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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: How Schools Can Help Students Moderate Their Social Media Use (DOWNLOADABLE) is from Education Week. Remote For Slides lets multiple people advance a Google Slides show, great for when you’re doing a webinar on Zoom with multiple panelists. The Classroom Tech Backlash (Ruth Reader) appeared in Larry Cuban’s blog.
Virtual Vacation takes on on lots of virtual tours around the world. I’m adding it THE BEST TOOLS FOR TAKING STUDENTS “AROUND THE WORLD” Sentence Shuffler does what it says. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Creating Sentence Scrambles.      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:
A GUIDE TO AI IN SCHOOLS: Perspectives for the Perplexed is from MIT, and Tony Vincent has set it up in NotebookLM if you don’t want to read the whole thing. Yourscape uses AI to create Escape Rooms. I’ve written in the past how I use these to help teach English (see Using Online “Point-And-Click Escape The Room” Games With ELLs; Another Gift From My Peer Tutors: Video Game Walkthroughs That Are Great For ELLs; and This Is Pretty Creative: Using Online “Escape The Room” Games To Teaching Scientific Reasoning. Piperead is an AI-powered book recommendation tool that seems a lot better than others I’ve seen. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations. TubeTranscript provides a…transcript of any YouTube video. Unlike most similar tools, this one breaks it into segments which makes it more readable. InfoGenie uses AI to create infographics. I’m adding it to The Best AI Tools For Creating Visuals & Infographics. Check out Free AI Tools for Everything.
 A Look Back: “How Smart Do You Make Others Around You?” Has Been A Useful Question For Me To Ask In ClassFor the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful. This post first appeared in 2018. Be sure to read the more recent addendum at the bottom of this post.
 © 2005 James Sheriff, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
Several days ago, I saw a tweet from Amy Fast sharing a quote from author/researcher Shawn Achor: Before, we could only ask questions like “How smart are you?” or “How creative are you?” or “How hard do you work?” But now, we can ask the bigger questions: “How smart do you make others around you?” “How much creativity do you inspire?” “How much does your drive become contagious to a team or family?” In other words, according to his research, a person’s future individual success depends on one’s effectiveness with those last three “bigger questions.” The concept is obviously attractive to me, and fits into other ideas I’ve shared at The Best Resources On Developing A Sense Of Community In The Classroom. That was the first time I had heard of Achor, though, and I’ve ordered his book to more carefully examine his concepts and research. However, I didn’t wait to try out this idea in class. One student (let’s call him “John”) is very intelligent, likable, and viewed as a leader by his classmates. He is often very unfocused, though, and can easily distract others because of his leadership role. He and I have been talking about this issue for three years, and there has been little or no change. A few days ago, I shared this snippet of research with him and asked him, once again, if he wanted to use his leadership ability for “good” or for “less-than-good” purposes. He seemed intrigued by the idea of his future success being based on how much he helped others around him and we decided that instead of doing the regular warm-up each day, he would write about what he had done the day before and what he was planning to do that day to help make other people “smarter” in our class and elsewhere. We discussed what that might look like – modeling focus by not coming in singing, helping others who were less proficient in English, etc. He and I would meet briefly once or twice a week to review what he had been writing and doing. It’s certainly too early to call this intervention a success. However, it has clearly been far more effective so far than anything else we’ve done during the past three years. He has been exceptionally focused, respectful and helpful. I’ll give a progress report in a few weeks and, depending on how it goes, might see if he wants to write about it for this blog, too.
ADDENDUM: I asked ChatGPT in 2026 if Achor’s position is supported by more recent scientific research. Here’s its response, which I think still supports its use in the classroom the way I outlined it in the post: Short answer: partially supported, but overstated as a general law of success. Achor’s “bigger questions” idea — that your future success depends on how much you elevate others — aligns with several well-established research traditions. But the strong causal framing (“your future individual success depends on this”) goes beyond what the science can firmly prove. Here’s the breakdown. What Is Supported by Research1️⃣ Emotional Contagion Is RealThere is strong evidence that:
Research on emotional contagion (e.g., Sigal Barsade and others) shows that group mood can influence performance and collaboration. So the idea that your positivity or drive can influence others is well supported. 2️⃣ Prosocial Behavior Predicts SuccessLongitudinal studies show that:
Adam Grant’s research on “givers” (while more popularized) is grounded in organizational psychology showing that prosocial behavior can correlate with success — especially in collaborative environments. 3️⃣ Social Capital MattersLarge bodies of research in sociology and organizational psychology show that:
…predict long-term outcomes like promotions, income, and job satisfaction. So the idea that your ability to uplift others contributes to success is consistent with the literature on social capital and relational leadership. What Is Less Solid⚠ 1️⃣ Causation Is Hard to ProveMost of the supporting research is:
It’s difficult to prove that:
It may also be that:
⚠ 2️⃣ Effects Are Context-DependentBeing highly prosocial does not always predict success:
So the claim works better in:
Less predictably in:
⚠ 3️⃣ Success Is MultifactorialIndividual success is influenced by:
The research does not support the idea that social influence alone determines future success. What Science Would Say More PreciselyA more defensible version of Achor’s conclusion would be:
That’s supported. But this stronger claim:
That’s motivational framing, not settled science. For Classroom ContextsThe “bigger questions” idea aligns well with research showing:
So encouraging students to think:
…is consistent with solid educational research. Just not as a universal success formula. Bottom Line✔ Supported: Social influence, emotional contagion, and prosocial behavior matter for success.
 I Think “Newsguard AI” Is An Example Of The Kind Of More Useful Chatbots We’ll Be Seeing In The Future
NewsGuard AI is a new free AI chatbot that is supposed to be a “reliable” source of news, with it only drawing its information from sources judged by the site’s owners as reputable. You can read more about it at CNN. Of course, the question is how much confidence can we have in the site owner’s judgment? Whatever happens with this site, I think it’s an example of the kind we’ll be seeing more and more of – chatbots that draw from a base of vetted information (I’ve even created five of my own just like that – see I’ve Created Five Free Chatbots For Teachers & Others, And Some Have Become Quite Popular – Here Links To All Of Them. As people get questionable results from the major chatbots, I think they’ll be drawn to ones whose information base has been developed by people or organizations that they trust…  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 pretty sure this video is AI-generated, but it would still be useful to show ELLs and have them talk/write about what they saw (and maybe have them discuss if they think it was AI-generated or not):
Nomido is an online word game from The Browser. It provides a bunch of tiles with two letters, and you have to connect them to create words. It’s probably too difficult for all by advanced ELLs, but I think teachers (maybe with AI assistance) could create their own that would be accessible to more students. I’m adding this info to The Best Ideas For Using Games In The ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom. I’m adding Translanguaging in the Classroom to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT TRANSLANGUAGING. ELL students can watch this video and talk/write about what they saw: 
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