Matthew's Google Workspace, Apple & AI EdTech Blog

This blogpost may be of interest to educators who want to think more deeply about how to integrate non-academic and non-educational AI tools into their portfolio of teaching and learning activities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, over the last year in particular, become widely-known and discussed. There is a growing number of AI-powered tools that are being introduced for everyday use and their potential in education should not be ignored. Elementary through tertiary educators can utilize these tools in various subjects to create engaging and impactful learning experiences for their students. As educators in the past decade previously took everyday tools such as Google Maps and Earth to create engaging lesson materials across a variety of subjects from Maths to Science to Geography, History and even Literature, it seems now that we can apply this idea of thinking outside the box in terms of the waves of new AI tools which are now proliferating. An obvious example of an AI-powered

Reading & Writing Activities for Young Learners with AI-powered Tools This blogpost might be of interest to educators who want to develop collaborative reading activities which can utilise individual reading, guided reading, shared reading while incorporating speaking and writing activities. We all know the story about stories: Stories are a great way to help students learn so many things, not just literacy but morals, ideas, concepts etc. However, in terms of literacy we know the studies have been done repeatedly and in many places in recent decades with the general conclusion that students who read more do better at school over time. For any educator working with young learners in an ELA, EFL/ESL environment, the use of stories is crucial in engaging students and aiding that literacy development. However, with young learners now frequently using tablets and phones - and therefore being more image-focused than text-focused these days - there is a feeling amongst many educators tha

This blogpost may be of interest to educators who want to create digital gap fill worksheets using Google Docs Dropdown Chips.  What are they and how can you use them? There are so many new EdTech features and products coming online every day. It is therefore easy to miss out on some interesting and helpful features.  Google Doc Dropdown Chips is one. These chips are not that new, but it seems rare to hear educators in my field of EFL/ESL and ELA talking about them or using them. They are in fact a powerful yet simple tool that can be used to create digital gap fill worksheets and cloze reading comprehension exercises . Ok, great, but why would you use them?  In a world of technological transformation, gap fill activities may sound somewhat old-fashioned and out-dated, but they are still a tried and tested way for educators to easily check how much students understand - in particular they work well for less-able students who find more technologically-challenging learning activities dif