Online students outperform those receiving face-to-face instruction

A video entitled Social Media Revolution has been making the rounds via, ahem, social media. The video makes the case that social media is "the biggest shift since the industrial revolution".

The video, which tosses out a couple of interesting things for language learning, after the jump.

Probably the most interesting fact they toss out in respect of language learning is this (at 1:00 in the video):

2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction... 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum

So, if you've run into a language teacher who's skeptical about your use of eduFire, Lang-8, LingQ, Livemocha, or any of the rest, hold your ground because you've got some good statistics on your side.

At 2:00 in the video, it points out a language-learning resource that has certainly not gone unnoticed by language learners:

Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. Studies show it's more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica. 78% of these articles are non-English.

That means there's a pretty darn good chance that you can get materials in your target language on Wikipedia (and, of course, for you English learners, that means that 22% of the articles on there are in your target language).

With no further ado, here's the video: