{"id":7848,"date":"2012-09-25T11:59:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T18:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/?p=7848"},"modified":"2012-09-25T11:59:42","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T18:59:42","slug":"duolingo-luis-von-ahn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/2012\/09\/25\/duolingo-luis-von-ahn\/","title":{"rendered":"Duolingo : Luis Von Ahn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Venture:\u00a0 Duolingo<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The project was started by Professor Luis Von Ahn and his PhD. student Severin Hacker, and then developed also with Antonio Navas, Vicki Cheung, Marcel Uekermann, Brendan Meeder, Hector Villafuerte, and Jose Fuentes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Duolingo<\/strong> is a free language-learning website using crowdsourced<\/a> model where language learners are invited to translate web content and vote on the best translations. The service is designed so that as users progress through the lessons, they simultaneously help to translate websites. Duolingo started its private beta on 30 November 2011, and accumulated a waiting list of more than 300,000 users . Duolingo launched to the public on 19 June 2012 and as of September 2012, the site offers Spanish, French, and German courses for English speakers, as well as English for Spanish speakers. As of September 2012, Duolingo does not charge for either its translation or language services. The project was originally sponsored by Luis Von Ahn’s MacArthur fellowship and a National Science Foundation grant. Additional funding was later received in the form of an investment from Union Square Ventures and actor Ashton Kutcher’s firm A-Grade Investments.<\/p>\n

Founder Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luis Von Ahn<\/strong> was born in 1979 in Guatemala to a family of doctors. His mother spoke mostly English with him hoping he could later study in the US.\u00a0 He attended the American School of Guatemala, then studied mathematics at Duke University in North Carolina and then computer science at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned his doctorate in computer science in 2005 and joined the faculty of the School of Computer Science in 2006. He is the founder of the company reCAPTCHA, which was sold to Google in 2009. He has also earned international recognition and numerous honors.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He developed a concept of human computation or crowdsourcing. In his interview with Wired Magazine he said \u201cpeople will contribute their brainpower\u2026 only if they’re given an enjoyable, time-killing experience in exchange\u201d.\u00a0 Before starting Duolingo, he kept asking himself and his students “how can we have 100 million people translating the web to every major language for free?\u201d.\u00a0 The obstacles for language translation are the lack of bilinguals and motivation.\u00a0To solve these two obstacles with one solution, Von Ahn\u00a0 transforms the language translation to something millions of people want to do and at the same time help them learn the new language.<\/p>\n

My reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found Duolingo a really interesting\u00a0venture for learning and translating. I signed up to learn Spanish and I found the site very easy and fun to use. Its reward system of points and stars are also compelling and keep me motivated.\u00a0 Duolingo also keeps track of your progress and participation as you learn. Duolingo gives you real Web content to practice reading and translating so you have a chance to practice with\u00a0authentic language\u00a0which I think it is a very effective way to learn a language. This venture inspired me to want to see a project like this happen in Thailand where English language learners help translate Thai to English and vice versa and at the same time improving their English. Unfortunately, Thai is not a major language and Duolingo has no plan to include it in the near future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Duolingo<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/twitpic.com\/4sjlpm<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg21328476.200-learn-a-language-translate-the-web.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/article2\/0,2817,2402570,00.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cQl6jUjFjp4&feature=youtu.be<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Venture:\u00a0 Duolingo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The project was started by Professor Luis Von Ahn and his PhD. student Severin Hacker, and then developed also with Antonio Navas, Vicki Cheung, Marcel Uekermann, Brendan Meeder, Hector Villafuerte, and Jose Fuentes. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0   Duolingo is a free language-learning website using crowdsourced model where language learners are invited to translate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493564],"tags":[548395,548396,602695],"class_list":["post-7848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-04-entrepreneur-bootcamp","tag-duolingo","tag-language-learning","tag-week-04-entrepreneur-bootcamp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7848"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7862,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7848\/revisions\/7862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}