Yuqi's Blog

As a text-based AI, Chat-GPT is expected to have a significant impact on various industries. Based on my personal experience, I believe Chat-GPT can be very helpful in assisting language teaching and learning, but at the same time, I also have some concerns about it. 1. How should language teachers use Chat-GPT？ Chat-GPT can be used as an efficient search engine. Language teachers can ask it for suggestions and ideas. To start with the test, I asked for suggestions on teaching activities with just one sentence. It can be seen that 7 activities are provided, but the explanation for each is short and vague. Afterwards, I created a new conversation and expanded the context of the question, using about 100 words to describe my students and class. The answers were more detailed in the explanations for each activity. It even described the process of the activity. The provided activities are generally reasonable and of a relatively good quality compared to some web blogs. To some extent, teac...

Nearpod is a website for integrating materials together into a lesson and presenting it. Students could enter the class with a code from their own mobile devices.  Teachers could add many kinds of activities, including slides, pictures, videos (even if they are on other platforms), quizzes, homework...If you have read  my blog about Blendspace , I am sure you will quickly get familiar with it.  One of the best functions of Nearpod is that the contents on students' device keep step with teachers' device. In other words, teachers could control what students are watching. And the teacher can also decide whether to give students the freedom to watch the video themselves. Teachers could watch students' work on their devices. And they could also click one of their works to show to the whole class. I made a lesson focus on the comparative of English with Nearpod. It begins with a video introducing comparative from YouTube. And there are also some quizzes for students to finish ...

Screencast-o-matic is a tool that can be used in language teaching. It consists of two parts: software for editing videos and a web platform for sharing. The Website of Sceencast-o-matic The App of Sceencast-o-matic on Ipad This software is available both for mobile and pc. This article will mainly introduce the mobile version of the software. This software allows for screen recording and some relatively basic video editing, such as changing its length, adding background music, using filters and so on. A very useful function is that you can make a recording of yourself and add it into another video. Thus, a video with an introduction video by yourself is made easily. This is useful both for teachers to record a lecture video and students to make a presentation and share it with others. Once the users have finished editing the video, they can upload it directly to their accounts on Screencast-o-matic's website. When they log in to the website, they can upload their videos to channe...

Blended teaching (or blended learning) is an approach that combines the advantages of actual classrooms with the advantages of computer resources. By using computer resources in the classroom to interact with students, or among students, teachers can make the lesson more interesting. Blendspace  ( https://www.blendspace.com/lessons ) is a website that can be used for this teaching model.  Firstly, Blendspace can help teachers integrate teaching resources and present them in the classroom. Click the button of “+ New Lesson” and you can go to a lesson designing page. Click “Drop your resource " and you can upload your own files in the lesson, such as ppt, videos and pictures.  On the right side of the edit lesson interface, you can also look up keywords to find available teaching resources on the web, including videos from Youtube and teaching resources from Google and Tes ( https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources , a teaching resources website). In addition, you can al...

Duolingo  ( https://www.duolingo.com ) is a website that combines language learning, language assessment and many other functions. I will focus on its English learning function in this article. Probably the most impressive thing about Duolingo is its mascot, Duo , a cute green parrot, and learners can enjoy the cute animations and illustrations of Duo while learning. It is worth mentioning that the layout of Duolingo is simple and clear, so that visitors can quickly find what they need. In addition, there are nearly no ads on the pages or in the learning courses that may distract learners, which is great. Before starting the course, Duolingo will invite you to take a simple assessment in order to find out your current level of English. Once a result is obtained, learners can 'skip levels' and move to the more difficult content. Is this your first time learning English? Currently, Duolingo has 122 units of English learning courses, most of which are about the use of English in ...

 Triptico is a website with resources that are helpful to handling a lesson. This article will introduce some of its functions and usage. Group Activities I'm sure many teachers have been confused about the tools when they need to randomly group their students. The group function in this website makes it easy to do this. If you need to group students randomly, just click the left button of your mouse and drag it to the right. Dragging the mouse to the left allows you to randomly select groups or specific students. It is usable when you need to interact with students. Gaming Triptico has many forms of games that can be used in your classroom. After signing up for an account, teachers can input content and images to create their own games. For language teachers, Triptico also comes with the ability to read words in many languages, so teachers can also use it to get students to connect words with sounds. The following pictures will show some of the game types.   Presenting Teach...