LOVE should not be used in the Progressive form?

 Today, some ESL teaching materials and websites are still telling us not to use Verbs of Emotion in Progressive form: 

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

DON’T USE THESE VERBS IN PROGRESSIVE FORM:

ENGLISH VERBS THAT CANNOT BE USED IN THE CONTINUOUS OR PROGRESSIVE FORM

Verbs of Emotion:  love, hate, prefer, mind, like, dislike, please, surprise, astonish, impress ...

(https://www.englishcoursemalta.com/.../english-verbs.../)

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

But as the following screenshot shows, it's perfectly OK to say 'loving' (not just McDonald's "I'm lovin' it"). 

Below is an example I like to give in my Language Awareness course to show that even 'hate' can be used in the Progressive: 

If a woman says to a guy "I'm hating you for what I've done for you", the guy still has a chance. But if it is 'I hate you for ..." that the woman says, he is in real trouble.

Self-wrapping area vs Wrapping area

 In Hong Kong, any sign that begins with 自助invariably becomes "Self-" in English. As this sign in an Ikea store shows, the prefix "Self-" is often unnecessary. In fact, adding "Self-" when there is no need to can result in funny interpretations. A self-wrapping area is where the goods bought will wrap themselves (which is not impossible given today's automation technology)? An area where customers wrap themselves?

Thank you, Ikea. 

I can upload a PPT to create a new Formative

 Just found out that when starting to create a new formative, I can actually upload an existing PPT from my computer. The slides from this PPT will then be converted to separate pictures in a new formative. From that point onward, I can continue with the usual steps: Add further content; add questions, etc. This is a useful function to me because instead of buidling the content from scratch, I can start with an existing PPT, which I have plenty of.

Became a Wakelet Ambassador

 

Became Kahoot Academy Verified Creator

 

Loom vs Screencastify

 It's always interesting to watch these cut-throat competitions between app developers. For creating screen-recording videos using a Chrome extension, I started out with Screencastify. Later, I switched to Loom because Loom trumped Screencastify in terms of the length of the screen-recorded video that could be created. Just two months ago, I switched back to Screencastify, because Screencastify had a new function: inserting quiz questions into a screen-recorded video. 

Then, this morning, I received this update from Loom announcing an upcoming new function. Will I switch back to Loom? It depends on how useful the new function is. 

The bottomline: 

1. As an edtech user, I have no loyalty to any particular app. 

2. These apps are free. How do the developers make a living

Became a Formative Champion

 

Excelling as an online student

 There's now a plethera of web articles for educators on how to conduct effective online lessons. Interestingly, it was not until this morning when I came across this web article from Yale University on how to excel as an online student. I will show this article to my 60 Language Awareness students this evening (though most of them have already been following my online classes conscientiously). 

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/7-Tips-for-Online-Learning

Padlet Map activity again

 So I tried this Padlet Map activity again this evening. This year, I have 50 students taking my Master's course in Computer Assisted Language Learning. After the second session, we had to switch to online classes abruptly. And I'd been wondering how scattered my 50 students were around Hong Kong,

This evening, because of the session topic, I had the chance to invite them to indicate their locations on a Padlet map. Below is the result. The result is not particularly surprising, except that one of them is living in Tai O!

Becoming MIE Trainer

 

Become Flocabulary Certified

 

Ditch the Zoom room

Just came across this short web article titled '5 easy tricks for successful online teaching', which begins with the attention-grabbing slogan 'Ditch the Zoom Room'. The writer, Eileen Kennedy, who was a Senior Research Associate based at UCL Knowledge Lab, was writing in the context of MOOC courses for teachers. She contends: 

"You don’t need to abandon video conferencing completely – but use its power wisely and infrequently. Live video conferencing can be stressful for educators and inconvenient for learners. ..."

These words resonate with me, as my online classes can be as long as 2.5 hours in duration. And sometimes I do sympathise with my students, who have to sit through such long sessions in front of the computer. 

One solution may be to cut down the length of each Zoom session, and present the rest of each lecture in the form of mini MOOC-like learning paths, for students to follow on their own. In fact, when I follow an online PD event myself, most of the time I prefer the MOOC format, or at least a self-paced learning path, to attending a live webinar. But of course, for busy course instructors, even designing a self-paced Nearpod lesson takes a lot of time (much more than live lecturing), not to mention MOOC-like learning units. 

