Project presentation slides

Yesterday evening, I gave the final presentation of my project. Here are the slides.

I'd like to thank especially Vera, Sophie, Lauriane, Julien (who did a really nice project about improvisation) and James for attending the presention, for asking relevant questions, and for the advice.

Thank you.

Meet Gymglish, your new personal English teacher!

The problem with learning a new language - according to a lot of people - is that you need to spend a lot of time studying before reaching an acceptable level.

Yet unless you are still at school, it is often difficult to find enough time to study seriously.


Gymglish tries to go beyond this hurdle by offering short 15-minute online English lessons through daily e-mails.

The real advantage of this approach is that you'll no longer have an excuse for loafing around instead of studying you English because each lesson is designed to be very concise, yet exhaustive.

This page explains better than me why Gymglish works.

I subscribed to the 7-day free trial, and I really liked the content of the lessons. Give it a go and tell me about it in the comments section!

Harness the power of your computer with Codecademy!

 Have you ever been impressed by this geeky friend who can do almost anything with a computer by typing - often blazingly fast - a few lines of code?
Are you tired of struggling with the most advanced functions of your spreadsheet programme to perform simple math?

Then learn to code!

Yet I must confess that learning to program can be a boring and tedious task: you'll often have to naviate through specialized, technical websites, install special software to compile your code... and you'll probably give up writing your first line of code!

These days are over!

Codecademy offers a ready-made, user-friendly programming environment that turns learning code into an unthralling quest! After having subscribed to Codecademy, the first screen you'll get will put you right in the heart of the action!

In the heart of action!

The specificity of Codecademy is indeed that the user must participate actively to unlock new "levels" and is asked therefore to write lines of code at each step

If you do this well you'll get rewards and will be able to share your progress with your friends!

I'm in the process of becoming a Python expert!

Do you know any other website to learn how to code? Do you think the new generation of computer programmers will start on similar websites? Please tell me in the comments section!

Big Blue Button: an open-source software for class-oriented video-conferencing

Tired of having to wake up every morning, jump out of your bed and breakfast your way to school or university? And arrive just in time to:

• realize that your teacher forgot to get out of bed this morning, or...
• attend a 3-hour hypnotising conference where the orator is the only one to speak and barely does anything but read his slides out loud

Within a few years, we might not have to suffer this painful old grind everyday, because school will have moved... right home!

Online massive video-conferencing is a first step towards this direction and will probably gain much popularity in a few years. Personally, the prospects that this technology may offer truly fill me with enthusiasm and excitement!

However the most pessimistic people will tell you that the technology behind this feat isn't mature yet. Here's one little piece of software to show you they are shamefully wrong!

Big Blue Button (developed by Mozilla Foundation, the foundation that develops Mozilla Firefox) might bring a smart solution to this problem by allowing us to do video-conferencing... straight in our web browser.

Check out this (cool) video that shows the software's capabilities, and give me feedback in the comments section!

How I learnt (almost effortlessly) all the capital cities of Asia ! (Part 3)

If you remember correcty, in the two previous articles, we talked about the necessity of learning by heart, and I presented to you Memrise: a nice online tool to ease this (too often) painful process.

Turning education into a fun experience!

For the third (and last) article of this series, I'll try to point out the key elements which explain why Memrise does such a good job at helping us learn efficiently.

This analysis, derived from the example of Memrise, will provide us with a basis for future thoughts about the main characteristics of online learning.

How does Memrise turn a boring-to-death learning by heart process into an amazingly fun, exciting and addictive experience?

1) It's instantaneous

 

Memrise is a website, which is of course available at any time, from any computer with an Internet browser. Plus, the team has developed a high-end smartphone application which makes the service even more easily accessible.

You have a few spare minutes? (for example when you're stuck in public transportation, waiting or waiting for someone)

Just launch the application and take a 5-minute Spanish vocabulary training session instead of looking at your feet or ogling at these hot chicks waiting for the bus! Your brain will thank you for that. 

 

2) It's customized

 

Ever wanted a personal teacher to help you remember those nasty lists of vocabulary that gave you nightmares back in school?

Someone who'd remember which words you actually have mastered and who'd be able to ask you exactly the words that give you a hard time remembering? Someone who will regularly notify you when it's time to have a training session? Someone who will bark at you when you don't work enough...?

Well, sorry! Memrise wont' bark at you. But it will certainly get to know you and your weaknesses, and help you overcome them very easily.

 

3) It's social and fun

 

Last but not least, Memrise turns learning into a social experience and tries to connect fellow learners together to make the best of the network. You can follow someone (see what lessons they are involved into, compare your score with theirs, etc.). And you can share mems with other users (it's the feature which I like the most!)

My profile: follow me!

Plus, using Memrise is dead simple: just select the right answer in a list or type it using your keyboard. Memrise will give you points for every correct answer and even grant you a badge which indicates how many items you've learnt so far. For example, I worked very hard to gain the Memmoth badge that proves to the world that I have already earned more than 250.000 points. I'm looking forward to reaching the next step!

Conclusion

 

Let's take a step back and look at what words were the most important in the last three paragraphs (they were highlighted in the text): 

 

“available at any time” 

 

This is one of the special features of online learning which makes it particularly appealing: you can learn anywhere, at any time, at your own pace. Don't have time for class today? Nevermind,  you'll just spend more time catching up with the homework tomorrow (even if it's on the week-end, your computer won't take holidays).

 

“personal teacher”

 

Our computers are getting smarter everyday. Today, they have reached a point where they are perfectly able to assist us with simple tasks and even learn from our behavior. Let's use their power!

