Sunsetting of Google Tour Creator and Google Tour Builder

 I'm a little dismayed that Google is sunsetting Google Tour Creator tomorrow, forever. It was Janet  Law who first introduced to me this app for creating 360 VR trips, and I fell in love with it immediately. 

Compared with Google Tour Builder, Google Tour Creator is much easier to use (of course the two serve different functions). It has good potentials for English language teaching because teachers can set a topic (e.g., Chinese temples in Hong Kong), have students put together a 360 VR tour that consists of the destinations that they have found on Google Earth, and make an audio recording introducing each place on the trip. (The built-in audio recorder is easy to use.) The whole process can be a very educational project experience because students have to do online research, make decisions about what to include, and decide how best to introduce each place. The best part is that Google Tour Creator is technically easy for students to grasp. 

Unfortunately, after tomorrow, it will be gone forever. 

(Google Tour Builder will also sunset on July 15. Does anyone know after that, what apps can be used to create 360 VR trips?)

My game literacy

 A former student alerted me to Blooket, an app for creating and conducting teacher-paced or self-paced quizzes. In a way, it's like Kahoot and Quizizz, but it has an additional gamification element, in that students have to use the points that they have gained during the quiz process to carry out another task. There are 5 such game modes. 

What is interesting is that while I was checking out the game modes, I found the instructions so difficult to follow. But I'm sure that school children can pick up the game procedures in no time. 

I simply have poor 'game literacy', if I may coin such a term. This is because I seldom play games in my life, thinking that they're a waste of time. This also reminds me of the 'affective filter hypothesis' proposed by Steven Krashen in the early 80's under his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: we will acquire a language naturally if we're exposed to language input that we understand, but this process won't work if you have negative emotions about the input language. 

And I think that's why game manuals are always so difficult for me to follow.

is the possessive apostrophe disappearing from the English language?

Should it be "Parents' Day" or "Parents Day"; "Ladies' Room" or "Ladies Room"; "Supervisors' Booth" or "Supervisors Booth"? In fact, is the possessive apostrophe disappearing from the English language? 

See my language awareness article in Ming Pao today: 

 https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%e8%8b%b1%e6%96%87/article/20210623/s00017/1624385940994/%e8%8b%b1%e8%aa%9eguide-is-the-possessive-apostrophe-disappearing

Teaching is no longer just chalk and talk

 今天可能還有行外人以為教書就是chalk and talk, 如果他們有機會旁聽這些老師的教學分享會，他們會發覺今天的教與學原來背後是那麼多專門的學問。(攝於今早賽馬會翻轉教學計劃分享會。)

How should 'below' be used and classified?

 Do you accept using 'below' as in 'the below information', 'the below list', 'the below section', etc."?

An admin document from The Harvard Teaching Certificate Course contains the following sentence:

"Make sure your address below is correct. You can search again or edit the below address manually."

What is interesting is that 'below' is used twice in the same sentence, but in different ways.

If my impression is correct, until 10 years ago, people would only say 'the information below', with 'below' classified as an adverb! (This is different from 'below' as a preposition, as in 'below the table', 'below the surface', etc.). Today, to me, the fight against phrases like 'the below information' and 'the below list' is over. (The word 'above' went through a similar process. Now, it's "below"'s turn.)

Then 'below' has to be classified as an adjective. I've looked up a few online dictionaries. Almost all of them still classify 'below' as a preposition ('below the table') and an adverb (the information below). Only one dictionary has classified 'below' also as an adjective: Merriam-Webster.

What is even more interesting is that in the Harvard sentence, the first occurrence of 'below' is 'Your address below', i.e., the 'traditional' word order. If I change it to 'Your below address', it doesn't sound quite right to my ear (though I have no problem accepting 'the below information'). I can't think of a reason yet, but this might suggest that there's still a place for 'below' to function as an adverb (though I personally prefer calling it a postmodifying adjective).

My first serving school and my formative years as a teacher

 因着賽馬會翻轉教學計劃重訪自己當年任教的第一所中學，聽着幾位年青教師分享他們實施計畫的經驗，感受他們的投入和教學熱誠，然後又想起自己當年在這裏當教師的formative years和成長……想到這幾十年能夠在不同崗位從事教育工作，從中找到生命的意義，我實在是太幸運了。

My keynote presentation for Webinar organised by HKedCity and CEATETA

 https://www.hkedcity.net/eventcalendar/event/607f908ccc9f93b82b8196fa?fbclid=IwAR08Gxhb7lb-WrRKRm4_HirjX-N-QvcRJVNqSVDc3pwHwqEV9nPC_6wpYyw

Topic: 

Engaging Students in Class with eLearning Techniques: My Strategies

GoFormative has finished revamping their Certified Educator programme

 Just noticed that GoFormative has finally finished revamping their programme for becoming a Certified Formative Educator. The revamped programme has 3 phases, and requires evidence of having tried a Goformative unit with students. So, for me, I will have to wait until September to fulfill this requirement. 

In my experience, GoFormative is fantastic for delivering interactive lessons on Reading Comprehension. But if you have other ingenious ways of using GoFormative, please share your ideas with me. 

http://community.goformative.com/formativecertified

I love Padlet

 Padlet is simply too easy to use but at the same time highly versatile since it can embed many different types of materials. I will just create one for every course I teach in 2021-22 as the course website.