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2020/06/17/5-easy-tricks-for-successful-online-teaching/

Becoming a Formative Certified Educator

Just obtained my first e-learning badge in 2022: Formative Certified Educator

 

https://www.formative.com/

My current use of GoFormatives

 I have used GoFormative for a few years. In the past, I mainly created some example Formatives to show to my teacher trainees (pre-service and in-service) to show how they could use GoFormative to create engaging and interactive Reading Comprehension tasks to be attempted by their ESL students. In other words, I seldom used GoFormative for my own lectures at the university. 

But amidst the current need to conduct lecture sessions online, I have found that GoFormative is also useful to my own teaching. This is because my lectures at the university (my students are pre-service and inservice teachers training to become qualified ESL teachers) are each 2 hours and 30 minutes in duration. When these long lectures have to be conducted online, you can imagine the challenge that I have to face in engaging my students for that length of time. 

Recently, I started to include GoFormative tasks in my own lecture sessions. So far, I have mainly used Formatives for mid-session knowledge check, i.e., about half way into a 2.5-hour lecture, I will assign a Formative to the class for them to try. The formative questions mainly provide a chance for them to either check their understanding, or apply what they have learnt in the first half in solving a problem. 

What follows is a recent example that I tried out. The lecture session was about English modal verb phrases (The Chinese language has an entirely different way to express modal meanings.). The first half of the lecture was mainly concerned with (a) the form of the modal verbs in English, and (b) the possible functions that English modal verbs can serve. Half way into the session, I invited the teacher trainees to try the formative. 

The first question invited them to match 10 utterances to 5 functions. This was a way for them to check their understanding: 

The second question made use of a public sign that I spotted some time ago, and which I took a picture of. The question invited the class to re-write the announcement using the correct form of the modal verb in question. This question gave them a chance to apply their knowledge of the form of the English modal verb phrases: 

This experience turned out to be quite a useful knowledge check format to be used half way into a long lecture. 

Actually, I have noticed the new functions that GoFormative has taken on, one of which is 'Add Sections'.  My next attempt will be to use this new function to create a longer unit for presenting parts of a lecture as well as providing periodic knowledge check during a lecture. 

故天將降大任於斯人也

 我和林溢欣有過一面之緣，一直都很欣賞他的幹勁。他今天在星島教育專欄的一篇文章我很有共鳴，他說到凡事不要斤斤計較，不怕吃虧，到頭來得益的往往是自己。

他說到中學家貧，做暑期工也盡心投入，成為很好的毅力鍛鍊;我中學時也因家貧，做過不少暑期工，例如在工廠做包裝，在另一間工廠做金屬打磨，還有在官塘百士可樂廠做汽水車跟車，這是超大的體力勞動，每天放工時倦得虛脱，暑假完了廋得回校後老師也認不到我。但當時沒有悲惨的感覺，因同齡的青少年大都如此，今天回想起來更加是很好的歷鍊。

中文諺語有所謂「千金難買少年窮」，我絕對同意，我的一代大都家貧，我少時住過廟街的板間房，東頭村的木屋區，官塘雞療的徙置區，日後出社會工作的頭幾年，仍然住在黄大仙下邨的七層大厦;但是大部分時間我仍可以積極和快樂地生活，還令我不會養成 entitlement mentality 。

中文名師林溢欣也一定曾經從孟子的教誨中得到啟發：「故天將降大任於斯人也，必先苦其心志，勞其筋骨，餓其體膚，空乏其身，行拂亂其所為，所以動心忍性，增益其所不能。」

https://std.stheadline.com/education/article/1809062/%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2-%E4%B8%AD%E5%AD%B8-%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E5%B0%88%E6%AC%84-%E4%BA%BA%E7%94%9F%E7%9A%84-%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E8%83%BD

From Purely Listening to Listening + Viewing

 以前談到英文科的macroskill, 不外Listening, Speaking, Reading, 和Writing，但因著technology 的發展，製作及發佈video愈來愈容易，2005年YouTube 的誕生，更是扭轉了先前Listening 就是純Listening 的生活模式。

2010年，新加坡官方的英語課程下的四個language macroskills, 把Listening 擴濶為Listening and Viewing,  列出當中需要的skills。(香港2017英語課程反而沒有這樣處理，仍然是純Listening。)

昨天晚上的一課，我便用了這個例去反映現代人愈來愈多Listening and Viewing 而愈來愈少純Listening (除了學生考DSE英文聆聽)：今天我們都知道甚麼是iphone和ipad，但年青一代有多少人知道十多年前，蘋果公司有一個產品名iPod ，iPod 就是供純聆聽的，但YouTube 出現後，iPod消失之快不可想像。

當然亦因此，我們今天更加沒有耐性作單純的聆聽。

Padlet's Map template

 Padlet's Map template is a gem. Yesterday evening, I had my students go to a Padlet map and indicate their favourite/dream vacation destinations. Below is the result. (No surprises: Europe and Japan turned out to be the most popular destinations.)

