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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
Ed Tech Digest
Ten years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in checking out all my edtech resources. Here are this week’s choices: Story Chain lets you create collaborative stories with people you choose. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Collaborative Storytelling. Chronopress is an online game where you have to put historical events in the correct order, like the NY Times Flashback game. Tiny Tools Stack is yet another free screen recorder. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Making Screencasts. Web Archives is a browser extension that, theoretically, gives you the archived version of webpages, including ones, theoretically, that have been behind paywalls. RemovePaywalls is supposed to do something similar. Personally, if I find that I want to access resources/articles from a site often, I feel it’s necessary for me to subscribe. But, if it’s an article from a site I want to access once or twice a year, I don’t feel bad using one of these tools. Cosmos provides access to a zillion images in the public domain. I’m adding it to The Best Online Sources For Images. The Library of Congress has a “Free To Use” site highlighting their public domain images. I’m adding it to the same list. The Newseum has a well-known collection of daily front page newspaper articles from around the world. Now, there’s an alternative to it called Papers From Today. I’m adding it to The Best Tools To Help Develop Global Media Literacy.      This Week’s Free & Useful Artificial Intelligence Tools For The Classroom geralt / Pixabay
At least, for now, I’m going to make this a weekly feature which will highlight additions to THE BEST NEW – & FREE – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS THAT COULD BE USED IN THE CLASSROOM. Here are the latest: Quinnsy is a free AI-powered Mind Map generator. How AI made Meet’s language translation possible is from Google. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Google Translate. Examining the Role of AI-Based Conversation in Enhancing English Speaking Practice among Non-Native Learners is a new study.
Another AI Side Effect: Erosion of Student-Teacher Trust is from The 74. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Trust & Education and to The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students.  Designing with Purpose: Pedagogical Reflections for the Development of AI Speaking Tools is from FLT Magazine. I Love Infographic is an AI-powered text-to-infographic generator. It’s not free, but only costs a few bucks each month. Here’s an infographic it made in response to my prompt, “Elements of an effective English Language Learner teacher”:
I’m adding it to The Best AI Tools For Creating Visuals & Infographics.
 Boy Oh Boy, Can School Districts Use A Dose Of “Strategic Foresight”
What Companies that Excel at Strategic Foresight Do Differently is a very interesting article in the Harvard Business Review. It basically says that unsuccessful companies are often in a reactive mode instead of forwardly identifying potential “unknowns” that could be threats or opportunities. Pretty easy to substitute “school districts” for “companies,” isn’t it? And when school districts try to break out of being in a reactive mode, they often create “new initiatives” that come out of the heads of district leadership absent much outreach or research. It’s worth reading the entire article, but here’s a short excerpt highlighting what I think are its most important points: As company leaders begin the New Year, a simple retrospective can reveal what stands between your team and foresight leadership. Start with a single episode. Recall a recent change in your operating environment that your organization did not anticipate. Looking back, what signals might have preceded the change? What do you wish you had been tracking? Maybe you had all the data, but somehow it wasn’t translated into the right strategic moves. What moves do you wish your organization had made? Learn from what you’ve missed. Repeated failures of future detection often point to gaps in foresight. Check your organizational attitudes. Not all failures of foresight stem from a gap in foresight routine. For foresight to drive strategy, the right organizational attitudes must be in place. Consider what you and senior leaders around you focus on: Are you continually stuck in a cycle of short-term reaction to the perceived threat of the moment, or are you able to focus on hunting for upside amid uncertainty? Is intuition taking a front seat to quantitative approaches?
I’m adding this info to The Best Resources On The Importance Of Knowing What You Don’t Know.  Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
Eight years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in all my Best lists on teaching ELLs. Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners. In addition, look for our latest book on teaching ELLs, The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox 2.0. Here are this week’s choices: I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Using “If This Animal Or Image Could Talk” Lesson Idea In Class:
Here are some recent research studies that are worth reviewing: Empowering ESL Learners: Crafting Effective Strategies for Comprehension Enhancement
AmgiDex is a nice and simple free tool for learning languages (not English, though). I’m adding it to The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English & Other Languages. Model English Learner Policy for School Boards is from New America. How States Can Reinforce English Learners’ Civil Rights is from New America. ELLs could watch this video and talk/write about what they saw:  Best recording – enhancing reading aloud and metacognition through a fully student-centred task is from The Language Gym. A 13-year longitudinal study of students who enter kindergarten as English learners: early vs. late reclassified fluent English learners is sort of a weird paper. It suggests that the actual reclassification of ELLs as English-proficient younger rather than older is the cause of increased academic achievement, without providing proof that it’s anything but correlation. Do better, researchers! I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ins & Outs Of Reclassifying ELLs. Helping EFL/ESL Students Develop Basic Conversation Skills is a useful paper. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Developing English Conversational Skills.  Sentences Of The Week geralt / Pixabay
I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful. Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful. And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education. I may also include my own comments or related links. This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts. Here are this week’s sentences: The state education agency estimates that the population of English learners in Massachusetts schools has dropped by 7,000 since 2024. There is a morality to verbs, especially in political speech. There’s a growing body of research showing that classroom environments can create a sense of belonging, and that should also guide what you include in your classroom. The longer the lesson—we looked at a 10-minute versus a 30-minute instructional block, for example—the less students were on task. Students in Utah will soon be studying Bible passages in social studies classes after the legislature passed a new bill to that end, signed into law this week by Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican. When “we love other persons or serve causes other than ourselves,” Dr. Viktor Frankl said in a 1975 lecture, “we actualize ourselves by way of a side effect.” A literacy advocate is running as a Pencil in the race for Oregon governor to get candidates talking about education issues in the state. “AI is going to help,” said Khan of this reimagined Khan Academy. “But I think our biggest lever is really investing in the human systems.” If you want students (really anyone) to put effort into learning, then you must center their interests, goals, values and perspectives so they can endorse doing what is asked of them and, in turn, regulate their own behavior. Analyzing results of student and teacher surveys, the research team found that attendance was strongly connected to relationships between peers and teachers, students finding value and meaning in classes, a sense of safety and teacher-parent relationships. If this was victory, I’d hate to see what failure looks like. So the war stands as a strategic failure and a moral calamity. For the second year in a row, Trump is proposing to zero out longstanding federal education programs that support educators’ professional development (currently $2.2 billion a year), services for English learners ($890 million), academic enrichment and student supports ($1.4 billion), before- and after-school programs ($1.3 billion), rural schools ($220 million), and support for students experiencing homelessness ($129 million).
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