Wordwall trumps other apps for creating anagram games

 For Creating anagram games, Wordwall is the best: 

- The resulting game won't change your small letters to capital letters, like the other apps do. 

- You can insert a TTS audio to accompany each word. 

- You can also insert a picture to accompany each word. 

- in the Play mode, the letters are large enough. 

- When attempting an anagram, you click the letters in the order that you think is right; this is closest to real life spelling. 

+++++

Problems with other apps: 

- Bookwidgets

    - No built-in anagram format. You have to use the 'Drag words/sentences' function instead. 

    - No TTS. 

    - Letters in resulting game too smal. 

- Educaplay

    - small letters you input will be converted to capital letters; not good for revising for Dictation. 

    - no TTS

- Learningapps.org

    - No Anagram game function. 

Wondershare Virbo for adding voiceover to PPT

 https://virbo.wondershare.com/

The app claims to be able to AI-generate a voiceover presentation video. I had a try, and below are my obseervations: 

0. The starting point is a PPT which you upload to the desktop app. 

1. Under the paid plan, you can choose your voiceover avatar. 

2. The avatar will appear in some of the slides in your original PPT. 

3. The app requires that there are speaker notes for EVERT slide. Even if the slide contains text, it won't automatically generate the voiceover if there are no speaker notes. 

4. As a result, this app works similar to Narakeet. 

5. As for the fee charging:

- Virbo requires a monthly subscription. 

- Narakeet operates on a pay-as-you-use basis. That makes more sense to occasional users of such applications. 

Kapwing can AI-generate an instructional video

 Kapwing can now AI-generate an instructional video, from a TOPIC (eg. Present Perfect tense vs Simple Past tense)

Here is the result of my attempt, a 29-second AI-generated video on the above topic: 

https://www.kapwing.com/c/oiK9Egp1Ix

But of course, do not expect the content to be highly customised for your needs. 

Youtube Trimmer being the best alternative to Vibby?

 Vibby, which I liked the most for getting clips from a Youtube, has suddenly disappeared. 

I have tried a few alternatives. As of this moment: 

https://www.youtubetrimmer.com/

is the best for my purposes, even though it will never be as good as Vibby. 

Still unhappy with AI apps for generating a presentation from a document

 Just tried a few other apps for generating presentations. These apps can generate a presentation: 

a. from a topic, 

b. from a passage

The problem is: 

For a, the resulting presentation will be too general. And in my case, I seldom need a general presentation on a topic. 

For b, the resulting presentation will still be quite general. 

======

To me, a presentation (eg, PPT) will most of the time be quite customised to my own needs and objectives. There will even be times when I don't want to include too much content on one slide; the slide may simply be a prompt to my explanation. 

IN sum, of the apps for different purposes, those for generating presentations are of the least use to me. 

Comparing 4 apps for creating comics

storyboardthat.com

- most versatile

- large bank of insertibles

- easy to edit inserts

- free plan allows for 3 frames only 

- all export options under free plan will produce huge watermarks

https://makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

- always free

- but lots of adverts

- can create as many frames as you like; 

-- bank of insertibles not that large;

- not that easy to edit inserts;

mystorybook.com

- bank of insertibles not that large;

- not that easy to edit inserts;

- can create as many frames as you like;

- final product can be shared via a link. 

Pixton

Pixton is by far the best. But it practically has no free plan. After your first attempt, that's it. 

Checking out Presentations.ai

 https://www.presentations.ai/

Just had a go with Presentations.ai. 

I uploaded a WORD document which was an Outline which I later uploaded to PPT to create a PPT. 

Presentatons.ai then converted my WORD ppt outline to an AI-generated presentation. The resulting presentation can be exported, or shared as a link. 

My views:

- The resulting presentation is visually very appealing. 

- It actually develops the content in my original Word outline. In this regard, the ai app is worth praising. 

- =========

The other two functions: 

1. Start with a prompt. 

2. Use the app to beautify your existing PPT. I tried it with an existing PPT. It did make the presentation deck more stunning in terms of visual effect (eg., transitions). But I think I actually prefer the PPT Designer function, which allows me to get the effects that I want. 

++++++++

I haven't tried the 'generate from an uploaded article' function. Anyway, if that article is one which I have found on the Internet, the resulting PPT will not specifically present what I MYSELF want to present (unless I write an article myself). 

This is my overall view about using AI to generate presentations: THEY ARE GOOD FOR INTRODUCING A TOPIC, BUT THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO CREATE A PRESENTATION WHICH IS CUSTOMISED TO MY TARGET CONTENT. 

