What makes a great teacher? Teachers Talk Radio

What does the research say about good teaching and being a great teacher? In toady's Teachers Talk Radio show, I took a look at the evidence and what has been said about this topic, and then towards the end of the show, Kate joins me to talk about homeschooling her sons and what teaching means for her.

Teacher Research: Teachers Talk Radio with Paula Rebolledo

On today's Teachers Talk Radio show, Teacher Educator Paula Rebolledo joined me to talk about empowering teachers through exploratory action research (EAR). Listen to the recording to hear Paula discussing the differences between teacher research in general, EAR, and the usual form of action research, and how you can get started in exploring what is happening in your own classroom using the EAR approach to action research.

Teaching Pronunciation: Teachers Talk Radio

On today's Teachers Talk Radio show, my guest was pronunciation specialist, teacher, and teacher trainer, Gemma Archer. We talked about teaching pronunciation in English language teaching, including discussion about how to approach regional and foreign accents, and the Lingua Franca Core.

The future of English in the age of AI

 The British Council Signature event at the IATEFL 2024 conference in Brighton was dedicated to the launch of a groundbreaking new report on the use of artifical intelligence in English Language Teaching (ELT). This report can be downloaded here, It looks at how AI is being used for the learning and teaching of Ennglish worldwide as well as discussing the opportunities, issues and challenges. One of the most interesting aspects of it is a review of literature on AI and ELT, which will be very useful going forwards as this is undoubtedly going to increase exponentially. The British Council also consulted experts and surveyed a range of people involved in ELT, asking their opinion of the subject.

Have we figured AI out yet? Vicky Saumell IATEFL 2024 Plenary

 Not surprisingly, AI (Artificial Intelligence) featured strongly during the 2024 IATEFL conference in Brighton. Vicky Saumell gave an excellent opening plenary which focused principally on concerns about AI's impact on the Environment. 

Vicky's plenary was received very well (it was the highlight of the conference for me) and has led to a much-needed questioning about how enthusiastic educators should be when it comes to these emerging new tools.

Related

• Sandy Milin has a great write-up on her blog about Vicky's plenary
• AI's impact on the Environment - the report Vicky refers to
• There's an AI for that - repository of AI tools

What's the best GenAI tool for language learning?

 

Check out the video for an interesting comparison between ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard when it comes to learning a language. Here's how they are rated:

Speaking and listening

How easy is it to speak and listen with these GenAI?

• ChatGPT 2.5 (mobile app) - 2.5. Speaking works, but ChatGPT doesn't listen back. 
• ChatGPT Mod 4.5 (modified Chrome voice extension) - Good for speaking and listening
• Bing 3.0 - voice features (Speaking and listening) are easy to use but no way to trigger a voice response and 30 response limit
• Bard 4.0 - Speaking and listening features, but mobile not as good as ChatGPT.

Speed and accent

Which of the GenAI allows you to modify the accent (speed and actual voice accent)?

ChatGPT 1.0 - the unmodified version does not let you change speed or accent

ChatGPT Mod 4.0 (modified Chrome voice extesion) - this allows you to adjust listening speed and it gives you a choice of accents for popular languages

Bing 1.0 - no change of listening speed or accent

Bard 1.0 - no change in listening speed or accent

Watch the video for ating of other features (multiple language switching, available on the go, reliability, convenience, mobile friendly). 

To sum up, the reviewer rates ChatGPT Mod (with Chrome voice extension) as the best GenAI tool overall for language learning.

Learning Design in the age of Generative AI

Donald Clark has published a very interesting blog post about how 'Learning Designers will have to adapt or die' and suggests 10 ways for them to upskill to AI.

Just how AI will affect the job market has been a hot topic for discussion recently. The Economist's message is that the West suffers from too little automation, not too much, and we shouldn't worry. 

Anecdotally, I have heard of two very different sides to how generative AI is affecting work right now. A partner's colleague who works in educational publishing has reported that this publisher has stopped working with the three freelance graphic designers they regulalrly contracted work to, and instead have hired a 'prompt engineer' for their illustration needs. On the other hand,  Mexican friend who works for a PR agency told me her boss has embraced the changes and is giving the team (copywriters and illustrators, etc) weekly training sessions on how to get the best out of AI tools, and is encouraging they use them. She also told me that she was recently asked to write an obituary of a famous entertainer who passed away unexpectedly, and using ChatGPT what would have normally have taken her four hours or so to research and write, took only twenty minutes.

What surprises me is just how unaware some people involved in the IT sector are, of the inevitable disruption to their work that generative AI poses. Some people are very switched on, like a friend of mine who works as a coder, who tells me how 50% of his job now involves him using ChatGPT to generate code. He then validates it, which is where his skill set comes in. This friend expects the money offered for coding projects will drop substantially as organisations realise it's not a time-consuming as it used to be and the skill involved is less being able to write the code, but in checking and tweaking it. However, at a birthday party recently, I got talking to someone who works in IT for an important Merchant Bank in Zurich, and she only had a vague awareness of generative AI, and hadn't even heard the term 'prompt engineer.' 

When it comes to learning design, Donald Clark reports that AI and Generative AI has "started to play a major part of the online learning landscape" with it being used for "learner engagement, syllabus planning, core skills identification, learner support, content creation, assessment, and so on."

I recommend you read Donald's blog post to see the details of how he thinks learning designers need to upskill. Some of the suggestions are obvious (e.g. moving from 'linear' to 'complex', from 'media production' to 'media generation') and will save a lot of time and money. Some are buzz words (e.g. pedAIgogy rather than pedagogy), and quite a few I don't agree with (e.g. 'Presentation skills' being replaced by 'Technical AII skills'; 'Complex AI learning journeys' replacing 'Gamification'; 'Voice' replacing 'writing, typing') I think presentation skills won't disappaer and gamification will still be used, just in a different way, People will also need to write and type. Look at what people said about AI voice assistants replacing text input (they didn't) or how some people (me, for example) hate leaving or receiving voice messages on WhatsApp - in my experience, people spend far longer and waste my time waffling their thoughts than when they send a brief and concise text message. I also can't listen to audio messages (when I'm in meetings, etc) all the time, but I can always read a text. 

Despite that, I do agree that learning design, and other jobs are about to be completely disrupted, if it isn't already happening now.