What's more: After students have pinned a location, they can edit their pins by adding pictures, text, video, weblinks, etc., to provide more information about their pinned places. And that's what I will ask the students to do later in the course. 

https://i.imgur.com/T6VW8b9.jpg

Knowledge Check

 Just finished a UCL online course on how to create a MOOC course from scratch. The course has reminded me of one useful strategy for online teaching that serves to sustain students' attention and give them a sense of progress: a low-stakes formative assessment halfway into a class session. They call it "Knowledge Check". Will try it this Wednesday in my Language Awareness class, which is 2.5 hours in duration.

Loom vs Screencastify

 A few years ago, I started with Screencast-o-matic for creating a screen-recording instructional video. The free version had a time limit of 15 minutes, though. When the Screencastify Chrome extension came along, I switched to it immediately, because as a Chrome extension, it was so convenient to use, although the maximum video length was only 5 minutes. 

Later, when Loom, another Chrome extension came along, I abandoned Screencastify immediately, since with Loom, there is no limit with the video length, and if I like, I can include my 'talking head.'

Then a couple of days ago, I discovered that Screencastify has taken on a new function: Inserting quiz questions into a screen-recorded video. (If you have used Edpuzzle or Playposit, you'll know what I mean.) So, will I abandon Loom, and return to Screencastify? I don't know yet. 

But it's always interesting to watch these competitions between app developers: how they keep trying to one-up each other (another example being Kahoot vs Quizizz). Of course the users are always the beneficiaries. Just that sometimes, I wonder how these app developers make a living, since the free plan is often good enough!

'in the list' vs 'on the list'

 When I was in primary and secondary school, I was taught to say 'in the list', but I've noticed in recent years that 'on the list' has become more and more common. So I did a Google Ngram search: the turning point happened towards the end of the 70s. 

ESL teaching materials like to lay down often over-simplified rules for preposition usage (e.g., 'in' vs 'on'). But how useful and reliable are these rules? The case of 'in/on the list' again points to the need for enriching grammar teaching with language awareness training (or what Larsen-Freeman calls 'grammaring'). 

New functions in Kahoot Lessons

 Kahoot started as a quiz app, but some time ago they added the 'Kahoot Lesson' function (inspired by Quizziz Lesson?) which I like a lot as it is not just about quiz competitions. In addition, they recently added some new functions to 'Kahoot Lesson'. I have just created one that includes all the new functions (slide, quiz, poll, word cloud, sequencing) which I will use as a warm-up activity for my next class on Language Awareness (this one is about Article usage). If you're interested, have a go before Feb 14, 12:00 p.m. 

https://kahoot.it/challenge/6777bfe3-5c59-4258-ba67-d6f34f9993cd_1643945904642

Two things to note: 

1. When you start the game, you can only pick a name from the ones generated.

2. If you're looking at a slide, click 'Got it' in the top right to advance to the next slide/task. 

Catching up with Ed Tech developments

 When I was browsing my previous teaching notes, I couldn't believe that back in 2017, I was still teaching my MA students how to use the desktop app called Hot Potatoes to create interactive tasks (e.g.,matching, grouping, sequencing)! Today, we have all these web-based, user-friendly, apps for creating interactive tasks, such as Wordwall, LearningApps.org, Bookwidgets, Educaplay, Bitsboard, GoConqr, Classtools.net ...., not to mention those apps for creating learning paths that can contain built-in interactive tasks, such as Nearpod, Pear Deck, Quizizz Lesson, and Kahoot Lesson. 

Ed tech is developing at such a phenomenal speed!

Good news: Teaching gets more and more interesting and engaging. 

Bad news: There is no way I can catch up with all the latest developments. 

Iorad for creating e-learning demonstration tutorials

 I came across the app called Iorad about two years ago, but was then too busy to follow up on it. Iorad is for creating e-learning demonstration tutorials, and at that time, I thought it would take quite some time to learn. 

