Some reading for the weekend!

1. First up tonight, a thought-provoking LinkedIn piece from Richard Culattta, Why we need to reconsider banning phones in schools https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-need-reconsider-banning-phones-schools-richard-culatta-q0d1e/

2. Ceibal, now nearly twenty years old, was (and is) Uruguay’s imaginative response to educational challenges. One strand is Ceibal en Inglés (Ceibal in English) and they have a new publication just out, edited by Gabriela Kaplan & Antonieta Reyes, Collaboration as the axis of Ceibal en Inglés  https://ceibal.edu.uy/plataformas-y-programas/ceibal-en-ingles/sobre-biblioteca/publicaciones/

This publication brings to light the main ingredient of success in Ceibal en Inglés, which is the capacity to learn to collaborate and cooperate at all levels, that is in the classroom and beyond. Readers will find in this book several examples of successful collaboration between teachers, within institutes, between institutes and Ceibal, between Ceibal en Inglés and the public education sector, between Ceibal en Inglés and our partners in Uruguay and abroad. These articles give clear evidence that collaboration is possible, that it is possible for everyone to learn to work with interdependence, and that once this is attained, excellent educational experiences can be lived by hundreds of students in Uruguay. Each one of the articles in this publication seems to bring home one of the main tenets of collaborative learning, “Working together to achieve a common goal produces higher achievement and greater productivity than does working competitively or individualistically”.

PDF below. Thanks to Emma Rogers from Little Bridge (p. 131!) for bringing this to my attention.

3. Chrissi Nerantzi, Delyth Edwards, Simon Green & Lou Harvey from The University of Leeds have just published With love from a dissertation supervisor: Advice for the journey https://zenodo.org/records/13939375

Blurb: We are delighted to release this open book. It has been co-authored by four scholars in the School of Education at the University of Leeds to support master’s students working on their dissertations. What you will read in this book is based on the scholars’ experiences supporting students as supervisors and what they have observed and learnt individually and collectively over the years in relation to dissertation supervision. The book is written in a conversational style to connect directly with those reading and using it as a resource during their dissertation journey. While this book has been written with students in education in mind, the book may also be useful for students in a range of disciplines and professional areas, also where final projects may be used instead of dissertations. Before finalising the book, we invited students and recent graduates to review it and are grateful for their input. We have taken their valuable feedback on board to finalise the book. This book could be used by dissertation students and supervisors alike. Supervisors may also wish to use numbered pages 1-30 as a flashcard set in seminars when preparing students for working on their dissertation. It could also form the basis of a board game and other playful workshop activities to support students. Check out the licence to identify how you can use, repurpose and build on it. If you would like to get in touch with the team please contact c.nerantzi @ leeds.ac.uk (without the spaces).

PDF below.

4. Here’s an advance open-access article from ELTJ by Fruzsina Szabó & Joanna Szoke: How does generative AI promote autonomy and inclusivity in language teaching? https://academic.oup.com/eltj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/elt/ccae052/7784519 PDF below.

Abstract In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly made advances across various fields, including ELT. In this article we embrace an egalitarian dialogue framework to explore and understand the role of AI in language education. This format provides a useful backdrop for navigating the dual responses—enthusiasm and scepticism—by which AI’s influence in education has often been characterized. We critically assess both the advantages and limitations of AI in ELT, highlighting and praising how AI-powered tools can assist educators in differentiating instruction, promoting learner autonomy, and creating personalized and inclusive learning environments, thus making education more accessible to students with diverse and individual needs. However, the article also addresses the challenges posed by the digital divide, particularly the inequities in access to (AI) technologies in low-socioeconomic-status regions. We also reflect upon how AI can become an obstacle in developing learner autonomy due to the risks associated with overdependence on such technologies and the lack of critical skills. The article concludes that although AI presents exciting opportunities for advancing and facilitating language learning, its integration must be approached with a rational mindset to ensure that it serves to bridge educational gaps rather than intensify them.

Latest issue of ELTJ here https://academic.oup.com/eltj/issue with a number of open-access articles, including Raising awareness among the TESOL community about the professional identity tensions of women EFL teachers in Africa, From notes to writing: three students in focus and Imagining an anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy   

5. And, finally and one hopes not elegiacally, from Wicked Leeks, The Declining Butterfly Effect https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/food-farming-fairness-with-will-white-a-future-without-butterflies/