Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Anne Curzan. Two weeks ago I gave a talk to a group of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor undergraduates called “Txtng and the Future of English.” As a linguist who studies the history of the English language, I reassured the students that they are not ruining the English language, no matter what they hear from their parents or teachers or other trustworthy and concerned authorities. Some of the students looked gratified by this alternate perspective; others looked skeptical.
The changes in written English—and to a lesser extent spoken English—caused by texting and other electronically mediated communication (EMC) strike me as more interesting than worrisome. All living languages change, a fact that has worried people for generations. Benjamin Franklin’s distaste for the verbs colonize and notice now seems quaint. The recent rise of LOL and the verb friend seem to many less quaint.
We didn’t start talking or writing like the telegraph more than a 150 years ago, and we’re not going to start speaking or writing entirely in acronyms and other abbrevs now. Read more...

A total of 1,780 educational institutions and projects made possible through international cooperation were approved by China as of January, the Ministry of Education said Thursday.
Of the total, 775 are at the college level or above, said Zhang Xiuqin, head of the ministry's Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, at a press conference.
"International cooperation in education still needs to be improved and the ministry will further strengthen supervision, as well as offer more guidance for education cooperation," Zhang said.
In 2012, four provinces carried out pilot programs to assess international education institutions.
China will also introduce a general mechanism to assess educational institutions that are globally recognized, Zhang said. Read more...

The World Bank Board of Directors approved a total of US$150 million in two credits to help Vietnam to support and sustain the implementation of the Higher Education Reforms Agenda, and to improve school readiness for 5 year old children.
“Improving education outcomes for the population is an important part of Vietnam’s economic and social development agenda, and has been defined as one of the three breakthrough areas in its Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2011-2020.” said Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank Country Director for Vietnam. “The World Bank is pleased to support the strengthening of Vietnam’s education sector to help raise Vietnam’s economic competitiveness.” Read more...

An emerging form of online education, called massive open online courses, provides access to renowned universities to people around the world. But can it improve the education of students in developing countries?
Unsatisfied with the curriculum at the University of El Salvador where he is a professor of electrical engineering, Carlos Martinez enrolled in a massive open online course - or MOOC, which when pronounced rhymes with "spook" - titled Circuits and Electronics offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology via the Internet to anyone interested...
Parlez-vous MOOC?
The language barrier can also pose a problem, Bates added, as younger students generally need instruction in their native language and MOOCs have not expanded far beyond English. "If the MOOCs are coming from Ivy League universities in the United States then language can be a problem," Bates said.
Interest in MOOC courses, however, is not restricted to the English-speaking world. Coursera saw that its first 1 million students came from 196 countries: 38 percent from the United States, followed by nearly 5.9 percent from Brazil, 5.2 percent from India and 4.1 percent from China. Both Coursera and edX announced in February that they would offer courses run by partner universities in languages other than English. Read more...

Interior Minister Evripidis Stylianidis has suggested that private entities should be allowed to invest in Greek universities.
Currently, all universities in Greece are public and any change to this would require the country’s constitution to be changed.
Stylianidis suggested that investors should be able to hold up to a 49 percent stake in universities in order create new sources of funding and ease the burden on the state.
The minister said that Greece can only afford to fund 15 of the 24 state universities in the country. Read more...

Bonne nouvelle pour les élèves de Terminale souhaitant s'exercer au mieux: le ministère de l'Education vient de mettre en ligne, via le site Eduscol, les épreuves du baccalauréat des trois dernières années.
Quelques semaines après la révélation du scandale du Cned, qui n'est toujours pas parvenu à prendre le virage du numérique, il semble que l'Education nationale souhaite impulser cette dynamique. Le ministère vient en effet de donner accès aux annales du bac gratuitement, en ligne, et pour l'ensemble des épreuves. Suite de l'article...
Ces annales peuvent également être très utiles pour le DAEU.
Voir sur le blog: S'inscrire au DAEU avec PEGASUS, Le DAEU: un diplôme de fac... sans le bac, Nouveau: le portail d'information national sur le DAEU, La rentrée arrive, le DAEU peut être la réponse que vous attendiez, Poitou-Charentes: Financement du DAEU, FCU Pays de la Loire, spécial DAEU, Le DAEU sur le Portail étudiant, Le DAEU en Rhône-Alpes, la plaquette régionale, La Région Poitou-Charente reconduit le chèque Promotion sociale pour favoriser la préparation du DAEU, Une aide pour réviser le DAEU, Où préparer le DAEU en PACA, Le DAEU en PACA, Où trouver des annales du DAEU et des ressources, Deuxième chance: le DAEU est "le moyen de remédier aux sorties précoces du système scolaire" (Jean-Marie Filloque, CDSUFC), Doubler le nombre d'inscrits au DAEU.

Par Julie Le Bolzer. L'acquisition d'une expertise - pour progresser ou se reconvertir - passe par l'apprentissage de la transversalité, c'est le constat des recruteurs. En France, les masters tendent à évoluer en ce sens. Il offre un niveau bac + 5. Après la licence (bac + 3), et avant le doctorat (bac + 8), le master tient son appellation de la démarche d'harmonisation européenne des diplômes. Si, à l'origine, il se préparait au sein des écoles d'ingénieurs et des universités, le master a depuis été développé par les écoles supérieures de commerce et de management. « Les jeunes docteurs et ingénieurs qui se tournent vers ces cursus sont soit dans une logique d'acquisition d'expertise, soit dans une logique de reconversion professionnelle, indique Jean-François Fiorina, directrice de l'EM-Grenoble. Ces candidats ont conscience qu'ils vont être amenés à travailler avec des équipes internationales, ce qui est un véritable sésame pour leur carrière future, dans le marketing par exemple. Ce sont des métiers qui appellent la transversalité. » La transversalité, un maître mot dans le monde de l'entreprise. Suite de l'article...