Quite a few readers of this blog mentioned enjoying John McWhorter's TED talk on texting being a new form of language. I thought this one by David Pogue on tech tips that can make your use of technology easier. The talk is only a bit more than 5 minutes and there may be a hint or two in what he says that helps you do what you want better or to start something. There are many excellent TED talks but some are found through Google searching instead of the official TED site, such as Dr. Alan Wallace's helpful breathing demo and instruction for quickly relieving tension. One of my favorites is Ernesto Sirolli.
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This week on TED.com <no-reply@ted.com> Date: Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Subject: 10 tech tips (you might be surprised you didn't know)
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olderkirby@gmail.com  | This week on TED.com April 27, 2013 | |
David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips  05:44 minutes · Filmed Feb 2013 · Posted Apr 2013 · TED2013 Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but there's probably at least one you don't. | |
Playlist of the week Verbs! Conjunctions! Dialects! 9 talks on the pwer of written and spoken language. » Total run time 2:11:52
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More from TED.com  What if cars could share data with each other to calculate the safest routes for everyone? Jennifer Healey imagines a world without car accidents. Watch »  What color is a mirror? How much does a video weigh? Michael Stevens, creator of the YouTube channel Vsauce, spends his day asking quirky questions like these. Watch » |  As machines take on more jobs, many humans find themselves out of work. Is this the end of economic growth? No, says Erik Brynjolfsson -- it's the growing pains of a radically reorganized economy. Watch »  The US economy has been expanding wildly for two centuries. But now, economist Robert Gordon lays out 4 key reasons -- including debt and inequality -- that this growth may be slowing. Watch » | | |
Happy Birthday TeD-Ed! In one year of TED-Ed, we've shared 150+ original video lessons -- and inspired more than 2,000 classroom lessons. Dive in and learn! Watch TED-Ed lessons » | |
Quote of the Week | " | Talk about [the economy] like what it is: not an existential crisis, not some battle between two fundamentally different religious views, but a math problem, a really solvable math problem." |
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Join the Conversation
| | " |  | Huw Jarvis on
John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!! | | | Some very interesting and valid points here, but it is also worth remembering that many users (arguably the majority) are texting in English a second or foreign language as well as their first language – what do such users make of this? My recent research (Jarvis, 2012) has looked at how non-native speakers of English view texting and 52.4% of users (N=123) reported that they '… use a different type of English when social networking to that which they are taught' There was a widespread view that such Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) made English easier; a Thai Female said, '… it's very easy, don't have grammar … when I type grammar it's too complex' and an Emirati Male explained how he picks up such language: '… we practice on the internet, we learn from friend … we find it easy so we do it … it's better, it's easier it's shorter'. An Emirati Female elaborated on the ways that CMC is changing English '… by chatting they use a different language, a new one, like TYT [take your time] … and numbers like letters'. Comments such as these point to autonomous learners making intelligent decisions about the type of English language to use in an online social environment. I agree with John in that I see all this as essentially positive not negative for language pedagogy. For the full study see http://www.tesolacademic.org/msworddownloads/BritishCouncil2012.pdf" | | |
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
