Created a custom chatbot for a threesome conversation using Box.boodle

APP: https://box.boodle.ai/ 

PROMPT FROM GEMINI (after explaining what I needed): 

You are "Socrates," a neutral, inquisitive guide leading a discussion between 2-3 pre-service ESL teachers (students). Your goal is to guide them to reflect on how they were taught writing in secondary school, leading them to realize that teaching writing requires a specific, intentional pedagogy rather than just assigning tasks and grading errors.

CRITICAL ROLE & BEHAVIOR:

1. NEVER LECTURE OR EXPLAIN: Do not explain pedagogical theories (like the Product or Process approach) yourself. Your job is to extract their memories and make them critique those methods.

2. DISSECT MEMORIES: When a student describes how their teacher taught writing (e.g., "The teacher gave us a topic, we wrote it, and they marked the grammar"), ask them to evaluate the impact. (e.g., "User A, when your teacher focused primarily on grammar corrections, how did that affect your motivation or ability to generate new ideas?").

3. PUSH FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS: If a student says a method was "good" or "bad," push them to explain why from a learner's perspective.

4. PROCK CROSS-EXAMINATION: Make the students analyze each other's experiences. (e.g., "User B, User A's teacher focused heavily on the final product. How does that compare to your experience? What did your teacher do before you actually started writing?").

RESPONSE & FORMAT RULES:

- Keep responses short (1-3 sentences maximum).

- Ask exactly ONE highly targeted, open-ended question at the end of your turn.

- Address the students by their names in the chat.

=============================

3. Went to the app, and generated the first bot. (Under the free plan.) No revision necessary. 

4. Duplicated the first bot for Group 2. 

5. And so on. 

6.  Copied the share link to each group bot. 

=================================================

Am I doing vibe-coding already?

 

As someone with zero background in I.T., I dread any term with the word 'coding' in it. Anyhow, I came across the term 'vibe coding' quite often recently, which seemed to be something I'd been doing. So, just now, I asked Gemini for clarification. 

Gemini's  answer is SO ENCOURAGING!

Padlet Arcade's 'Create Game' function vs Gemini Canvas

 I used the new function 'Create Game' in Padlet Arcade to create a 'recognise correct spellings for 15 fruit words', which was very easy. I used the same prompt to create a similar one in Gemini Canvas, and I succeeded. Then how does Padlet Arcade's Create Game function compare with Gemini Canvas?  The answer:  As a dedicated 'create game' AI app, Padlet's new function has built-in parameters for you to choose from (e.g., 'add sound?'; 'add timer?"). Also, you can create very sophisticated games in Padlet Arcade, while with Gemini Canvas, you may have to spend time writing your requirements. Now the challenge is coming up with gaming ideas!

Padlet Arcade has a new 'Create Game' function: Very useful

 Using AI to create a language game could be time-consuming, as we have to grapple with writing the prompt properly. Padlet Arcade now has a 'create-game' function which makes things easy. Instead of writing the technical prompt precisely yourself, just tell 'create-game' what you want, and it will create the game for you. If the first output does not meet your expectations, just edit it.

The game below is my first try. It's for lower primary students to recognise the correct spellings for 15 fruit words.

https://arcade.padlet.com/game/RVjBY6PmrJ?link_shared=1

I'm an idiot in gaming, so this game is still very traditional. For those of you who are experts in gaming, I'm sure you can create highly sophisticated games using this new function of Padlet Arcade.

Received a big morale boost to start the 26/27 academic year.

 

Tried Here.Now for hosting a single webpage

 Here and Now website: 

https://here.now/

1. On the dashboard, I uploaded an html index file from my onedrive. 

2. The following webpage was then created automatically. 

https://still-zinnia-5tpe.here.now/

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REMINDER FROM GEMINI RE FILE NAME TO UPLOAD: 

When uploading a single standalone file to web servers like here.now, it should be named index.html.

• Why? Web servers look for index.html by default to serve as the homepage of a website.

• If named differently: If you upload a single file named something like mypage.html, visiting your site's base URL ([https://your-site.here.now](https://your-site.here.now)) will result in a 404 Not Found error or a directory listing because the server doesn't know which file to load first.

Paul's Summary of 5 AI apps for Conversation Practice

 5 AI APPS FOR ENGLISH CONVERSATION PRACTICE.pdf

Created an interactive learning module on Ordering Coffee at a Cafe politely using Gemini Canvas

 1. Inspired by the following learning module created by Leonard Wong: 

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fturbo-eagle-3zzr.here.now%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwcGRvZgVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyME14ZWRqb1lob2IwYTI3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpdlsntUVYQAyeruV-7cHqF_DZijiHiwYWkh7bUVFTNAwYkT6yZjGqO9MVa5_aem_-iRl_4bDRcllUBygt4fELw&h=AUCTehN7XaKIDNcR4n6QrGVTslL3BEwJ8qkPJFUOSE_40gA-FKOmI7lb9Nl7_YV-5Tzv6C5MPMwbFrdqCt41sguuu7CRLEyK0IpX0uEqjroSXuF8ytnpP5goRjSeLOrt9SgBWBdsaVZl6g&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AUArH-aSAD4PA3X24Fk2RYu60h6-g3JFj2vMQbLnKI82yqeMeV8DMyHMlQunF_ADrRhqG-szypj6PzJIZY8i0K3itb8NQ-9HeRuDjIO7k55zFSvLnF4_ziiOiWHXd9QHdT831NCJawcWY_zSuT9CUthd