Yesterday, I stumbled on an Iorad tutorial which demonstrated how to create an iorad tutorial. I was totally awed by how easy it was to use Iorad. I quickly had a go, and here is my first Iorad tutorial which demonstrated how to create a quiz using a Google Form (which many of you will know already). It was created in less than 5 minutes. 

https://ior.ad/81cn

Although such demonstrations can be created in the form of explainer videos, using screen-recording apps such as Loom and Screencastify, Iorad requires hands-on response from the viewer, who actually has to follow the steps indicated on the screen. This should increase the learning effectiveness. 

Another feature of Iorad is its text-to-speech option. Each step shown on the screen will be accompanied with voiceover explanation. 

This Chrome extension will come in handy for my course on Technology Enhanced Language Learning, which often requires me to explain how to use different e-learning tools. 

My quick review of 5 mindmapping apps

 Below is a quick review of the latest versions of 5 popular mindmapping apps that I have done. (If you know of other mindmapping tools which are worth including in this review, please let me know.)

#elearningPS

WAKELET.COM

Quick Review of 5 Mindmapping Apps

by Paul Sze (Jan 24, 2022)

1Kai Chung Lee

Starting another round of Zoom classes

 Here is my curtain-raiser remark this evening when I start Zooming my ICT in ELT class:

"……Yes, it's less fuss attending a class online; at least it saves you commuting time. However, let's not cheat ourselves into thinking that online learning is as good as F2F classes. If it was, all university teaching would be distance-based already. But since we cannot change the pandemic situation, let's make the best of our Zoom session now. As the English proverb goes: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

AI for proofreading compositions

 I hadn't visited Grammarly for a while, so I had a go with it just now, to find out how much it had benefitted from recent developments in AI in education. I made up a problem paragraph for it to proofread, and below is its performance.

Bad news: Teachers of English still have to toil with endless composition marking for some more years to come.

Good news: AI will not be able to replace teachers in the forseeable future.

https://prnt.sc/26hyvx6

2 new functions of Quizlet

 Just noticed 2 new functions of Quizlet:

1. CHECKPOINT: Turn a deck into a live Kahoot-like game.

2. LEARN: A new option which turns a deck into a 'Study Path'. This is like an adaptive learning system, the aim of which is for a learner to reach full mastery of a deck.

I.IMGUR.COM

i.imgur.com

'The sentence below' vs 'the below sentence'

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).

the digital divide between teachers

 十年人事幾番新。我說的是我教的Master' course “ICT in English Language Teaching“，早陣子把今年和10年前的course outline 對比一下，發覺今年的內容和10年前的比較，已經面目全非，可見ed tech發展的快，10年前，誰會想到今天探究的是AI in Education 。

這亦是令人憂慮的地方，年青的老師肯學敢試，運用e-learning於教學的水平便一日千里;而veteran teachers如果不敢或不願涉足ICT,便停留在PPT的階段，於是前者和後者的e-learning 專業水平，便愈來愈相差得遠，出現一個鴻溝。

Beware of pedestrians

 I always find this sign amusing. In HK, any sign in Chinese that starts with "小心……“ becomes "Beware of ……" in English. That's why life in HK is so tense and hectic, because there are so many things we have to beware of: pickpockets, vehicles, drunk drivers, objects falling from above, wild boars...., as well as  pedestrians, hot food, the staircase ……..

I looked up the issue in some online discussion forums. Some native speakers do frown on this usage, preferring "Watch out for pedestrians" to "Beware of pedestrians", as "Beware of" should be followed by something or somebody which may potentially cause danger. 

But language is changing all the time. Has "Beware of" also come to mean "Watch out for"? And, do people also say "Beware of pedestrians" in Singapore?

Meanwhile, I will take the advice of this sign, which appeared inside Alexander Grantham, a retired fireboat berthed in Quarry Bay Park: "Beware of your head." This makes sense, because the brain inside one's head is potentially the source of all evils. 

"Reading Progress" in Microsoft Teams

 Thanks to the generous help of Kelvin Kan Ka Hei, I had the chance to test-drive the new AI-assisted Pronunciation Assessment function within Microsoft Teams, called Reading Progress. 

Under Reading Progress, the teacher uploads a reading passage to Teams, and assigns it as a Reading-Aloud assignment. Afterwards, the programme will (a) return a percentage grade for each submitted assignment, and (b) provide a diagnostic report on the performance (i.e.., words highlighted showing mispronunciations, omissions, insertions, etc.). The teacher does not have to listen to each recording, as the assessment is all done by the AI programme. 

