1. Here’s all the winners from this year’s English Language Teaching Oscars, the ELTons. Truly global, with winners in alphabetical order from Benin, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Turkey, the UK and the USA!
Plus, four very worthy recipients of the Outstanding Achievement Award, again in alphabetical order: Rod Bolitho, Rama Matthew, Okon Effiong and Scott Thornbury
2. Courtesy of the remarkably fecund OLDaily, AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably by Brian Porter & Edouard Machery https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-76900-1 PDF below.
3. I try hard not to be cynical about the mega-rich and their motives. Breakthrough Energy was founded by Bill Gates. They’ve just published a very upbeat report, The State of the Transition: Climate Tech Has Arrived https://transition.breakthroughenergy.org/ PDF below.
Major global investors—including endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure investors—are finally getting off the sidelines and engaging in climate tech opportunities in meaningful ways. Meanwhile, corporate leaders increasingly understand that climate tech is not just about shrinking their carbon footprint. It’s also about strengthening their businesses and deploying their capital more efficiently.
4. Big changes afoot in international education? Here’s a piece from the ICEF Monitor, Beyond the Big Four: How demand for study abroad is shifting to destinations in Asia and Europe, which suggests that affordability and post-study work opportunities are increasingly important factors in the choices students make https://monitor.icef.com/2024/10/beyond-the-big-four-how-demand-for-study-abroad-is-shifting-to-destinations-in-asia-and-europe/
5. And, finally, from The Guardian, plans to map London’s linguistic riches, Linguist calls for London’s endangered language communities to be mapped https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/26/londons-endangered-language-communities-to-be-mapped-in-new-project
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