An exemplary Learning Journey diagram

 https://www.thinglink.com/scenariocard/1548681748722745345

Boom cards app

 Boom cards, https://wow.boomlearning.com/, is for creating microlearning units. Each deck can contain content slides and task slides. Tasks are mainly drag-and-drop. The published decks make heavy use of pictures for the content slides and tasks. Teachers can take published decks from the Studio. Can take a lot time if starting from scratch. Suitable for young kids. 

I think for teachers to create their decks from scratch, Kahoot Lesson, Quizziz Lesson, and Lumio, should be better choices. 

Reading is also a process to be enjoyed

 First, there was this practice by some platforms of indicating how much time it takes to read each subpage (e.g., 2-min. read; 5-min. read). Then, there was this enterprise which sells 15~minute~read ebooks that are condensed from the original books. Today, there are companies that sell 10~minute-read posters and infographics that are one~page summaries of the originals.

People want to get as much from as many books in as little time as possible. Another manifestation of the 21st century fast~food mentality.

But reading shouldn't be just for what we get out of a book, though that's an important consideration. READING IS ALSO A PROCESS TO BE ENJOYED!

幾生修到

 教書教了一段日子，你一定會有某些屆別的學生令你特別懷念，他們團結，彼此關心，彼此激勵，於是營造出積極，愉快，温馨的上課氣氛。教他們成為最enjoyable和rewarding的經驗。

這樣的class spirit背後是某些可遇而不可求的同學之間的group dynamics, 仿佛他們當中有某些很難解釋的chemistry,出現化學反應後形成團結，積極，彼此關心的氛圍。沒有這chemistry, 老師如何努力班级經營，也很難出現多年後你還很懷念的一班。

如果你的教學生涯多幾班這樣的學生，這便是幾生修到。

Baamboozle game app

 https://www.baamboozle.com/

An app for creating quiz competitions (2 or more teams). The free plan allows for creating questions with short answers only (e.g. What is the capital of France?). It looks like if it is played as a team game, it has to be teacher-led, i.e., the teacher will actually conduct the competition in front of the whole class, as opposed to students taking part in a live competition in teams/groups using their iPads (e.g., Quizlet Live). The teacher will invite a member of a team, or the whole team, to choose a question on the screen (or the teacher can name a question) and answer it, and award marks if it is answered correctly. 

I have tried the '1 team' option. In that case, it becomes a self-study resource, and when students are ready, they 'play' it to test themselves. But then, this use is similar to that of Quizlet. 

Padlet's latest new feature: The expanded view

 Every time I look at my Padlet dashboard, I'm reminded of how lucky I am - as an early adopter of Padlet, I have been offered 58 FREE walls by Padlet since they started to offer only 3 free walls to new users. 

And when I run out of new walls, I just delete some old ones which I don't need any more, and I get some new ones again. 

It's delightful to see the new features that Padlet has been adding to the app - the latest one being the Expanded view, which makes Padlet a magnificent presentation tool. 

Are we lifelong learners ourselves?

 昨天EDB的eLearning for self-directed learning工作坊，其中一個活動我請老師以7-point scale 就自己作為lifelong learner 自評，結果沒有我預期的高。當然這不是一個有代表性的sample,回應的老師也可能傾向客氣。

事後我想到，今天我們從事教師教育的，除了訓練教師如何在教學上培養學生self-directed learning的能力，也要想想如何加深老師作為self-directed learner的特質。於是我決定下學年嘗試在任教的科目在course delivery中加入self-directed learning 的元素，作為自己終身學習的一部分。