My own test-drive shows that the AI programme is quite reliable in terms of assessing the pronunication of individual words, but still has to do further 'learning' in terms of listening for features of connection speech, such as weak forms, linking, elision, and assimilation. 

From 'teacher-student' to 'peer'

 今天下午到這學校和老師就著一個 P2 RaC Unit進行co~planning。其中三位是我的舊Education student，這是令我最有滿足感的活動。當年我是她們的師訓「班主任」，然後她們畢業後成為前線教師，積聚經驗，今天充滿創意和教學熱誠，然後我們由「師徒」變為教學的peer,一同備課。有我這樣經歷的同工應該不會很多哩。

International Outstanding e-Learning Awards

 擔任了這比賽英文組評判幾年，親眼看到參賽水平一年高過一年，像今年中學金獎已經把CoSpaces Edu融入中一的教學設計，小學金獎在小二已經用Flipgrid組織學生分享經驗。

這就是e-learning 吸引人之處，工具在那裏，但怎樣運用於教學上，這當中有無限的空間。有創意的教師可以不斷鑽研，專業水平便不斷提高，學與教都變得更有效，更有趣。

Classroom Dynamics

 Yesterday morning, I observed an excellent S3 flipped lesson at this school (Ho Lap College). The lesson demonstrated all the most important principles of flipped learning design. The pre-class work prepared students with the key concepts for the upcoming lesson. The in-class lesson concentrated on active learning and higher-order thinking activities. 

What particularly impressed me was the superb classroom dynamics. The teacher, Ms Li, connected with the students seamlessly throughout the lesson. Every student was focussed and on task, and took part in every activity with utmost enthusiasm. They supported and collaborated with each other, rather than trying to one-up their classmates. I could feel the very strong bonding between the teacher and the students, and between the students themselves. Every person in the classroom was engrossed in the same teaching and learning journey. On two occasions, the teacher, Ms Li, proudly proclaimed to the whole class: “I love you all!” And the whole class reciprocated, spontaneously, with “We love you, too!”

Such classroom dynamics don’t just happen by chance. The teacher must have spent a lot of time at the beginning of the school year building up this class cohesion and ethos!

Fake news

 昨天 Kelvin Cheung 在分享中談到要訓練學生判斷在網上找到的資訊的質素和真偽，當時他的其中一個例子就是下圖。記得當年一位舊學生知道我喜歡蒐集這類例子，於是立刻傳給我，我當時也很懷疑它的真偽，因為錯得太離譜，不合常理。

Padlet's Map Template for Creating a Multimodal Text

 Last Tuesday, I finally had the chance to have my Master's students create a multimodal text using the Map template in Padlet, to introduce some places worth visiting in HK. Here is my design for the group activity: 

1. Discuss with group members to decide on a theme for the collection of your recommended places to visit. 

2. Identify the exact places under this theme that your group has decided on. 

3. Divide up the work: Decide who will be responsible for which place.

4. Find out more about the place that you're responsible for. 

5. One person in your group will create a Padlet wall, and share the link with the other group members. This Padlet wall should be using the Map template. 

6. Collaboratively build up your group's Padlet map. Your place, in the form of a card, should consist of (a) name of the place, (b) a short introduction to the place, (c) a photo, and (d) a link to either a webpage or a Youtube video where viewers can find more information about the place. Your group members can either do this together, or 'separately together'. 

7. Upload your group's completed map to the Class Padlet. 

I have curated the 6 completed mpas and put them in the interactive image below. Click on the top left of each card to see the group's work. Note, though, that the students had only about 15 minutes, and it was their first attempt at the task. 

https://view.genial.ly/61a201b8f812630d8ffabd83?fbclid=IwAR3PmhlnSqzVZvNmka86qnYsSB0YAKoNp8RjI0E-K09puJjwmx0PsI5BFcs

Thinglink integrates with Canva

 如果要製作interactive image,我第一個推薦的app是Thinglink,因易學而效果已不錯；最近發覺Thinglink把另一個app Canva integrate在內，Thinglink便如虎添翼了，因可在Thinglink內選取Canva的template, edit後隨即加入Thinglink的interactive element, 乾手淨腳。

The power of flipped learning for teaching Speaking

 This morning, I observed an excellent lesson under the Jockey Club Flipped Learning Pilot Project. The teacher, a NET named Mr Gareth Roberts, had superb lesson management skills, and succeeded in getting this S2 class to do lots of meaningful speaking activities even though the lesson was only 30 minutes in duration.