2. Asked Gemini about the module. 

3. Gemini introduced bolt.new for creating such interactive modules. 

4. Asked Gemini to provide a simple example, and a prompt. The example provided was 'Ordering a coffee politely at a cafe'. Gemini provided the following prompt: 

=========\

Act as an expert frontend web developer and TESOL instructional designer.

Create a single-file, self-contained HTML/CSS/JavaScript interactive Micro-Learning Unit for English language learners.

Topic: Ordering Food at a Cafe (Functional Language & Pragmatics)

Target Audience: Intermediate ESL/EFL students.

App Requirements:

Visual Header: Clean modern layout with a title "Interactive Scenario: At the Cafe" and a progress bar.

Step 1: Vocabulary & Pragmatics Checklist. Interactive clickable cards showing direct vs. polite ordering phrases (e.g., "Give me a coffee" vs. "Could I get a coffee, please?").

Step 2: Interactive Audio/Text Dialogue. A visual chat interface simulating a barista and customer, where students click to reveal the next line of dialogue.

Step 3: Branching Dialogue Practice. A multiple-choice scenario where the barista asks a follow-up ("What size would you like?") and the learner picks the best polite response. Give instant color-coded feedback.

Step 4: Final Quiz & Summary. A brief 3-question check on polite modals ("could", "would", "may") with a final score display. Design Style: Clean, mobile-friendly, modern UI with Tailwind CSS (via CDN) and friendly pastel colors. Code Output: Provide ONLY valid, single-file HTML code containing inline CSS and JavaScript. Do not use external asset files or npm dependencies.

==================

5.  Went to bolt.new and copied the above prompt into the chatbox. Bolt.new could create the module directly. But when I tried the output, there were some bugs. I asked for revision, but then used up all my  credits.

https://interactive-cafe-eng-pwfk.bolt.host

6. I went back to Gemini Canvas, and used the same prompt. GEMINI CANVAS CAN ACTUALLY CREATE SUCH A MODULE DIRECTLY!

https://share.gemini.google/EkXq2DKF4pf6

Quickly creating a 'script + audio' set using Edcafe.ai: can be done very quickly.

 Just found a way to very quickly create a 'script + audio' set, within the same tool (Edcafe.ai). If you need to quickly generate a script and then its audio, without resorting to 2 different tools, then this workflow with Edcafe.ai is so far the quickest I have found. You can even assign the resulting listening clip/task immediately.

Here is my explainer page: https://workflowy.com/s/how-to-create-a-read/sAx91dz1HecsTJSD

Here is my created Audio asset: https://app.edcafe.ai/share/reading/tv-news-report-about-a-car-accident-6aa16fc6730fdc7f2e095b4c?cloneSig=5dfeb5ba326e84bae76a1a3559546381

There's one limitation though. Edcafe.ai can only create a monologue audio, not a dialogue. (The free plan is quite generous.)

Created a Guided Learning bot (GEM) for teachers to reflect on their Listening pedagogy: Prompt provided by Gemini

 WORKFLOW:

1. In Gemini, I asked it to write me the prompt for creating a Guided Learning bot to help new secondary school ESL teachers to reflect on their Listening pedagogy. 

2. Gemini gave me the following prompt:

====================================

Role & Persona:

You are an expert ESL Teacher Educator and Pedagogical Mentor specializing in Second Language Listening Instruction. Your goal is to help early-career secondary school ESL teachers critically reflect on their lesson planning, classroom execution, and instructional choices for teaching listening.

Core Reflective Framework:

Structure your dialogic coaching around three core stages:

1. What happened / What is planned? (Descriptive context)

2. Why was that approach chosen, and how did/might students process the input? (Pedagogical analysis)

3. What could be adjusted to support student listening processes better? (Actionable refinement)

Pedagogical Reference Points:

Guide teachers to evaluate their practice across these essential listening domains:

- Decoding vs. Comprehension: Are students struggling with speech perception/connected speech (bottom-up) or topical background knowledge/schema activation (top-down)?

- Task Design: Is the listening task testing memory, or is it scaffolding real-time processing?

- Text Selection: Is the auditory input authentic, modified, or multimodal (audio + visual/subtitles)?

- Post-Listening Focus: Does the post-listening phase analyze *where* listening broke down, rather than just checking answers?

Conversation Flow & Turn Management:

Track your conversation progress implicitly across your turns:

- Turns 1–3 (Exploration): Focus on understanding the teacher's classroom context, text selection, and initial listening goals.

- Turns 4–7 (Deep Reflection): Probe deeper into student processing, bottom-up/top-down balance, and task design.

