HKU Outstanding eLearning Awards Adjudication

 

Visit to the EDUHK Jockey Club Primary School - a Microsoft Showcase School

 又是收穫滿滿的一天，連同資深 fellow ELT educators Ada Lam and Becky Cheung 拜訪香港教育大學賽馬會小學，聆聽他們英文老師分享應用AI 於 English language teaching 的心得和經驗，他們有组織和極具創意的AI 運用，令人大開眼界；而且教師團隊都有極高的digital education的素養，不愧是Microsoft Showcase School。

額外收獲：⑴收到很豐富的紀念品，⑵發現原來和老師們這麼多mutual friends。

Schools take pride in having teachers who are highly eLearning-competent

 Next Monday, I'll be meeting the group of undergraduate students taking my course on Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) for the first session. I'll be doing a couple of things to get them excited about TELL, one of which is to show them the picture below. 

A couple of weeks ago, I visited this school in Tuen Mun for an AI-image-generating competition award ceremony. When I was walking past the school's meeting room, my eye was caught by the  teacher portraits posted at the entrance to the room. 

This picture will show the undergradate students how schools take pride in having teachers who are highly eLearning-competent.

Jotform for creating fillable PDFs

 The last time I used Jotform for creating a fillable PDF was two years ago. 

I checked out Jotform again just now. 

The created fillable PDF is mainly for sharing with respondents, who follow the link, fill in the PDF, and (a) submit it, or (b) download and then submit. 

The owner of the form can view the submitted PDFs on his/her dashboard. 

Under the free plan, I can create 5 fillable PDFs. If I delete one, I can create a new one in its place. This is quite generous (unlike Wordwall). 

In this regard, Jotform is more generous than similar apps like Smallpdf, which do not have a genuine free plan. 

Except that unlike two years ago, now I cannot download a fillable pdf first and then share it with others. The sharing can only be done online. 

My 10 language awareness videos for the Jockey Club Flipped Learning Project (2020-2022)

 Here is the playlist: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdCpljiXrUSIvKL4B-E-uGLwlxLH2loIq

Two Uses of a WORD Outline: PPT and EdrawMind

 Some time ago, I wrote about the advantages of starting with an Outline in WORD when creating a PPT presentation. Starting with an Outline gives you a useful overview of your presentation. If you plunge into a PPT slide directly, you may not see the forest for the trees. When your WORD outline is ready, open PPT, and import the outline into the PPT file (Home > Slide > from Outline). 

Now, Edrawmind, a desktop/mobile app for creating mindmaps, also accepts importing a WORD outline. Choose this Import function, import the WORD outline, and you get a Mindmap immediately. 

So, it's like killing two birds with one stone. 

By the way, while preparing an Outline in WORD, my current experience is to go to VIEW, then select Outline

Then prepare the Outline using the various Level settings. When finished, the WORD file can be saved as a usual WORD document (i.e, no need to save it as txt, etc.)

Presenting a PPT in a window instead of in full screen mode

 Just found a solution to presenting a PPT in a window instead of in full screen mode: 

https://www.csusm.edu/iits/iitsforyou/zoom/zoom-screenmanagement/index.html#:~:text=Get%20PowerPoint%20Out%20of%20Full%20Screen%20Mode&text=Click%20on%20the%20Set%20Up,by%20and%20individual%20(window).

When presenting, just resize the PPT Window. You can then still see the tabs on the opened browser. To switch between the PPT presentation and the browser, press Alt+Tab.   

Learning about a school's work in AI in Education

 收獲滿滿的早上，探訪AI in Education 走得超前的沈中，謝謝Spike Ho 和Suzanne Suen 犧牲假期回校向我介紹沈中在STEAM 和English Language Education 引入AI的最新發展，真是大開眼界。認識這些既passionate 又creative的educator,使我也不敢怠惰。

A Microsoft Forms Quiz I created for Practice: How to use 'suggest' in a sentence

 Here is my practice quiz: 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=gTdBhKa7s0W74E8XxpDaauAvgCsoRCxKscTBnjrnFX1UNEtTS1o2NklBRjNBQkNKVzY1Wlo2QTVSSy4u

New Quiz Mode in Microsoft Forms

Quizzes created with Microsoft Forms can now be assigned in the Practice Mode, as opposed to the previous 'Test only' mode. 

This is useful for creating practice tasks, and for promoting SDL. 

What eLearning means to me

 有一些活動既有趣又好玩。

有一些活動令你心境年青。

有一些活動花費很少但收獲巨大。

有一些活動有助终身學習。

有一些活動對工作有幫助。

有甚麼活動有齊以上5個特性?

對我來說答案只有一個: eLearning.

