Twitter shows language evolves in cities
WHERE do new words come from? On Twitter at least, they often begin life in cities with large African American populations before spreading more widely, according to a study of the language used on the social network. Jacob Eisenstein at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and colleagues examined 30 million tweets sent from US locations between December 2009 and May 2011. After collecting the data, the team built a mathematical model that captures the large-scale flow of new words between cities. Researchers have tracked the diffusion of words like "cool" and "uptight" from black communities to mainstream use in the past. The team also found that cities that are economically and ethnically similar - rather than geographically close to one another - are more likely to share new words. Eisenstein says he is looking into whether neologisms now spread more rapidly because of Twitter and other social networks. New Scientist Not just a website! More From New Scientist Recommended by
UK universities in online launch to challenge US
13 December 2012Last updated at 21:46 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent Southampton is among the UK universities joining this digital start-up A partnership of UK universities is launching an online project, challenging US universities that have dominated this emerging market. They will aim to give the public access to higher education courses via computers, tablets or smartphones. The partnership will include the Open University, King's College London, Bristol, Exeter, Warwick, East Anglia, Leeds, Lancaster, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham and St Andrews. Courses will be offered from next year. This could "revolutionise conventional models of formal education", says Universities Minister David Willetts. The project will represent the biggest UK response to rapidly growing online universities - with these universities planning to offer courses through a shared online platform. 'Global brands' "We want to be in at the foundation - we want to be well positioned," he said.
Electronic Classroom: September 1997 Exploring Literacy Column from RT
Caity's Question: Literacy as Deixis on the Internet Donald J. Leu, Jr. Syracuse University Syracuse, New York, United States Several years ago, more than I wish to admit, our 4-year-old daughter, Caity, turned to me and asked a simple, but profound question. "No," I said, trying my parental best to be helpful and clear up any confusion. Thinking about this a bit later, my response troubled me. Thinking about Caity's question eventually led me to an understanding of deixis, a linguistic term used to capture the special qualities of words like today, tomorrow, and here whose meanings are dependent upon the time or space in which they are uttered (Fillmore, 1966, 1972, 1975). Discovering the changing meanings for deictic terms is an important linguistic challenge for young children who have come to believe that words have fixed meanings (Murphy, 1986). When Caity asked, "Is today tomorrow?" Is Today Tomorrow? Changes in Why We Need to Be Literate Why are these changes taking place? "Dad.
Top UK universities launch free online courses
Eleven top UK universities are joining the Open University to launch free internet courses, in a bid to catch up with the elite US institutions that have led the way online. King's College London, along with the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick have partnered with FutureLearn, a company set up by the Open University that will offer free, non-credit bearing courses to internet-users around the world. The courses are modelled on the US phenomenon 'massive open online courses' (Moocs), which have attracted millions of users across the globe, and are especially popular in emerging economies – a key market place for UK universities. FutureLearn will promote UK institutions to international students, said Prof Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University. "At the moment foreign students' perception of UK universities is: wonderful history, great tradition, really good teaching, but a bit boring.
Matinée du E-learning: 5 Stratégies pour adopter l'E-learning, faîtes votre choix! | Événements
Matinée du E-learning: 5 Stratégies pour adopter l'E-learning, faîtes votre choix! L’obligation de développer les compétences est devenue un enjeu crucial auquel sont confrontées presque toutes les entreprises et institutions. Elles doivent, d’une part, procurer à leurs employés les moyens d’accomplir des tâches de plus en plus variées et, d’autre part, leur fournir les bons outils et le savoir de pointe, et ce, juste au bon moment. Dans ce contexte exigeant, développer les compétences stratégiques chez les employés est un enjeu important et les entreprises ont recours de plus en plus aux nouvelles technologies dans les programmes de développement continu. Beaucoup d'entreprises et institutions ont expérimenté le e-learning tandis que d’autres souhaitent très prochainement offrir une première activité de formation à leurs employés ou à leurs clients via cette stratégie d’apprentissage. Inscription: www.weezevent.com/5-stratgies-pour-adopter-le-learning-faites-votre-choix