Why hire (underpaid) teachers to have children repeat tirelessly lists of vocabulary? Let's subcontract this unrewarding work to our computers! Teachers will then have more time with the kids to induce pleasure in learning.

Plus, a computer will be able to record all sorts of statistics regarding the progression of every child and thus will point out to the teacher which kids need a little boost.

 

“social experience”

 

Conventional wisdom has it that learning in group is more effective. That's probably true. We are human beings, and we need to exchange, to communicate with fellow learners. We have lots of things to learn from each other, even if they are not expert!

We'll probably get to talk about this social dimension in more details (when we get to MOOC's), but it will prove to be crucial.

With this three essential remarks (which will provide us with a rock-solid basis for thought) ends this first series of articles.

 

Now you're more than invited to comment! Have you tried Memrise? Do you know any other similar online learning platform? I'd be glad to know what you think.

 

How I learnt (almost effortlessly) all the capital cities of Asia ! (Part 2)

In the previous article, I showed you that learning by heart is an essential part of the process of learning. Basically, it is impossible to gain knowledge of any subject without learning some prerequisites by heart first. If you'd like to read more details about it (or simply refresh your memory), I invite you to read the first part of this article.

Learning, powered by imagination.

I promised you that I'd introduce you with an amazing online website that'll make your life easier when it comes to learning long lists of items by heart.

This magical tool, it is called Memrise and it is accessible online for free. All you need to do is create an account (you'll only need a valid e-mail address), and then you're up and running for some awesome sessions of online learning.

The concept 

 

“We use a light gardening metaphor to help you understand the ways your learning grows and withers in the brain depending on how you look after them. So, when you learn on Memrise, A “flower” must first be planted in the mind, and then you water (review) these memories that have been planted to ensure that they do not eventually wilt and disappear from your long-term memory.”

 This quote was taken from Memrise website's FAQ, and explains clearly what the website is about. Without further ado, I'll show you how it works through an example. Since I've already learnt everything about Asia (as the title of this article suggests), let's try together something new and learn the capital cities of all the countries of Africa by heart! That's probably not going to be easy, since there are no less than 54 capital cities to learn!

To work!

 

Memrise lets you choose any lesson you like among a huge catalogue of lessons, created by experts or by the community. Let's choose the capital cities of the world lesson and start learning!

Starting a new planting session

When you first start the lesson, Memrise gives you two or three countries associated with their capitals and asks you to associate them several times (you plant the seed).

Some questions give you several choices...

Once this first step is done, Memrise will let you water (review) this knowledge frequently (the more fresh the knowledge the more often you'll have to review what you've learnt so far).

...whereas others are trickier!

One cool thing with Memrise is that when you can't remember a specific item (you give the wrong answer repeatedly for example), you can ask the system for a Mem. A mem is simply a mnemonic (almost always a picture with a short caption), a way to remember something by triggering off your imagination.

Here are two mems that I came across with during my learning process.

Mems are proposed by the community and are often very creative!

 

ROFL! From now on I'll never forget that Buddha-pest is the capital of Hung-a-ry!

Results

 

It turns out that it is amazingly fun to learn with Memrise. I already pointed out to you (who said "boasted" ?) that using this tool I learnt all the capital cities of Asia with almost no efforts, in two or three days (a few minutes per day).

I don't believe you! You might as well be bluffing! (an anonymous and imaginary reader)

Challenge... accepted! Next time we meet I'd be glad to show you how deep these capital cities are anchored in my long-term memory! You'll just have to name any country in Asia and I'll give you its capital instantly! (of course we can also do that in the comments section of this article but I guess that wouldn't be very fair, would it?)

What's next

 

In the next (and last) part of this long article, we'll analyse together what are the characteristics, what are the features of Memrise that make it work so well, and we'll try to deduce from this example a few of the concepts of online learning that make it so different from classical education.

How I learnt (almost effortlessly) all the capital cities of Asia ! (Part 1)

Sometimes learning has to be tedious!

Learning is a very complex process which demands implication, curiosity, agility of the brain, and of course a lot of personal work.
Though some concepts require personal input and understanding of a subject, sometimes the basics of learning are way much more straightforward!

Sometimes, learning is just about... well, learning something by heart! It may sound awkward, but that's the plain truth. Some things have to be known by heart if you want to progress in your knowledge of a particular field.

Take for example, geography. Of course, the real purpose of geography is to study in detail how our world is organized and get a deeper understanding of how some civilizations work, how they evolve and make the best of the environment in which they live.

But how can you even analyse some geographic situations if you don't know where the cities are? How can you discuss with any of the experts if you're not even able to name the cities? You'll simply not be able to get yourself understood!

My point is that there is no real learning process without involving at least some basic (and stupid) learning by heart step.

Everything that you have learnt so far relied heavily on such knowledge.

Literature?
Impossible to study if you don't know how to read! Impossible to be taken seriously if you don't know how to write without making spelling mistakes. Guess what? These things, you learned in school... by heart.

Calculus? Algebra? Differential geometry? Sure all these things rely exclusively on brain work, don't they?
Sorry to send you stroll but don't you think you'd better learn the numbers first? Also, I'd highly discourage you to try proving something without knowing at least the most important theorems that have been established by spirits smarter than you. It's not useful to reinvent the wheel!

Can you find some field of knowledge which does not require learning basic stuff by heart? If you can, I'd be very pleased to know (please reply in the comments section).

Now that things are clear: how can the Internet help us perform this annoying step easily?

The answer... will have to wait until next post!

I'll present you with a very nice online tool to learn all kinds of things by heart without too much hassle!

Stay tuned!