This lesson also showed the strength of the flipped learning model. If it hadn't been because of flipped learning, the teacher would not have accomplished so much in a 30-minute speaking lesson.

Just awarded the Harvard Higher Education Teaching Certificate

 

The 7 Myths about Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

 Thanks to the invitation from OUP, I had the opportunity to give a presentation on technology-enhanced language learning at the Education Leadership Forum which commemorates OUP China's 60th anniversary. Over 500 people registered for the presentation, including people from Singapore, UK, Ukraine, Philippines, ...!

Wakelet's new layout

 Wakelet 新加column的layout後，用法更像Padlet了，雖然functionality 仍不及Padlet,但勝在免費。我是Padlet的early adopter,他們給了我58個免費的wall, 但仍不夠用，以後可以多用Wakelet作為替代。

Harvard Higher Education Teaching Certificate

 Received the final grade for the Harvard Higher Education Teaching Certificate course which I took in the summer. The grade was based on over 20 assignments and quizzes. This 8-week course was much more demanding than I had anticipated. A slight imperfection that I didn't get full marks for the final grade, but good enough for me to get the certificate. The biggest gain, though, is that the course has re-energised me for teaching in the new academic year. Now looking forward to receiving the physical certificate in mid-October.

Speaker at a language forum organised by HKUST's Center for Language Education

 

Becoming MIEE 2021-22

 The first e-learning badge I have earned in 2021-22.

"The 8 biggest breakthroughs in the science of learning"

 An article that includes some useful reminders: 

https://www.brainscape.com/academy/how-students-learn-science-of-learning/?utm_campaign=Academy+Drips%3A+Teachers&utm_content=Email+2%3A+8+Of+the+biggest+breakthroughs+in+learning+science&utm_medium=email_action&utm_source=customer.io

Launching into the 35th year

 快開學了。1991年進入中大教育學院任教，這暑假剛好滿30年，加上先前在羅富國教育學院的4年，這個九月，將會是我從事teacher education 的第35個年頭。

能夠這麼長期從事自己享受的工作，從中找到意義，工作性質又讓我可以不斷學習，我實在非常非常幸運。

Completing the Harvard Higher Education Teaching Certificate course

 經過九個星期努力，終於完成這Harvard 的Higher Education Teaching Certificate 課程，當然仍要等8月19日provisional grade 的公佈，才知道會否獲得證書。

回想這九個星期的課程，比我當初想像中demanding和rigorous 得多，課程的prospectus說每星期需時10小時，但事實上遠超此數。而我已經不知多久沒有在兩個月內做了那麼多篇功課。

今次整個學習過程除了內容外，给我兩個很大的體會：(1)温故知新: 作為teacher educator, 課程內容對我並不是100％陌生，但就是review 學過的知識(例如Bloom's taxonomy),仍會有新的理解和體會；(2)學如逆水行舟，不進則退。

去年暑假不能外遊，結果讀了多個e-learning 課程和考了十多個e-learning的認證。今個暑假仍然不能外遊，結果完成這如果外遊便無可能完成的Harvard課程。這罕有的人生經驗令我再記起西諺When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 

當然我仍然希望明年暑假可以外遊!

Students may remember ...

 那天和32年前舊學生午餐敘舊，她竟然可以清楚敘述我當時其中一課的流程!

老實說，我自己也不會記得起每一課的細節，這亦提醒我們當老師的，有時候我們的一句說話，一個舉動，我們也許不以為意，但學生也許會記得很多年呢!

A good teacher vs A successful teacher

 

To me, ‘a good teacher’ is a general term. The question boils down to how ‘good’ should be defined. Some people may equate ‘good’ with ‘caring’, while others may equate it with ‘being nice’. Still there will be those who define ‘a good teacher’ as a pedagogically competent teacher.

All of us want to be looked upon as good teachers. And indeed we may receive that compliment once in a while, for example when someone says it out of social courtesy. At the end of the day, we ourselves have to contemplate in what ways we want to be ‘good’ as teachers.

To me, the description ‘a successful teacher’ takes into account those on the receiving end, i.e., the students. A successful teacher succeeds in changing the students in one way or another, whether in terms of knowledge, or skills, or attitude.

