1. Two apps to explore over the weekend with the help of the team at Educational Technology and Mobile Learning:
Kahoot https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2021/11/kahoot-guide-to-creating-engaging-and.html
and Padlet https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2021/11/what-is-padlet-teachers-step-by-step.html
I’ve seen (and heard about) both being used very effectively, but my own understanding remains limited.
2. Initial teacher training politics here in the UK: a piece from the Department for Education website https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-to-develop-world-class-teachers-through-high-quality-training-and-support
plus commentary from Schools Week https://schoolsweek.co.uk/itt-market-review-what-you-need-to-know-about-new-reforms/
The government wants “to drive up standards and ensure every child and young person can be taught by a brilliant teacher”, which is a fair enough aspiration, and it will also “require training providers to ensure that all courses have an evidence-based curriculum”, which rather begs the question of what those curricula have been based on hitherto.
3. The website of the UNESCO International Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education is now live https://aiedforum.org/#/home in preparation for the Forum itself next Tuesday and Wednesday, 7th & 8th December.
To pick out two sessions, not quite at random:
Session 4 at 10:00 UK time on Wednesday, 8th December is on Promoting gender equality and empowering girls and women with AI competencies
and Session 5 at 12:00 UK time the same day is on Promoting the use of AI in Africa.
You can sign up for as many sessions as you want on the website.
4. Sign up here for the British Council course on Gender in language education https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/gender-language-education
The course rubric says “In this practical four-week course, you will learn to recognise the different kinds of gender bias and stereotypes which exist in language education, some of the barriers people face in terms of gender equality and equity, and how these can be overcome”.
5. And, finally, just in case some of you have not contributed to the 59.6m views this video had clocked up when I last looked (up by 3m since the weekend) https://youtu.be/MwHHErfX9hI
Roy Cross's Blog 