Learning a New Language

There’s an interesting piece in The Curator about our new brains—new, that is, because of technology—and some of the positive possibilities inherent in technologies we usually decry:

It is too easy to play doomsday prophet and long for a day of Luddite purity. Von Ahn and people like him hope to use the advance of technology as a kind of corrective force for itself and the destructive parts of human nature. Gamification has been adopted by many in the education world; using those the task-reward system has already helped younger students take their famous boundless energy and focus it. Wikipedia, reCaptcha, Duolingo and other opportunities for massive collaboration continue to expand our horizons. If we can continue to think of ways for technology to humanize, instead of dehumanize, then maybe we won’t end up locked away from each other and our world.

Read the rest here.