1. Two recordings from this year’s IATEFL conference in Brighton on the subject of AI:

i) another excellent plenary, this one by Vicky Saumell The AI factor have we figured it out? https://www.youtube.com/live/2IkCub2jFXs

Vicky’s abstract: The development of AI has become a huge challenge. Predictions abound about how it will affect not just ELT, but the world in general. After a whole year of fast-moving advances in AI development and available tools for a variety of uses within the ELT field, we are still working out what it means for us. We have been learning what it is and what we can use it for, from lesson planning to image creation and automated language learning. But there is more! We have also been trying to elucidate its positive and negative aspects, though it is all quite subjective. Reducing a teacher’s workload, marking learners’ work, planning a marketing campaign can be placed in different parts of the positive-negative continuum. What seems apparent is that it is changing the ELT landscape. But how? What are the implications for different stakeholders in the language learning industry? And how are we coping with the challenges it poses? Becoming aware of AI’s functioning so that we can detect biases and work together towards an ethical use of AI seems to be a logical pathway, which we will explore together in this talk.

ii) The British Council’s very engaging ‘signature event’ – more engaging than some (but not all!) I was involved in – The future of English in the age of AI, described as “a dive into the findings from recent British Council research into the use of artificial intelligence in English language teaching and learning” and including an update on their recent report, Artificial intelligence and English language teaching: Preparing for the future https://youtu.be/g53gW31TLVg PDF of the report below (again!)

2. Also concerned with AI – as nearly everything will be soon? – The future of assessment with Andreas Schleicher, Hayo Reinders & Fran Woodward is the latest in the English with Cambridge Teachers Talk Tech podcast series https://youtu.be/MIzsk0LSmlA?feature=shared A wee bit of an advert for Cambridge but acceptably so!

More Teachers Talk Tech podcasts here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpmCHL8PnXq_7otZSpb-n4IHEFoZpYYbR

3. Some good, clear thinking from Daisy Christodoulou in this post on the No More Marking blog, Your digital education transformation strategy, https://substack.nomoremarking.com/p/your-digital-education-transformation

4. This one’s not about AI: a New York Times ‘gift article’, Can You Lose Your Native Tongue? After moving abroad, I found my English slowly eroding. It turns out our first languages aren’t as embedded as we think https://tinyurl.com/47w4he8n

My family still chortle when they remember me ordering beer in Croatian in Paris and getting more and more exasperated because the waiter didn’t understand me …

5. And, finally, a good piece about Berlin from Katja Hoyer’s blog, Zeitgeisthttps://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/the-battle-for-the-heart-of-berlin