Microsoft To-Do List trumps Google TasksBoard
Both have mobile and desktop versions.
Both can allow you to create several lists (something that Todoist can't do)
GOOGLE TASKS AND TASKBOARD
- to sync between the mobile app and desktop app, you need the paid plan with monthly payments.
MICROSOFT TO-DO LIST
- free syncing between mobile and desktop
https://flathub.org/apps/app.midterm.MidtermDesktop
This free app can be used to quickly create cloze test for self-study. Simply type, or paste in, a text. Then highlight those words which you wish to turn into blanks. Then click 'Save'.
The saved text, when opened again, will become a cloze passage. Recall the word for each blank, then click on it, and the original word will show. You can then record your performance (at 4 levels of mastery) for future reference.
There are other ways and apps for creating self-study cloze passages, but Midterm is probably the quickest app for that purpose.
We can ask ChatGPT to generate a reading passage on a particular topic for a particular grade level with the word limit specified. We can then have ChatGPT generate reading comprehension questions (e.g, MC, blank filling) to go with the passage generated.
Below is my attempt:
https://poe.com/chat/2b7o47b41ckzefuyt19
自從有了ChatGPT, 在課堂中一些以前我會主動解釋的概念，現時間中我會請學員即時問ChatGPT, 其中一個目的，是讓學員看到如果是純知識，他們其實不用我去告訴他們，我亦希望借此培養他們的主動求知的精神。
這並不表示我備課變得輕鬆了，只是我的心思變為集中在設計一課的Learning activities, 怎樣的學習活動，怎樣的rundown, 才能再有效地幫助學員學到相關的知識，技能，和態度；這其實比製作一個供兩小時串講的PPT 更花時間，更考功夫，更加需要對題目有更深入的認識。
1993年美國學者Alison King 在一篇journal article 以此為題：From sage on the stage to guide on the side, 31年後的今天有了ChatGPT, 我們更加要反思自己的角色。
Just tried Slideguru to generate a PPT from a prompt topic.
the prompt topic: Some Ways to use AI-generated images in the teaching of English
Response: https://poe.com/s/ePEr9gajkROuOwPG0RP3
____
Unlike Canva which gives you slides which are actually paragraphs, Slideguru gives you a number of slides (about 10) with bullet points. This is more like a conventional PPT.
Of course, it doesn't actually give you a PPT file; you still have to import the outline into a PPT.
In a TP lesson observation today, the teacher used a road map at the beginning of the lesson to give Ss an overview of the lesson. Then at different points of the lesson, she showed the road map again so students could see their progress. She showed the road map again at the end of the lesson as a recap of the journey that the students had completed.
After the lesson, I asked her the source of the road map. She said 'Canva', which I had totally forgotten about!
I immediately went to Canva, and searched for 'road map.' There were dozens of results:
Of course, the road map can be further enhanced with Thinglink and Genial.ly.
Will look for an opportunity to use one of these road maps in my teaching.
Step 1: Prepare the Outline in a WORD DOCUMENT in Outline format (in View tab)
Step 2: Open Eddrawmind Desktop app.
Step 3: Click on Create on left pane:
Step 4: Click IMPORT
Just found this web app which is very easy to use, for creating graphic organizers. And it's always free, unlike Lucidchart and Miro.
Just found a solution to presenting a PPT in a window instead of in full screen mode:
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.
It looks like now that Bookwidgets is the only interactive app (similar ones are Wordwall, Learningapps.org) that allow students to respond to a task/question by recording their own voice.
Wordwall and Learningapps.org have the 'Text to Speech' function for converting words inserted into audio's. However, you can't record your own voice.
My own view is that speech samples created are not really that good, especially when very careful listening for discriminating between speech sounds is concerned.
Bookwidgets, on the other hand, is the opposite. It doesn't have the 'text to speech' function. But you can record you own voice as input. All the widget formats allow you to do that.
Just found out how to import a Word file into MS Forms to create a poll. This is quite a useful function.
I'm now resorting to MS Forms more and more than I use Google Forms.
I then tried the Custom-AI function of Padlet. I asked it to give me 12 activities for raising junior secondary students to signs, symbols, and icons found in public places in their daily life. (And of course I had multimodal literacy in mind when I was writing the prompt.) The results are really impressive, in that the activity ideas are really useful and interesting, and they are contextualised in Hong Kong!
https://padlet.com/szepaul/signs-symbols-and-icons-in-public-places-npl2ysiaai3xsyje
As you may know already, Padlet has jumped on the GenAI bandwagon: there are now 8 types of content/padlet formats that it can generate for you from a prompt.
I have tried all the 8 types of content that it can generate. The 'Lesson Plan', the 'Classroom Activity List', and 'Reading List' results are not that useful. I quite like the 'historical timeline', and the AI-generated map functions. The Assessment Poll turns out to be a pleasant surprise. I typed in 'the phonemes of British English' as the prompt; in less than a minute, it gave me a Padlet board consisting of 8 poll (MC) questions, which ARE relevant to the topic.
The generated Assessment Poll Padlet, thus, can be used at the beginning of a lesson for a quick recap of previous learning. It can also be used as a whole-class 'exit ticket' to round off a lesson! (Of course the limitation is that the prompt topic you type in has to be a general one, unless you actually input a content summary of a lesson.)
Found out that on top of writing a prompt, we can train the app to give us an image which more accurately meets our needs.
Have tried Padlet's new Poll function, and created the following Padlet: (a) Students will view each TSA reading aloud video, and (b) grade the performance via the Poll.
The Poll is easy to use. One minus is that the poll choices are confined to 4 only.
https://padlet.com/szepaul/tsa-reading-aloud-performances-73u14i6xkmms2pmn
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。
Upon learning about Microsoft Forms' new "Practice Mode", I created the Practice Quiz below, which I tried out yesterday evening with my Language Awareness course participants. My purpose was threefold: (1) to guide them to grasp the correct usage (in terms of language form) of the verb 'suggest', which is tricky to use in a sentence; (2) to use the practice quiz as one example of a grammaring (Diane Larsen-Freeman) task, and (3) to illustrate how to use the Practice Mode of Microsoft Forms as one example strategy for nurturing students as self-directed learners.
If you're interested, you might give the following practice quiz a go. (It doesn't collect respondent information.) After answering a question, click Submit, and see whether you have got it right or not. If not, you can then either 'skip', or retry the question. When you have finished the whole practice quiz, click on 'Recap Questions'. You will then see an overview summary of your performance. This summary is useful for respondents to deduce, in this particular example, the correct usages of 'suggest'. (And feel free to share your artifacts with me if you have other ingenious ways to use Microsoft Forms' practice quiz function.)
先前用Gemini Gem 製作Socratic bot, 好處是立即可以得到share link 和其他人分享，用者甚至不用log in；但11月17日Gem 全面變為Skill 後，便主要用作自用，非分享。於是我回到Poe, 製造了一個roleplay bot後，取得sh...
