I haven’t added a new exerpt in a long time. So here we go…
Continue readingGuess the Classic (9)
Reply
Everything digital: From ‘Internet’ to ‘AI’
First posted October 2025; last updated June 2026
A summary with frequently shared links
When I browse through all the topics that have dominated throughout the last years, i.e. topics that come up again and again, everything around digitalization definitely qualifies. The range is wide: from the internet in general, to smartphone related topics, and – the newest since ChatGPT abruptly entered the market – A.I.
Continue readingWords of the Year 2025
And, as every year …
“Words of the Year” (or WOTY) offer a perspective on what interested people in the year past. Some words are chosen by linguistic institutes (like the American Dialect Society – Wikipedia in the US, comparable to the ‘Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache‘ in Germany), others by dictionaries that choose according to which words or expressions were looked up most on their websites. Some words reflect social or cultural trends, others refer to news topics or topics that seem to have dominated media throughout the year.
Continue readingDon’t call it intelligent – the suggestive influence of metaphorical concepts
In my post on everything digital, I mentioned Jaron Lanier and his Ted talk on the history of the internet in which he describes how the internet was developed and conceptualized from the beginning as something that should be available for free to all. This leftist, socialist ideal, he explains, led to the internet having become a huge behaviour modification manipulator and he warns that we should change this.
Jaron Lanier: How we need to remake the internet | TED Talk
In an article Jaron Lanier published April 2023 for The New Yorker magazine, he warns about the dangers of calling digital machines ‘artificial intelligence’ (A.I.). There Is No A.I. | The New Yorker
Continue readingGuess the Classic (8)
The following is the prologue to a very successful book series, and more I do not want to say …
Continue readingLeadership
In a time, when autocratic leadership seems to be mushrooming throughout the world, even in the country many used to consider a reliable torch bearer of democracy, the topic of leadership has become one of utmost importance.
Continue readingWord(s) of the Year 2024
My posts on this traditional new year’s topic build up on each other. The one from 2022 provides the most background information to the topic; 2023’s post lists four sources I focussed on last year.
Continue readingTopics and images of 2024
As much as I would like to say ‘good riddance’, there were some things I enjoyed in 2024. (And those developments I consider less positive are most likely here to stay for a while, I’m afraid.) So let’s take a little look back…
Continue readingTED Eds
Ted Ed videos are short educational videos explaining a various number of different topics in a few minutes. Here I will share a list of those I have already watched or find interesting for future reference.
Continue readingMondegreens and ‘We didn’t start the fire’
This is an evergreen topic: Misunderstood song lyrics, also know as ‘mondegreens’. There are some classic ones everybody knows, and some where you wonder if they are truly mondegreens or not really attempts at humor. Why they are called ‘mondegreens’ and more of them ….
Continue readingUpdate on: How Languages are Learned
I have written about this question in other posts that you find under Reflections and Recommendations on Learning and Teaching
Here I just wanted to share a link to an eight minute video on the subject.
Continue readingEarth Overshoot Day, or: What is your ecological footprint?
This year, 2024, Earth Overshoot Day has been calculated for August 1.
Earth Overshoot Day is the day on which we humans have used up all ‘the sustainable amount of biological resources generated on earth’ (wikipedia):
Continue readingPlastics
(Sequel to the Gapminder post)
Triggered by the gapminder question tile ‘Plastics in Oceans’, I created a lesson around the topic of plastics based on the text below.
History and Future of Plastics | Science History Institute
Continue readingGapminder and SDGs
Update 2025
Anna Rosling Rönnlund: See how the rest of the world lives, organized by income | TED Talk
Some years ago, I watched a TED talk given by the Swedish statistician and physician Hans Rosling and his son. Hans and Ola Rosling: How not to be ignorant about the world | TED Talk.
I also started reading his book ‘Factfulness’.
Continue readingWords and their origins: Often not what you thought
The Case of Soccer and Football
The European Championchip is in its last week, the English team is still playing and it is high time that I write my football/soccer related post before the tournament is over and football talk will rest for two years before it resumes with the World Cup 2026. Taking place in North America and Mexico, there will probably then be more soccer talk than football talk, at least among the hosts.
Why DO Americans call what (almost) everyone else calls football ‘soccer’? And why do they call a game pretty obviously hardly played with any feet ‘football’. American football comes across as a (rougher) version of rugby, so why wasn’t it called American Rugby?
Continue readingThe Biggest Obstacle to Learning
Much of what I believe about learning – through experience and studies – I have already written about elsewhere (for instance in my post: ‘The Best Curriculum in the World’). But the topic regularly pops up in classes, often in connection with questions concerning memory – memorizing and forgetting – or when talking about ‘grammar’, where I still hear things like: “I hate grammar, I’m bad at grammar etc.”. Even from course members whose English is on an advanced level.
Continue readingThe best school curriculum for a peaceful world
The topic of schools, schooling, and education is one that frequently comes up. The reason is simple: education is of the utmost importance and many agree that our school systems do not always provide the best environment for learning. The whole structure is unnatural (large same age groups with one adult) and forces kids and adults (the teachers) into a strait jacket that might fit some, but many it doesn’t.
There have been educators who try to fight for better educational concepts, better schools, for approaches to education that consider the psychological and cognitive nature of humans. For concepts that cater better to our minds: our brain’s fascinating capability to figure things out, to recognize patterns, to be curious about our surroundings – and enjoy the whole process.
Continue readingWord(s) of the Year 2023
This topic has become a traditional choice at the beginning of the year. Last year’s post provides a little background to the topic.
Continue readingLetting go of New Year’s resolutions
In the podcast below from National Public Radio, Gregory Warner describes how he went from being obsessed with New Year’s resolutions to letting go of them. ‘Goal disengagement’ is the term; liberating yourself from old and repeatedly newly set goals, especially when, year after year, they remain unfulfilled.
Continue readingNPR: National Public Radio
A great website I first found in 2014. And rediscovered in 2023. It has short podcasts you can listen to repeatedly for great learning effect.
Some I’ve listened to lately (updated May 12, 2024)
Related to Béyonce’s new album ‘Cowboy Carter’, there are several great podcasts. For instance: What her cover of ‘Blackbird’ means to a member of the Little Rock Nine.