2 QEF projects on AI in Education

 Honoured to be on the advisory group for 2 QEF projects on AI in Education:

• "Learning Management System and Knowledge Management with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for the e-Learning Ancillary Facilities Programme".  E-Learning  Development Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, HKU. Principal Investigator: Dr Wilton Fok.
• "AI Assisted Virtual Reality English Speaking Program for Secondary Students". Center for Language Education, HKUST. Principal Investigator: Dr Nick Wong.
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Using ChatGPT in teaching

 回想去年年初當ChatGPT出現時. 香港有大學即時有强烈反應，限制學生使用CHATGPT, 當然這是因為憂慮學生利用ChatGPT去抄功課。其實只要設計功學時花點心思，不要學生寫純資料性的essay,這其實不是大問題。

相反，如果学生做功課，開始時利用ChatGPT 找出基礎的資料，然後再在功課中深入發揮，這絕對是好事。

到今天，我甚至在三小時的一課中，加插一些ChatGPT任務，去代替以前我就相關知識的direct instruction。這除了作為課堂活動外，我亦想乘機培養學員的Self-directed learning 和终身學習的精神。

21世紀的教師不應只是the sage on the stage, 而更要做a guide on the side。

ChatGPT is really in the know

 愈來愈愛ChatGPT, 我不玩computer games, 對gaming 的jargon一無所知，但因著一個project, 我要知道兒子以前喜歡玩，由兩隊在森林對壘以赢得一個quest的computer game 的統稱。以前做google search, 只會得到一系列的連结。現在一問chatGPT便得到肯定的答案。

L and T Expo 2023

 每年L and T Expo, 最大的得益其實不是內容，因為那麼多的講座，那麼多攤位展覽，一時之間不易消化。最大的得益：⑴看到學與教的最新發展，例如今年的AI in Education, (2)被同工的創新和專業精神所激勵，提醒自己要繼續學習。

The new AI functionality in Quizizz

 這一年很多老牌的eLearning app都加入了AI元素，例如Quizizz。以前要create一個Quizizz game, 需要自己逐題製作，現在它的AI 為你代勞，你可以用topic 或prompt去generate quiz, 但我試過效果不太好。我更喜歡的是upload 自己的document, 由它去generate 一個Quizizz game(Formative也可以這樣做，但產出的是digital worksheet,和Quizizz 的Quiz game不同)，這對教reading comprehension 很有用，在一課的結尾，用同一passage產出的Quizziz game完結，使一課在輕鬆的氣氛下完結。

但我更喜歡的是Quizizz LESSON (不是Quizizz quiz)內的AI功能。你只要把自己現成的PPT 輸入，讓它的AI為了generate一個Quizizz Lesson,結果是你原來的Presentation在關鍵位置出現MC question slide, 然後你再在其他地方加入有趣的Activity slide,便很容易製作出一個interactive的presentation,或interactive的self-paced microlearning unit.

當然今天無論是那個app, AI都只是擅長generate factual 的objective-type questions ，但我相信假以時日， AI也可以產出更higher-order thinking 的問題和actiivty type 。

Microsoft Educator Master Trainer 2024

 The 4th eLearning qualification I've obtained in 2023-24. 

How Microsoft Reading Progress Works

 Phase 1: The teacher sets and assigns the reading aloud task

1.1    On the Class Team dashboard, the teacher clicks on 'Assignment', and types in the Title of the Assignment. 

1.2   The teacher clicks on 'Attachment', which will open a drop-down menu. The teacher selects 'Reading Progress'

1.3   The next screen will ask the teacher whether he will upload a WORD reading passage, or choose one from ReadWorks. The teacher acts accordingly. 

1.4    The teacher sets the assignment deadline, and assigns the task. 

Phase 2: The student will try the assignment. The student will: 

2.1   Open the Class Team, and open the respective assignment. 

2.2    Click 'Start'. The passage will appear, and he will start to record his reading. 

2.3   When finished, he will be shown 5 words from his reading that the system invites him to repeat. (This segment is called the Reading Coach.)

2.4    The student then submits the assignment. 

Phase 3: The teacher checks the submitted assignment. He will: 

3.1    open each assignment on his dashboard and sees the student's performance in terms of an overall score (e.g., 94%), mispronunciations, omissions, etc. He will also see the reading passage marked with mispronunciations, insertions, etc. 

3.2    write in the feedback box if he wants to.

3.3     'return' the seen assignment to the student, with or without his own grade. 

Phase 4: The student checks the returned assignment. He will: 

4.1    go to his dashboard and open the (returned) assignment;

4.2     sees his performance results (as in 3.1) as well as his previous video recording, and the teacher's feedback and grade if given. 

What is meant by gaming?

 昨晚的computer assisted language learning一科談到gamification意念在製作interactive task中愈來愈流行，例如Blooket ，Gimkit, 和Minecraft，原因是"Kids, especially boys, love gaming"。但這樣說gaming (指playing computer games)，總覺得不自然，因為最初認識gaming 一詞是在澳門，是指到賭場賭錢耍樂!

宜家可離線使用

 在Google Drive 把一個檔案set 作「可離線使用」，按掣後，弹出pop up message, 說「檔案宜家可離線使用」。宜家連google 都改用粤語出notification！

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15Teresa Wang, Anna Hung and 13 others