Instreamia (AKA StudyStream) has entered the Desire2Learn “Build Something That Matters” Edge Challenge.

To get started with Instreamia, visit www.instreamia.com on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or other device and follow the prompts to create an account.

For more detailed instructions on Instreamia and how-to’s, visit our wiki: wiki.studystre.am.

Thursday, March 8 2012
8:00 PM ET
Webinar Login
We will be giving a seminar on Thursday March 8th for Open Education Week.

Learn how the free online service StudyStream makes it possible for students to learn languages while learning subjects in open course-ware. Join our discussion on how StudyStream overcomes language barriers to extend the reach and usefulness of open course-ware to students worldwide.

Participants will get to see StudyStream’s rich feature set in action including sentence-by-sentence playback of content, use of subtitles with one-click referencing, and detailed vocabulary explanations (including usage, translations, definitions, synonyms). Learn about the anticipated impact this will have on students learning from open course-ware worldwide. Finally, learn about how StudyStream’s engages students through interactive comprehension exercises that motivate students through real-time progress assessment.

You don’t need to RSVP in order to attend, but if you’d like to let us know whether you’ll be able to make it or ask us any questions, please visit our facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/203058356461990/

On Thursday, click here to attend: Webinar Login

Three months after its launch, StudyStream has over 3000 users! We’ve added numerous features such as the ability to add dictionary entries, edit video translations, and even import your own YouTube videos. Now you can learn from your favorite song or video by adding it from YouTube!

We are also excited to announce we are a contestant in the NYC Big Apps contest! You can see our entry and vote at the link below.

http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5813-studystream-online-language-learning

This is a huge opportunity for StudyStream to gain recognition and demonstrate the importance of technology in education. We would be tremendously appreciative of your vote (it only takes a minute). If you could also mention this to your friends, that would be great too! You are allowed to vote once per day.

Thank you everyone for such a successful first three months and thank you for your continued support!

Happy Holidays!

We are excited to announce that StudyStream has launched its User Guide Wiki at wiki.studystre.am.

The wiki is available in English and currently being translated into Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Italian. Like Wikipedia, anyone can log in and add pages or edit existing pages. We hope this will be a useful way for learners to share language learning tips. We hope that the experience of collaborating with other users to translate and refine the user guide will be helpful language learning practice.

Visit www.studystre.am to start learning with StudyStream beta.

One of the challenging yet exhilirating aspects of creating StudyStream has been continually asking ourselves the question: “How do we create a personalized, interactive, and fluid learning experience?”

Personalization is especially important for learning languages because everyone has unique interests and learning goals which they work toward at their own pace from their own unique starting point. However, when entire lessons are fixed from start to finish or offer only a handful of customization options such as in traditional language learning programs, they are limited in their ability to follow the learner’s direction, adapt to their progress, or continually challenge and stretch them. Yet just as modern digital photos can now use millions of megapixels to capture their subjects, advances in computer technology similarly allow for a new kind of program that personalizes across thousands or even millions of carefully measured data points.

Next, interactivity, another fundamental aspect of learning, is closely interrelated with personalization. Interactivity challenges the learner to make connections in a variety ways, which helps develop a rich understanding. In language learning where interconnections are particularly multi-faceted, developing a soft understanding is essential in thinking abstractly and, for example, inferring meanings of unfamiliar expressions. Plus interactivity keeps learning interesting and fun.

Finally, fluidity, or the ability to study in a smooth uninterrupted way, is important to keeping interest and crucial to the learning process. Analogous to sleep cycles, there are certain processes in learning that require higher levels of concentration. There is also the possibility that once you are interrupted you will become distracted and not be able to get back to what you were focusing on.

However, many learning techniques struggle to simultaneously offer a high level of personalization, interactivity, and fluidity.

Take for example flashcards. Flashcards do well at personalization when you create them yourself because you can write whatever you like on them, review them as quickly or as slowly as you like, change the order, etc. Generally they have weak interactivity because questions and responses are fixed.

Are flashcards fluid? Yes and no. The actual review process can be smooth, but writing down a flashcard in the middle of trying to read a book can disrupt your focus. In some cases, it might even be impossible, such as while watching a movie or listening to a podcast.

StudyStream was designed with several unique features to overcome these challenges and achieve a personalized, interactive, fluid learning experience. One feature we are very excited about is called (for the moment) Suggested Patterns.

Suggested Patterns is a unique system that considers your interests, study habits, learning pace, progress, and feedback, to carefully recommend new word families, expressions, grammatical structures, and other learnable patterns.

Suggested Patterns can be easily directed by the learner by allowing the learner to choose specific content from which to study. For example, it is simple to quickly learn necessary words and expressions to enjoy a movie by studying the Suggested Patterns for a particular title. (Don’t worry–we are working on a non-Spoiler mode.) Plus, since interactions are considered on an extremely intricate level, the degree of potential personalization is far beyond any learning tool available until StudyStream. Already there are over 5 million independent points to connect to within StudyStream. This may sound overwhelming, but since StudyStream carefully observes your learning patterns and personalizes accordingly, from the learner’s perspective using StudyStream is in many ways as simple as having your picture taken.

Further, StudyStream utilizes several linguistic connections that can be drawn among concepts and expressions to deepen understanding through a truly interactive learning experience. In fact, we developed from scratch a new kind of web renderer just for StudyStream that allows for flexible, smooth website interactivity using both PC and mobile devices. (We will write more on that in a later post).

Finally, since all StudyStream patterns are based on readily available reference information, learners can study without interruption. In just one click it is a cinch to look up new patterns even while enjoying a movie. We believe this extremely fluid approach greatly enhances the learning experience. (We will write more on that in a later post.)

Like many recent innovations, StudyStream offers several features that were not technologically possible until the recent advances in computer processing, storage technology, and interconnectivity. We are proud to present it as the future of language learning.

We look forward to explaining more new features. If you use Facebook, clicking the “like” button on the right is an easy way to stay updated on everything that is happening at StudyStream.