1. I was chatting with a university teacher friend the other day about the implications for their work of essay factories, ChatGPT, etc. and learnt that the guys who will write your essays for you (for a fee) are also quite prepared to blackmail you with the threat they’ll tell your university you’re cheating if you’re slow paying! University teaching and learning is going to have to change, there’s no doubt of that. Here’s a piece from Faculty Focus entitled Death of a Traditional Lecture that explores some of the options https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/death-of-a-traditional-lecture/ (Not quite sure about that indefinite article, though.)

2. Here’s a copy of the Council of Europe publication, Enriching 21st-Century Language Education: the CEFR companion volume in practice that I stumbled over the other day https://tinyurl.com/fm9tpfy4 It’s a very rich resource, and you’ll do well if you manage to read the table of contents this weekend. Big PDF below, which I hope survives the journey.

3. Do you want to learn more about multilingualism? Try this quiz https://multilingualmind.involve.me/quiz-multilingualism

4. Something that’s a bit close to home from BBC Radio 4 this week, Dementia: Unexpected Stories of the Mind https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kww0

5. And, finally, I don’t know whether the proprietor of this sandwich shop I spotted in Darlington yesterday gets bonus points for honesty or loses points for being irresponsible.