Spanish Language Learning – Is it Worth It?
One of the great things about the rapid growth of the internet is that people everywhere now have easy access to Spanish language learning tools that they could not access so easily before. Especially in a time when culture, language, food, products, music-so much is shared between countries on the same continent, and across the world. The United States has many communities that are Spanish-speaking. The language is useful in many businesses both in the Americas and abroad. It has academic appeal, cultural appeal, business appeal, and personal appeal because learning a second language is, in itself, a rewarding experience.
Web-based Spanish language learning tools are an excellent option given that our globalized world is also a very busy one. These tools offer a lot of convenience and affordability for people who are very busy already, but still want to learn (or improve on) the Spanish language. There are Spanish lessons that help current students of Spanish improve their abilities with extra practice, which helps them get better grades in school. There are programs that teach Spanish language learning from the ground up. These are particularly useful for business people, travelers, or others who need to learn Spanish quickly and be able to improve their conversational skills continually.
And part of what makes online Spanish language learning programs so appealing is that they are convenient. Who has time to drive to a community college, wait for a class to begin, sit through a class that may move too slow on things they understand, yet glaze over points that they need to study twice? This is not an efficient way of learning things.
But the computer lets you learn Spanish at a speed that is right for you. With written and audio lessons that you can pursue at any pace, whenever you have time, Spanish language learning is much easier online than in the classroom. You still have a curriculum that was designed by an expert to make learning Spanish easy and fast. But it’s there whenever it works for YOU: it matches your schedule.
Spanish language learning programs also give you plenty of opportunity to practice. With audio that lets you listen in the car or wherever you like and practice repeating the words, as well as exercises and flashcards, you get plenty of opportunity to become comfortable with the language. These programs make learning Spanish fast, easy, and convenient, no matter you schedule. So in an age when learning Spanish is more appealing than ever before, it’s good to know that Spanish language learning tools are more accessible, too.
Research in Modelling Simulation and Collaboration Over the Web
Collaboration, simulation and modelling have been investigated to assist us in determining the requirements for future research in modelling of problems. Huhns [1] and Paternò [2] both explain that alternatives to the current approach to software development are required. This should allow translation from a model-based representation of software to the actual software. This could involve automatically producing software for a semantic web site from visual representations of the problem. The core of this modelling infrastructure would be automated generation of models written using World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards based languages and the visualisation of information represented in such W3C standard ways. We have examined modelling languages such as Alloy [3] examined by Wallace [4], in order to establish how modelling languages can be used as an interface to an End-User Programming environment.
Transformation from a model building environment to program code has been investigated by Gray et al [5]. MathML [6] can assist in this process by providing an open representation of functions as XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Functions entered by the model developer can then be translated to this open representation and translated to programming languages and/or read by programming languages. The representation of functions and information can sometimes be illustrated diagrammatically. Guibert et al [7] explain and expands on Smiths work with an example demonstrating how numbers fail to reveal the concept behind them. The example is a numerical representation of a triangle. This representation is ‘fregean’ because it does not show the concept of a triangle. Next to this is a diagram of the triangle that does show the concept. This is the theory behind our conversions to interactive SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and and tree based representations of information and functions [8][9].
An open standards web driven method of collaboration is required to make it possible for organisations and individuals to become more deeply involved in projects that are well coordinated using web technologies. Morris et al. [10] examine Interactivity and collaboration on the web. Aziz et al. [11] examine how open standards software can assist in an organisation’s collaborative product development. This approach is outlined in Ciancarini et al. [12] that explains ways of designing a document-centric coordination application over the Internet. Nidamarthi et al. [13] explain how web based collaboration can aid the design process. Huang and Mak [14] evaluate issues in the development and implementation of web applications for product design and manufacture. Reed et al. [15] show how web based modelling and simulation can be used in the aircraft design process. Kim et al. [16] explain their approach to modelling and simulation. Zhang et al. [17] review Internet-based product information sharing and visualisation. Li [18] examines the role of web based services for distributed process planning optimization.
The intention is to further the research of others into the approach of web based collaboration, and use semantic web software and techniques to achieve this. The above research reinforced our view that this is a robust approach. Modelling collaborations based on these techniques would bring together experts in engineering, systems modelling, computing, and Human Computer Interaction.