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Languages are important. We teach them to children. But we ignore computer programming languages - perhaps some of the most important fluencies anyone can acquire. Instead, we black box them and hope they MIGHT look at doing this in college, when in fact, many of the best jobs and opportunities lie in languages: both "foreign" languages and computer languages. Thought provoking blog post about a conversation: "Many interesting and stimulating things were said, but one I remember was from Peter Pham over dinner. It was a simple line, "why do we teach languages in junior high and high school but not a computer language?" that had profound meaning to me."

A great way to learn 37 languages for free. Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Russian and much more. Why pay for Rosetta Stone when you can learn a new language for free.

Exchange audio files of your foreign language students with folks of the native language students are learning.

The US is not the only country in government educational induced turmoil. Here is an overview of what is happening in England right now. "Make teachers redundant or have them teach subjects they are not trained in - that is the stark choice cash-strapped secondaries will face if national curriculum changes proposed this week are introduced, ministers are being warned. The bleak scenario is predicted by heads' leaders and teacher recruitment experts if the Government follows the recommendation of its national curriculum review expert panel to make history, geography and modern foreign languages compulsory for all 11 to 16-year-olds from 2014."

Great article about the importance of Computer Science. This is one of those that superintendents and principals should email their curriculum directors, school board members and PTO's to support and encourage this kind of education. "This is not about helping the tech industry. It's about the tech industry helping the rest of America. Today, 67 percent of software jobs are outside the tech industry. If hiring computer programmers is challenging for Silicon Valley, it's an even greater challenge for every other industry in America. Tech jobs aside, teaching kids basic computer science is valuable no matter what career path they might choose. Every child can benefit from a strong foundation in problem-solving. As software is taking over the world, a rudimentary grasp of how it works is critical for every future lawyer, doctor, journalist, politician and more. American schools are struggling to teach basic math and English, and skeptics may worry that we can't afford to teach anything else. We'd argue that computer science is part of the solution: it motivates kids to learn other subjects. If a school can afford to teach biology, history, chemistry and foreign languages, it should teach computer science too."

The state Board of Education voted Thursday to require all high-school students to pass algebra II to graduate, and it agreed to work toward raising other graduation requirements as well. Board members have been discussing, for example, whether to increase the number of classes students would have to complete to earn their diplomas, essentially making the list equal to what they''d need to apply to public, four-year colleges in Washington. That would mean additional classes in English, science, foreign language and more.

this is the type of software mentioned in the wired article: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak

Anki is a program designed to help you remember facts (such as words and phrases in a foreign language) as easily, quickly and efficiently as possible. To do this, it tracks how well you remember each fact, and uses that information to optimally schedule review times. Theoretically this will greatly increase the amount of material you remember, making study more productive. Free and open source, binaries available for Win, Mac and Debian ^_^

World History, Geography, Foreign Language, other stuff too!

Online audio/video tool for Language teachers to create a series of audio and video prompts for students. Learner responses are saved for teacher review, and conversations can be joined by multiple students.

I have kicked off the first "Plurknovela" a collective digital story told by Plurkers around the world. Wanna join in the fun? Great for language students creating microblogged fiction on the fly!

Plurk novellas are emerging -- this is very cool. This could be used in writing. You can see how threaded microblogging is DIFFERENT from twitter. I think there is room for both.

Plurk novells are emerging. This is cool. You can see how threaded microblogging is DIFFERENT from twitter. I think there is room for both.

Speech given by Arne Duncan, May 17, 2010 regarding international collaboration and engagement in US Education

Wikispaces is hosting a free webinar. THe email to me today says: "Wikispaces Education Webinar: Join us on August 6 for our Education Webinar. We'll focus on features that teachers have found useful in their classrooms and hear from Nicole Naditz, a French educator and foreign language pedagogy trainer. Nicole has used wikis in her French classrooms and as resource pools for her colleagues. Join us as she shares her wikis including an e-pal exchange and a solar power project with a school in Burkina Faso."