking sites

First-of-Its-Kind Study at the University of Minnesota Uncovers the Educational Benefits of Social Networking Sites
University of Minnesota News (06/19/0 Badaracco, Luisa

University of Minnesota researchers have determined the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and also found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their more advantaged counterparts. The researchers found that 94 percent of students in the study used the Internet, 82 percent used the Internet at home, and 77 percent have a profile on a social networking site. Students said social networking sites taught them technology skills, creativity, being open to new or diverse views, and communication skills. Data was collected over six months from students in 13 urban high schools in the Midwest. In addition to the initial surveyed students, a follow-up, randomly selected subset were asked questions on their Internet activity while they used MySpace. University of Minnesota learning technologies researcher Christine Greenhow says students that use social networking sites learn and practice the kinds of 21st century skills that educators say are needed to be successful. “Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content, and thinking about online design and layout,” Greenhow says. The results show that social networking sites provide more than just social fulfillment or professional networking and have implications for educators, who have an opportunity to support what students are learning on the Web, Greenhow says. The study contradicts a 2005 study from Pew that suggests a digital divide is forming in which low-income students are technologically impoverished.

More at Univ. Minnesota News

LinkedIn, what it is and how to use it

From the excellent commoncraft folks.

What is LinkedIn? from LinkedIn Marketing on Vimeo.

OpenLibrary news

If you’ve not heard of the openlibrary.org initiative, the idea is “one web page
for every book ever published.”

A pretty noble undertaking….
Anyhow, news is that have now have a total of 13.4 million books,
with about 18 million more records to go.
Of course quantity and quality are not the same. ;-D
As for where these records are coming from, they have started
merging library records with other book data (vendor data?)

An API has been created for use by developers at
http://www.openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api
Other news includes some translation services,
and the fulltext searching of 230,000 books.

To visit the openlibrary project,
http://www.openlibrary.org

Internet archive and creative commons

An article I wrote for moonshine…
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Did you know that the Internet Archive not only archives the web but that it has much opensource, public domain or creative commons licensed material? For those of you who do digital work, the Internet Archive may be the best kept secret on the web!

If you do any kind of digital work (images, websites, videos, audio recordings, etc.) and you haven’t checked out the Internet Archive you really should. The IA has great stuff for digital collagists, movie makers, & other arty folks. It’s remarkable the diversity and variety of material available for use (and free!).

Although I’m not a legal expert by any means, I’ll attempt to explain my understanding of the different licensing under creative commons and how it applies to use. If you have any questions or to find the latest version of licensing agreements, please do check out the Creative Commons website.

Creative Commons is a form of licensing which easily allows users (such as musicians, artists, and just regular folks!) the ability to upload content and share or not share it, as they would like. Copyright ranges from All rights reserved (no use by others) to Public Domain (freely used for any purpose). Creative Commons attempts to define the grey area in the middle.

Internet Archives serves as a repository of content. Explore, enjoy, be inspired, and create!

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In the Internet Archive:

To Browse by license, pattern your search phrase this way> /metadata/licenseurl:http*abbreviation/*

To add a search keyword to this (add AND - in caps! - and the term
/metadata/licenseurl:http*abbreviation/* AND

Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) : This license means that you can only use the material noncommercially EXACTLY as it is (no collage work, no mashups, etc.) , provided that you provide an attribution (credit).

In the search box: /metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc-nd/*
Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc-nd/* AND pottery

Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) : This license means that you can ONLY use the material noncommercially IF any creation that stems from the work under this licensed is publicly shared (Share Alike) under the same license, PROVIDED that you provide an attribution (credit).

In the search box: /metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc-sa/*

Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc-sa/* AND pottery

Attribution Non-commercial (by-nc) : This license means that you can ONLY use the material noncommercially, PROVIDED that you provide an attribution (credit).

In the search box: /metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc*

Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*by-nc* AND pottery

Attribution Share Alike (by-sa) : This license means that you can use the material commercially or noncommercially IF any creation that stems from the work under this licensed is publicly shared (Share Alike) under the same license, PROVIDED that you provide an attribution (credit).

In the search box: /metadata/licenseurl:http*by-sa*

Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*by* AND pottery

Attribution (by) : This license means that you can use the material commercially or noncommercially, PROVIDED that you provide an attribution (credit).

In the search box: /metadata/licenseurl:http*by*

Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*by* AND pottery

More about creative commons licensing:

http://creativecommons.org/about/license/

The Internet Archive also includes items in the Public Domain. These are the most freely available materials in terms of licensing (i.e., there is none!) The majority of these materials are older materials for which copyright has long expired. However, users can choose to submit their works to the IA as public domain.

/metadata/licenseurl:http*publicdomain*
Example:
/metadata/licenseurl:http*publicdomain* AND pottery

Republished from moonshine arts magazine

Google takes on about.com? wikipedia?

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it.

from Google Blog, at
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html

more at
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-12-14-n19.html

Sounds interesting. I’ve contributed sporatically to wikipedia, mostly just in a few edits and revisions. I’ve also written for the New Georgia Encyclopedia which is fact checked, reviewed and edited. If Google does not verify info, I do wonder how successful Knol will be in the long run. Wikipedia has a huge user base and a reliance on ANY user review/revision. About.com seems to have more reliable authors (in some cases) but it is sometimes hard to determine an author’s expertise beyond interest and the interface at about.com leaves something to be desired. I’ve haven’t spent enough time in Helium.com to know how reliable it is, but it seems to be similar to about.com. Citizendium seems to be more along the lines of Knol, except that anyone can submit their credentials for writing.

I do always wonder about these invitation things, though. How do they choose? Just google for particular subjects they would like to see written on and then contact those folks in hope that they will agree to participate? Choose users with pre-existing google accounts? Bloggers?

Anyhow, it does sound like an interesting project, at least as interesting as wikipedia.

What a crazy few months…

Ok, I am mostly finished with my class project which you can view here:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~fay/projects/SPARC/
There were a few things that I planned to add: more/better video, etc.

You can read all about the development of the project here:
http://robin-edit-journal-session2.blogspot.com/