Xiha Life is around since 2008 already and has not only attracted a substantial seed funding of $1 million in January 2010 but also added Jyri Engeström who is a co-founder of Jaiku, a micro blogging platform similar to Twitter which has been acquired by Google for $12 million in 2007, to the board.
The newest version of Xiha Life enables you to add your Facebook and Twitter stream to the platform and hence use its real time translation tool.
WordSteps helps you to learn 20 foreign words in 15 minutes a day. At least that’s the promise of the Russian startup.
The idea is that if you learn with WordSteps only three times a week for 15 minutes you could enlarge your vocabulary by about 240 words per month and hence about 3000 new words per year.
Apparently a new LMS / WLA called Nixty launched today. Nixty is aiming to empower education for everyone by offering simple to use tools for teachers to create multimedia enabled courses.
Sarah Gontijo, Founder and CEO of Hello-Hello was so kind to provide me with some background information on her language learning community and the recent launch of two new courses for learners of German and Italian.
Hence I think it’s about time to have a first look on the site.
LinguaTV is a German start up that offers professionally produced language learning videos, as the tagline says “we watch languages”.
I think this is a very interesting approach and the company already won a bunch of awards for its innovative platform. After the relaunch the product is even more streamlined so it’s about time to have a first look on LinguaTV.
After learners have used the internet to connect with the whole world and searched for teachers on the opposite side of the globe it seems as if they found a new button on a camera and found out that there is not only a button to zoom on things that are far away but that there is also a macro zoom which allows you to see things right beneath your nose in shiny new colors.
This trend is called “local” and will be one of the big things in 2010. So let’s take a closer look at two services that make it very easy to connect with local people, in the real world.
RhinoSpike – Foreign Language Audio on Demand
This new platform is targeting learners of a foreign language who would like to have customized mp3 with the content they want to listen to. From simple pronunciations for flashcards to short texts.
In this post I will take a look at three services that aim to make the life of college students easier.
As students today are more and more connected and used to take decision on their own with the desire to have control over the process there are some interesting services that are targeting this more independent generation of college students.
YongoPal – Make Money by Making a Difference!
Sounds great, right? But what exactly is YongoPal? Apparently the site offers a service that connects Korean university students with native English speakers who will get paid for having a chat in English with the students.
Earlier this week I had the chance to talk to Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder of udemy.com and he invited me for a tour. The project is an interesting mixture of different tools we already know from other platforms but it also offers some new features that I think are quite useful for online education.
I love Sushi. For me it’s one of the most perfect food creations of mankind. Pure, elegant, tasty. Everything you need.
VocabSushi transfers those features into a vocabulary learning tool. You see, I am already excited about this product and yes, I admit it impressed me right from the start. Like last year, when I discovered Mingoville (watch also the EDUKWEST interview with Stephan Stephensen). So what is VocabSushi all about?
Yesterday I read about a very interesting start up in online education on TechCrunch Europe called Sparkeo. As TC was offering 100 beta invites I grabbed one immediately and signed up for it.
As video streaming is growing and growing on the internet it is great to have a targeted service for educators. So let’s have a first look on Sparkeo.
We all knew it had to happen one day. And now the day has come: Livemocha finally pulled the trigger and sent a load of fresh roast mocha beans over to Rosetta Stone.
On their blog you will find three reasons why Livemocha is better than Rosetta Stone.
The German online flashcard platform CoboCards twittered to its users a link to a sneak peak video of the yet to launch pro accounts.
http://www.cobocards.com/screencast/en/sneakpeek/
As I also had an EDUKWEST interview with Tamim Swaid, the founder and director of CoboCards, I think it’s about time to write up a little blog post about this company.
New year, new language learning start up. I just got followed by Learn2Lingo on Twitter and had a quick first look and I have to say: it looks quite nice.
The good thing is that I can write this blog post after just 5 minutes being on the site. So the message gets through.
Though the title of the post might tell you something different, Learnissimo.com is not new on the market. They started their service around the same time as Myngle and eduFire, so about two years ago.
First it was based on a marketplace model, teachers set their own prices and times. But from the beginning on there were strict rules for the teachers about lesson cancellations, missing a class, coming too late etc. You can say it was a mix between a classic school model and a freelancer marketplace.
Now Learnissimo seems to have finally chosen which way they want to go.
Another virtual classroom enters the ring. Edoboard.com‘s tagline is “The tutor’s Online Toolbox”.
“Oh, great. Another virtual classroom. Who needs another one?”, I hear you say. Well, the answer is simple: maths and science teachers. And I think they will love this one.
So many Languages to learn...
This is a very popular question I get from people who know that I am a language teacher. Today I took a final decision for myself and I would also like to share my priority list of languages for the next decade with you.
The list is based on facts as well as on assumptions but I think it could be useful for language learners as well as language teachers. It should be seen as a priority list for business, I don’t say one should abandon classic languages as French, Italian or German but as we all have only a certain amount of time you have to take decisions, I guess. But basically any language you add to your skill set is a gain, no question about that.
On my daily surf through the web I came across this fairly new language learning community called lenguajero.com. What immediately caught my eye is the fact that they “only” offer language exchange between Spanish and English speakers. That’s what I call targeted.
Reading a bit through the blog I learned that the site was developed by just two people and the design cost only about $1000. That’s what I call boot strapped!
Nice coincidence. Today I got a new Twitter follower called @Mingoville. When I checked out their website I was quite amazed. Mingoville.com is a free online community plus virtual world for kids to learn English.
A great use of Social Media strategies, matches perfectly today’s #Edchat Social Media topics.
