Break it Down for Me: A Study in Automated Lyric Annotation

Comprehending lyrics, as found in songs and poems, can pose a challenge to human and machine readers alike. This motivates the need for systems that can understand the ambiguity and jargon found in such creative texts, and provide commentary to aid readers in reaching the correct interpretation. We introduce the task of automated lyric annotation (ALA). Like text simplification, a goal of ALA is to rephrase the original text in a more easily understandable manner. However, in ALA the system must often include additional information to clarify niche terminology and abstract concepts. To stimulate research on this task, we release a large collection of crowdsourced annotations for song lyrics. We analyze the performance of translation and retrieval models on this task, measuring performance with both automated and human evaluation. We find that each model captures a unique type of information important to the task.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of EMNLP 201

Remaking Apprenticeships: powerful learning for work and life.

This report – Remaking Apprenticeships – commissioned by City & Guilds, reviews the research into the pedagogy of apprenticeships. It makes an argument for putting learning back at the heart of apprenticeships in England and elsewhere.\ud \ud Remaking Apprenticeships traces the history of apprenticeships in order to make sure that knowledge of the past informs thinking today. It describes the elements of a pedagogy of apprenticeships. It explains why how an apprentice learns and who they learn with – the culture within which their vocational formation occurs – is at least as important as what they learn.\ud It identifies three core dimensions of apprenticeship learning

Plants and Insects New to Sable Island, Nova Scotia

During recent inventories, particularly in 2008 and 2009, 8 plants and 17 insects were found that are additions to the flora and fauna of Sable Island, respectively. Additions to the flora include Alnus incana subsp. rugosa, Carex nigra, Frangula alnus, Isoetes tuckermanii, Linaria vulgaris, Mertensia maritima, Panicum dichotomiflorum, and Solidago rugosa. Additions to the insect fauna include Apateticus bracteatus, Barce fraterna, Carabus maeander, Conocephalus fasciatus, Danaus plexippus, Eulithis explanata, Haliplus cribrarius, Harmonia axyridis, Lasioglossum novascotiae, Lateroligia ophiogramma, Lycophotia phyllophora, Muirodelphax arvensis, Nemoria rubrifrontaria, Neoconocephalus retusus, Paraphlepsius irroratus, Scaphytopius acutus, and Spilodiscus arcuatus. The occurrence of Spilodiscus arcuatus is of interest with respect to an apparent decline throughout much of its range. Neoconocephalus retusus and species of Catocala provide an indication of the capability of storms to transport even large insects over substantial distances. The increasing numbers of Danaus plexippus observed may be part of a trend toward the northward movement of migratory insects. Some of the 7 plants are likely recent arrivals, but Isoetes tuckermanii and others may have been previously overlooked

Vocational Pedagogy: What it is and why it matters

One of the original aims of\ud A Curriculum for Excellence was to\ud place more emphasis on employability\ud and skills required to meet market\ud demand.\ud The final report of the Commission for\ud Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce\ud has made a series of recommendations\ud in the same vein. In Sir Ian Wood’s own\ud words, “There should be a continuum\ud from primary school right through into\ud employment”.\ud Developing a young workforce\ud demands a culture change from all parts\ud of the education and training system.\ud In particular, there needs to be a focus\ud on high-quality vocational teaching and\ud learning, wherever and whenever it\ud takes place.\ud This paper challenges some popular\ud myths – for example, that “clever people\ud don’t get their hands dirty” – before\ud proposing six desirable outcomes from\ud vocational learning. Having set out the\ud aims, Professor Lucas goes on to outline\ud the major features of successful vocational\ud pedagogy, or the science, art and craft\ud of teaching and learning vocational\ud education

Vocational Pedagogy: What it is, why it matters and how to put it into practice

The 2014 Education for All Global Monitoring\ud Report on teaching and learning reminded\ud us that there is a global learning crisis\ud and that the quality of education is at the\ud centre of it. The quality of education largely\ud depends on good teachers. This is particularly\ud evident in technical and vocational education\ud and training, where TVET teachers have a\ud distinctive role to play in improving the\ud quality of education. Quality TVET teachers\ud are those with both expert knowledge\ud in their field and who have the ability to\ud transfer this knowledge to their students.\ud However, we too often forget to discuss this\ud important question: how to teach TVET?\ud To further our understanding of vocational\ud pedagogy, UNESCO-UNEVOC organized a\ud virtual conference from 12 to 26 May 2014 on\ud the UNEVOC e-Forum. Moderated by Professor\ud Bill Lucas, Director of the Centre for Real-\ud World Learning, Professor of Learning at the\ud University of Winchester (United Kingdom)\ud and co-creator of the Expansive Education\ud Network, this virtual conference explored\ud what vocational pedagogy is, why it matters\ud and how teachers can put it into practice