++++++++++

Anyway: 

My original WORD outline: 

S4 Towards Communicative Activities PPT Outline.docx

The presentation generated by Presentations.ai: 

https://app.presentations.ai/view/jqmHG3

Workflowy for Presenting a Lesson Rundown List

 I use Dynalist to do my lesson planning. When I'm done, I copy the rundown and paste it into Notion which serves as the homepages of my courses. 

Sometimes, I have no time to, or I don't need to, or I don' t want to, create a PPT for delivering my session rundown. Can I simply turn my list rundown into a presentation?

Dynalist has no such functionality. 

A Google Search returned an app called Wunderlist which claimed to be able to convert a list rundown on a NOtion page into a Presentation. But it is not working at all. 

Then I found https://snackthis.co/presentations/, which turns the public page of a notion page, into a presentation. I had a try, but it only worked partially. I guess one has to do a lot of formatting to one's public notion page before this app will do a decent job. 

So finally, I'm setting for Workflowy. 

Here are the plus'es: 

- Just copy from Dynalist to Workflowy. No need to do any further formatting (level 1, level 2, level 3, et.)

- No need to convert a page. Just click on the 'Present' button in the top right. 

- The result is quite decent. 

Bottom Line: I will stick to Workflowy. 

A quick review of Eduaide AI

 Eduaide is an AI platform specifically to help teachers plan their teaching (from lesson plans, to creating question sets based on a topic). 

It has many many Generating functions, and I have yet to pick up all of them. 

For most of the gen-AI functions, it asks you to put down a topic, or some key points. 

This could be an asset, if you're dealing with concepts (eg., you're a science teacher. 

But if you need something more customised, then you may not get what you exactly need. 

I had a go with the 'Generate MCQ' function. Unlike QuestGen, though I can paste in a reading passage, the result does not fit my purpose. 

If  the purpose is to generate a Reading Comprehension question set based on a passage you have, then those apps which are specifically for that purpose, like QuestGen, will do a better job. 

but there are dozens of functions on the paltform. So, it is still worth having a look at the other functions to see how useful they may be. 

To create a Google Form for students to elect their class rep

 1. Have the students appear on a WORD or Google document. 

2. copy the list

3. Open Google Forms. Create Question. Choose 'Dropdown' 

4. In the first option box, paste in the copied list of names. 

That's it. 

+++++++++++++++

Realised just now that other than Dropdown, the Create MC function also works. Simply paste in the names (copied from a Spreadsheet) in Option 1. The names will automatically be converted to individual choices. 

Three things you can insert into a Google Forms worksheet to make it multimodal

MIEE for the 6th year

 

The Download PDF function in CHECKLIST under Bookwidgets

 Just found out that the 'Checkist' interactive in Bookwidgets allows students to PDF-download their completed checklist at the end of a class session. This is useful for a class session which is made of many tasks and subtasks. At the end of the class session, students can download their completed Checklist, and then present it on their Learning Journal. 

Padlet's Sandbox is a great replacement of Google Jamboard

 Just had a go with Padlet's new function: Sandbox. It's very impressive. It's not just a good substitute for Google Jamboard (though Google Jamboard is free); the Sandbox function can also do several other cool things, like creating an interactive, clickable presentation (somewhat like Genial.ly, and Thinglink). 

So, after I've become a proficient Sandbox user, I may not miss Google Jamboard any more!

Tried Padlet for replacing Flip

 Just tried using Padlet to create something like a Flip group discussion activity. 

In a way, it's not that complicated. Just create a new Padlet, share the link with Ss, and then they audio/video record their responses to your task. If you want them to share in smaller groups, then use the 'Sections' function. 

It's easy for Ss to take part. They can also easily listen to, or watch, each other's responses. 

Of course, there are still some functions in Flip, which are not found in Padlet, e.g., Creating a Class, and then Creating a Discussion Topic under a Class; mixtapes; covering up your face with a meme, etc. 

Padlet's Jamboard Import Function

 A couple of days ago, I mentioned that Padlet has this new function which allows users to import their Jamboards into Padlet. Just now I  had a try, and found that it was a very fast and simple process. The imported Jamboards, now as Padlets, work quite similarly to the original Jamboards (although some original Jamboard functions may have been lost). 

What's more, the imported Jamboards do NOT count towards my Padlet quota!  (I was an early adopter of Padlet, which started as a free app. When they started charging fees, they allowed the early adopters to keep the number of Padlets they had made. So in all these years, I've been using 58 Padlets for free. And when I need to go beyond the quota, I simply archive some old Padlets (which I can unarchive later) to make space for new Padlets!)

I was criticising Nearpod the other day, but Padlet has always been an app that I salute. 

Wordwall's New Function: Ss indicate name before starting a game