- Turn 8 (Transition to Closure): Signal that the session is concluding. Synthesize the key reflective insights uncovered so far and ask the teacher to state one concrete tweak they plan to make.

- Turn 9 (Action & Validation): Validate their proposed action, provide a brief encouraging takeaway, and ask if they have any final quick clarification.

- Turn 10 (Final Wrap-up): Provide a warm, brief closing statement wishing them well in their teaching. Do NOT ask any further questions.

Interaction Rules:

1. Never give immediate, generic advice or tell the teacher they are "right" or "wrong."

2. Ask only ONE focused reflective question per turn (for Turns 1–9) to keep the cognitive load manageable.

3. Validate the real-world realities of secondary classroom management and mixed-ability learners.

4. Keep all responses concise and grounded in student mental processing.

Initial Greeting (Turn 1):

Start every new conversation with:

"Welcome! I'm here to help you unpack and refine your approach to teaching listening in the secondary ESL classroom. To start, tell me about a recent listening lesson you taught—or one you are currently planning. What were your main goals and the type of listening text you used?"

========================================================

3. I copied the prompt into GEM. 

4. OUTPUT: 

https://gemini.google.com/gem/18Y56NMVQhjDjpO_ynV-il1Hg-Vi_Y_Qn?usp=sharing

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

TAKEAWAY:

Often, there is no need to wrestle with the prompt writing yourself. Tell Gemini your need, and ask it to write the prompt for you. This is much faster. 

Created a one-minute video on 'What is L2 Teaching Methodology?' using Schoolhub

 Had a try using Schoolhub to generate a video from a topic (no document uploads). 

I typed in a topic: 'What is second language teaching methodology?'

The app then returned 3 possible directions of video scripting for me to choose from: 

Of course, I can also write my own direction. 

In the above case, I chose the second one. 

Then, the next screen asked me to choose one from 2 choices (free plan). 

The app started to generate a script. 

I could then edit the script and the image descriptions before the last generation step: 

The OUTPUT VIDEO:

- The output narrated video has a cartoon style. 

- It can then be shared via a link, or downloaded. 

https://video.schoolhub.ai/en-US/video-domain/share/1d5440d9-4b42-4d57-8ce5-c2b49ab0ce2f

- At the moment, if I share the video to the Schoolhub community, I can get one more free video. Under the free plan, users can generate one free video per month only. 

Mizou chats that do not require a lot of typing and may be suited for primary students.

 Mizou is excellent as an AI tool dedicated to creating chatbots. Yet, primary students may not be good at typing. So if the chat is too open-ended, they may be spending a lot of time fiddling with the  typing. 

I went to the Library of Mizou, and looked for chatbots that ask for simple answers that do not require much typing. Below are some examples I have found: 

Blank-filling;
https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=155746

A variety of short answers:
https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=156113

For each turn, Ss type a one-word answer.
https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=155454

For each turn, Ss are given 3 answers and they type the letter which they think represents the right answer.
https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=155452

A conversation bot that elicits very short answers:
https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=155191

=============================================================

Created a conversation bot for KS2/3 Ss to interview a child from the past, using Mizou

 ACTIVITY IDEA FROM EDB's document: 

Hi Alex, you might be aware of this recent EDB document already: Examples on Application of Artificial Intelligence in Learning and Teaching in Key Learning Areas/Subjects (June 2026 )

https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/edu-system/primary-secondary/applicable-to-primary-secondary/it-in-edu/DEBP/ExamplesOnApplicationOfAIInLearningAndTeaching_EN.pdf

In the document, one suggested idea is: 

Interviewing an AI avatar role-playing a child in the past; incorporating the use of the simple present tense and the simple past tense into the interaction 

==============

I went to Mizou; typed in the idea in the prompt box, and quickly got the following bot: 

https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=156224

++++++++++

Again, the pluses of Mizou over other AI apps is that you can easily customise, iterate, and even administer a chatbot. 

Created an interactive web module for learning/practising 8 Adjectives of Personality

 Yesterday, while trying to replicate Becky Cheung's P2 Fruit Words interactive web module changing the target lexical set from 'fruit words' to 'names of endangered animals', I ended up with a module which is totally different from Becky Cheung's. 

Today, I thought: 'If I  use my 'endangered animals' module as the starting point, and ask Gemini Canvas to create another one about a different lexical set, will Gemini  Canvas be able to handle this much easier generation'. 

So, I went to Gemini Canvas, and asked:

Create an interactive web learning module for P6 ESL students in Hong Kong to learn 8 adjectives about people's personality. Follow the organisation and design of the following example.

https://gemini.google.com/share/86bd0b5cbe02?skid=ab83314c-3c4f-4ffa-8c16-65e1a2391d19

==========================

RESULT

Gemini Canvas did a nice job, and produced the following module:

https://share.gemini.google/mbZ9ZY3OchNN

+++++++++

OBSERVATIONS

1. The resulting module replicates my original 'endangered animals' one, in terms of organisation and page design. 

2. Looks like this step can be repeated for other lexical sets.