Michel Thomas: the Learning Revolution
Michel Thomas: the Learning Revolution

Author: Jonathan Solity

Publisher: Teach Yourself

Published: 2021-04

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781529344301

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The publication of the Michel Thomas ground-breaking, all-audio language learning materials has been a publishing phenomenon. Sales of over one million units in just eight years and the universal acclaim his method has excited would indicate that there is a large body of people who want to know more about how and why his method works where so many others have failed. The book will give a brief history of Michel's fascinating life and summarise how he became interested in teaching foreign languages, before going on to look at the experience of learning a foreign language in general and Michel's method of teaching in particular. It examines the barriers to language learning in both the UK and the US, Michel's focus on the role and quality of the teacher rather than the learner, and Michel's core belief that with the right teaching anyone can learn another language quickly and easily. The reader will be introduced to new trends in psychology and their relationship to the way Michel teaches foreign languages as well as examining conventional wisdoms. There follows a detailed analysis of Michel's programmes for foreign language teaching and the implications for schools, colleges and universities if they wish to adopt his methodology and at the same time meet the requirements of the public examinations both in the UK and the US.

Michel Thomas German Foundation Course
Michel Thomas German Foundation Course

Author: Michel Thomas

Publisher:

Published: 2006-09

Total Pages: 10

ISBN-13: 9780340938928

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Michel Thomas's approach to language learning aims to provide in a few hours a functional working knowledge of a language without books, note-taking or conscious memorizing. This CD pack provides an eight-hour course in German plus a 2-CD review course.

The Deep Learning Revolution
The Deep Learning Revolution

Author: Terrence J. Sejnowski

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-10-23

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 026203803X

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How deep learning—from Google Translate to driverless cars to personal cognitive assistants—is changing our lives and transforming every sector of the economy. The deep learning revolution has brought us driverless cars, the greatly improved Google Translate, fluent conversations with Siri and Alexa, and enormous profits from automated trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Deep learning networks can play poker better than professional poker players and defeat a world champion at Go. In this book, Terry Sejnowski explains how deep learning went from being an arcane academic field to a disruptive technology in the information economy. Sejnowski played an important role in the founding of deep learning, as one of a small group of researchers in the 1980s who challenged the prevailing logic-and-symbol based version of AI. The new version of AI Sejnowski and others developed, which became deep learning, is fueled instead by data. Deep networks learn from data in the same way that babies experience the world, starting with fresh eyes and gradually acquiring the skills needed to navigate novel environments. Learning algorithms extract information from raw data; information can be used to create knowledge; knowledge underlies understanding; understanding leads to wisdom. Someday a driverless car will know the road better than you do and drive with more skill; a deep learning network will diagnose your illness; a personal cognitive assistant will augment your puny human brain. It took nature many millions of years to evolve human intelligence; AI is on a trajectory measured in decades. Sejnowski prepares us for a deep learning future.

How We Learn
How We Learn

Author: Stanislas Dehaene

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0525559906

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“There are words that are so familiar they obscure rather than illuminate the thing they mean, and ‘learning’ is such a word. It seems so ordinary, everyone does it. Actually it’s more of a black box, which Dehaene cracks open to reveal the awesome secrets within.”--The New York Times Book Review An illuminating dive into the latest science on our brain's remarkable learning abilities and the potential of the machines we program to imitate them The human brain is an extraordinary learning machine. Its ability to reprogram itself is unparalleled, and it remains the best source of inspiration for recent developments in artificial intelligence. But how do we learn? What innate biological foundations underlie our ability to acquire new information, and what principles modulate their efficiency? In How We Learn, Stanislas Dehaene finds the boundary of computer science, neurobiology, and cognitive psychology to explain how learning really works and how to make the best use of the brain’s learning algorithms in our schools and universities, as well as in everyday life and at any age.

The Rebirth of Education
The Rebirth of Education

Author: Lant Pritchett

Publisher: CGD Books

Published: 2013-09-30

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1933286776

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Despite great progress around the world in getting more kids into schools, too many leave without even the most basic skills. In India’s rural Andhra Pradesh, for instance, only about one in twenty children in fifth grade can perform basic arithmetic. The problem is that schooling is not the same as learning. In The Rebirth of Education, Lant Pritchett uses two metaphors from nature to explain why. The first draws on Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom’s book about the difference between centralized and decentralized organizations, The Starfish and the Spider. Schools systems tend be centralized and suffer from the limitations inherent in top-down designs. The second metaphor is the concept of isomorphic mimicry. Pritchett argues that many developing countries superficially imitate systems that were successful in other nations— much as a nonpoisonous snake mimics the look of a poisonous one. Pritchett argues that the solution is to allow functional systems to evolve locally out of an environment pressured for success. Such an ecosystem needs to be open to variety and experimentation, locally operated, and flexibly financed. The only main cost is ceding control; the reward would be the rebirth of education suited for today’s world.

Inside the California Food Revolution
Inside the California Food Revolution

Author: Joyce Goldstein

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2013-09-06

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0520956702

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In this authoritative and immensely readable insider’s account, celebrated cookbook author and former chef Joyce Goldstein traces the development of California cuisine from its formative years in the 1970s to 2000, when farm-to-table, foraging, and fusion cooking had become part of the national vocabulary. Interviews with almost two hundred chefs, purveyors, artisans, winemakers, and food writers bring to life an approach to cooking grounded in passion, bold innovation, and a dedication to "flavor first." Goldstein explains how the counterculture movement in the West gave rise to a restaurant culture characterized by open kitchens, women in leadership positions, and a surprising number of chefs and artisanal food producers who lacked formal training. The new cuisine challenged the conventional kitchen hierarchy and French dominance in fine dining, leading to a more egalitarian and informal food scene. In weaving Goldstein’s views on California food culture with profiles of those who played a part in its development—from Alice Waters to Bill Niman to Wolfgang Puck—Inside the California Food Revolution demonstrates that, while fresh produce and locally sourced ingredients are iconic in California, what transforms these elements into a unique cuisine is a distinctly Western culture of openness, creativity, and collaboration. Engagingly written and full of captivating anecdotes, this book shows how the inspirations that emerged in California went on to transform the experience of eating throughout the United States and the world.