"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles

Edward Deci, renowned developer of Self-Determination Theory, which is the basis of most work around intrinsic motivation, has died.

Much of my work in the classroom, along with my four books on student motivation and many posts, was devoted to applying his ideas to the teaching realm.

He will be missed.

     

I’ve previously shared how I used AI text-to-image tools with English Language Learners (see How I’m Using AI Art Generation To Teach English To Newcomers).

If I was still teaching in the classroom, I could see how AI-powered text-to-video tools could be used in similar ways – especially with a tool like Odyssey.

Odyssey starts off like a typical text-to-video tool – describe a scene and it creates it.

However, it has a big difference, and I assume that most text-to-video tools will soon incorporate this kind of difference: as it generates the video, you are able to add additional prompts to create new scenes.  In effect, you are creating an entire short film on the fly.

Many ELL students would find a lesson using this kind of tool engaging, and it could be a great language learning experience.  They could screen-record the video and the text they are inputting to create it, and then show it to the entire class.

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning With AI Art Generation Tools.

     

For the next month or so, I’ll be republishing my best posts from the last half of 2025.

First off – I have no idea if the CEO of Lyft just talks a good game and doesn’t actually deliver.

But I was impressed with his interview at the Harvard Business Journal.

I was particularly impressed with his saying that he drives for Lyft every six weeks.

Maybe I’m off-base, but it seems to me that school site administrators, school district central office staff (at least the ones with teaching credentials AND the Superintendent, even if they doesn’t have one), and university professors in teacher credential programs (a fair number whom probably haven’t taught a public school class in decades) could all benefit from teaching a K-12 class now-and-then.

What do you think?

     

It’s that time!

You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About Mardi Gras & Carnivals.

     

LineSpeak either provides sentences or, even better, you can copy and past your own into it; then practice speaking them; and, finally, its AI tool will assess how well you did.

You can use free for awhile each day without logging-in and, then, use it even more for free if you log-in.

It seems like you can also use it for other languages apart from English.

I’m adding it to:

THE BEST SITES FOR ONLINE PRONUNCIATION FEEDBACK – DO YOU KNOW OTHERS?

The Most Useful Free Or VERY Low Cost AI Tools For Supporting English Language Learners