Today, within changing students in terms of attitude, I would highlight one teacher success factor: the successful teacher ignites in his/her students a curiosity, enthusiasm, and even passion, in continuing to further their investigation of the course subject matter even when the course is over. This is because we are now living in the 21^st century. With knowledge being multiplied day by day, every university course, even those at advanced levels, will only scratch the surface. For me, this disposition to lifelong learning is of paramount importance. To sum up, if I see a student continuing to explore my course subject matter even after the end of the course, that is the kind of success that I will most value.

Pecha Kucha - my quick review

 https://www.pechakucha.com/ is a web app for creating videos from pictures. You upload some pictures, voice-record every picture (slide), and then click create. The beta video creator doesn't have any other editing functions. 

Hence, it doesn't trump the more modern apps for creating videos from pictures. Pecha Kucha distinguishes itself as follows: 

1. The number of pictures you can upload is fixed (e.g., 5, or 10, or 20). The audio narration duration for each slide is equivalent to the number of slides you have uploaded. Thus, if you have uploaded 5 pictures, you have 5 seconds for narrating each picture. This is fixed. But as such, this may be good for practising presentation skills, especially with regard to timing. 

2. Pecha Kucha is primarily for people who want to share their work with the public. There is a vibrant Pecha Kucha community which organises presentations events from time to time. 

Downside

3. Too rigid in terms of the number of pictures one can upload, and the duration for narrating each picture. 

4. The download video option is a paid function. 

5. There isn't an unlisted sharing option. (Default: public)

Is Active Learning possible in large lecture halls?

One major challenge in employing active learning strategies in teaching university classes for some courses (especially, the more ‘general’ ones)  is certainly large class size. Students are seated in large lecture theatres, and in rows. The setting itself already encourages chalk and talk by the instructor. Even setting up group discussions is not that easy. Then, the large class size makes it difficult to administer and manage active learning activities. For example, it is difficult for the instructor to provide help to individual groups. There will never be enough time for individual to report their work to the whole class.

The lecturing to large classes may save costs, but it is a very 20^th century teaching activity. Of course, this is not to say that all large-class lecturing should be dispensed with. But first, such lectures should be shortened and condensed (especially given today’s shortened attention span of EVERYBODY), and instead, should be complemented with other modes of learning.

Fortunately (for me), today even with large classes, there are still e-learning strategies which can facilitate some forms of active learning, even if students are seated in rows in a large lecture theatre. For example, there are now many useful polling and quiz apps for tapping into students’ views, previous knowledge, answers to quick questions, etc. (e.g., AnswerGarden, PollEverywhere, QuestionPro, Quizizz, Socrative). There are also apps for students to easily share their ideas (e.g., Padlet, Google Jamboard). There are also apps for creating short interactive tasks, which may be administered at intervals during a lecture (e.g., Wordwall; LearningApps.org).

  

Motivating students to engage actively in a lesson

To me, one way to motivate students to engage actively and participate in a lesson is when they see the purpose of the class session, and how it contributes to their future endeavours. However, sometimes this is easier said than done. If a course, or a class session, is closely related to what students HAVE TO complete soon, then this actual need will easily spice up the students, even if this is only extrinsic motivation. One example is the class session on Lesson Planning, which is usually conducted towards the end of my 17-session Subject Curriculum and Teaching (English) course on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme. The students, who are either preservice or inservice ESL teachers, will be supervised for teaching practicum soon after the Subject Curriculum and Teaching course. During the lesson observations, they will be assessed on, inter alia,  their lesson planning skills. In this scenario, it is not difficult to motivate students to engage activity, as they will have a chance to, and in fact need to, apply the lesson planning ideas soon in their own teaching.

It is less easy, however, when the course, or the class session, has no immediate application value to the students, especially if the course is more theoretical in nature. For a four-year undergraduate programme, students may not ‘feel’ the future importance of a course if it is offered in the first or second year of study. Sometimes, even the whole programme may not be one that is ‘practical’ or career-oriented.

It is under such circumstances that the task for course instructions to motivate students to engage them actively becomes even more challenging. The course instructor may then have to strive to (a) show the intrinsic value of,  and stimulate intrinsic interest in, the course content itself, and (b) make the class sessions themselves more interesting and rewarding, utilising a variety of teaching techniques (e.g., ‘small teaching’ strategies (Lang, 2016)) .

 

Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching : everyday lessons from the science of learning. Jossey-Bass & Pfeiffer.

The 'Collections' function in Microsoft Edge

 My default browser is Chrome. But recently, while following the Harvard course, I discovered, by chance, a useful function in Microsoft Edge which is very useful for note-taking. It's called 'Collections'. After I click on the Collections icon in the top right corner, a vertical pane will pop up on the right-hand edge of the web page. Then if I see a key phrase or an important sentence on the web page I'm reading which I want to note down, all I need to do is highlight it, and then drag it into the right-hand Collection pane. I can even drag a diagram into the pane. I can also use the sticky note function inside the pane to type my own notes. 

After I have finished reading a module section, to get a copy of the notes that I have collected in the pane, all I need to do is to export that collection as a Word file. Later, when I start a new module section, I simply start a new Collection. 

Of course, this note-taking can be done by doing copy-and-paste into a Word document, but then you have to open and keep switching between 2 windows, and the Edge 'drag into collection' action is much quicker and simpler, and fun!

I didn't know how to teach until I met you

 In the 'Make a difference' movie,  Teddy Stallard, MD, at his wedding, thanked his elementary school teacher Ms Thompson: "Thank you for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important, and showing me that I could make a difference. (Teddy was once an at-risk student in elementary school, but Ms Thompson turned his life around.).  It's Ms Thompson's reply that has resonated with me ever since: "Teddy, you've got it all wrong. You're the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."  This reply resonates with me because it reminds me that it's the students whom I have had that have served as the stimulus to my becoming a good teacher (and perhaps, even a better human being). Without them, I won't know the true meaning of teaching, and how to be a good teacher: "I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

https://makeadifferencemovie.com/index.php

Kapwing for creating videos

 Out of the blue, Kapwing, a video editor, has become very popular among teachers in Hong Kong. I had a go, and created the video below. So far, the two biggest pluses to me are (a) inserting Gifs, and (b) adding background music. Overall, it's a very easy to use video editor. 

https://www.kapwing.com/videos/60eaae18a9816100b9117f9f

Doodling function in Powtoon for free

 Glad that Powtoon has added the doodling function for free. Now I don't have to purchase Doodling apps like Doodle Maker or Doodly. Check out the one I've just created below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grGSzgr09vU

Phase 2 of MIEE self-nomination passed

 今年(2021~22)的Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert的self~nomination 和去年有點不同，去年其中主要部分是製作一視頻，去自我介绍如何推進e-learning，今年這部分主要用文字描述，但增加了測驗性質的Phase 2,以考驗申請者對Microsoft tools 的熟悉程度。剛收到可以進入最後階段Phase 3的通知，不用重做Phase 2。

The Design Idea function in PPT

 我真是愛死PowerPoint 的Design Idea功能了!我平日不大願意花時間美化PowerPoint 或edit video for effects, 都是以簡單直接為主。但PowerPoint 讓我不做任何editing, 也可以製作不太單調的presentation deck。像下面的一個，我先在Word 以outline 模式記下要點，然後開PPT, import這Outline, 已經有整個成形的presentation deck, 最後為每一張slide 從右邊自動generate 出來的design idea選一個，乾手淨腳。create PPT這部分，不用十分鐘。

而且隨着PPT 背後的AI 愈來愈聪明, generate 出來的visuals 一定會愈來愈貼切和有趣。

Attending the graduation ceremony of Baptist Lui Ming Choi Primary School

 收穫滿滿的早上。以主禮嘉賓身份出席浸信會呂明才小學的畢業禮，感受了一個程序充滿温馨，每一成員都充滿歸屬感的畢業禮。和PGDE舊學員，現任校長 Wong Fai Mei ,現任英語教師 Katie Sham 敘舊。認識了校監曾啟文先生，上任校長黃潔蓮校長，和一眾卓有成就的校董。還獲贈一份很特別的紀念品呢!

這早上，讓我再一次看到教育工作的重要和意義。

++++++++++

今早坐在台下欣賞同學的分享，無論是他們合唱的三首歌，傳燈儀色，或四段分班的視頻，有幾刻我觸動得幾乎忍不住眼淚，因為令我想起背後一眾老師的心血，和呂小對他們成長辦演了的角色。我的分享主旨在提醒同學要感恩，而他們在四段視頻中正正就是這樣做!整個典禮，令我親身感受到我們作為educator, 如何任重道遠，如何以生命影響生命。