Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.

Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.

From The New York Times. By Kevin Roose.

 

Recently, I gave a talk to a group of K-12 teachers and public school administrators in New York. The topic was artificial intelligence, and how schools would need to adapt to prepare students for a future filled with all kinds of capable A.I. tools.

But it turned out that my audience cared about only one A.I. tool: ChatGPT, the buzzy chatbot developed by OpenAI that is capable of writing cogent essays, solving science and math problems and producing working computer code.

ChatGPT is new — it was released in late November — but it has already sent many educators into a panic. Students are using it to write their assignments, passing off A.I.-generated essays and problem sets as their own. Teachers and school administrators have been scrambling to catch students using the tool to cheat, and they are fretting about the havoc ChatGPT could wreak on their lesson plans. (Some publications have declared, perhaps a bit prematurely, that ChatGPT has killed homework altogether.)

Cheating is the immediate, practical fear, along with the bot’s propensity to spit out wrong or misleading answers. But there are existential worries, too. One high school teacher told me that he used ChatGPT to evaluate a few of his students’ papers, and that the app had provided more detailed and useful feedback on them than he would have, in a tiny fraction of the time. Read More

References

The New York Times
Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html

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Free & Amazing Grammar Police Game for Students!

What is RoomRecess.com?

RoomRecess.com is dedicated to providing children with free learning games that are fun. These online games reinforce important skills that are vital to elementary students and their educational process. RoomRecess.com was developed entirely by an elementary school teacher with the goal of reinforcing fundamental learning concepts in math, reading, spelling, language arts, typing, and problem-solving. Because these learning games are free, students do not have to sign up or hold an account. Children can simply load up an activity and have fun learning online while they play!

Word Games

Kids love word games that are fun. Roomrecess.com take word games to a whole new level, encouraging children to go on adventures and solve puzzles. Some of the learning skills they cover in their online games are parts of speech, prefixes and suffixes, word forming, ordering, ELA skills, grammar, and spelling.

Free & Amazing Grammar Police Game for Students! 1

Grammar Police Game

Grammar Police is one of the most beloved compound word and prefix games. Pick from three different vehicles and use your driving skills to uphold the law like any good cop! Stay alert and you’ll find several bonuses while on your patrol. Use caution to avoid hazards on the road.

Skills

Prefixes, suffixes, compound words, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions.

Free & Amazing Grammar Police Game for Students! 2

Instruction

Arrest the driver that shows the type of word chosen as the law.

Play the Game

Play the math game here.

Free & Amazing Grammar Police Game for Students! 3

References

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Free & Amazing Math Race Game for Students!

What is RoomRecess.com?

RoomRecess.com is dedicated to providing children with free learning games that are fun. These online games reinforce important skills that are vital to elementary students and their educational process. RoomRecess.com was developed entirely by an elementary school teacher with the goal of reinforcing fundamental learning concepts in math, reading, spelling, language arts, typing, and problem-solving. Because these learning games are free, students do not have to sign up or hold an account. Children can simply load up an activity and have fun learning online while they play!

Math Learning Games

Math learning games provide kids with a fun way to practice essential math skills. The free learning games will help reinforce important educational skills such as computation, geometry, fractions, decimals, place value, rounding, integers, problem-solving and much more. Elementary students enjoy learning through playing games that are fun.

Free & Amazing Math Race Game for Students! 4

Math Race Game

All kids love to race using math problems. In this cool math game, students can choose to race the computer or find someone online within seconds. They can pick from addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division (or combine any of the 4). On your mark. Get set. Go!!!

Skills

Math Facts: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division

Free & Amazing Math Race Game for Students! 5

Instruction

Solve math problems to make your runner run faster.

Play the Game

Play the math game here.

Free & Amazing Math Race Game for Students! 6

References

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ClipDrop: Great Tool to Copy Physical Objects into Documents

What is ClipDrop?

Exactly 6 months after sharing their viral prototype AR Copy Paste prototype, French developers Cyril Diagne and Jonathan Blanchet have just released a public beta of ClipDrop.

Clipdrop uses Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence to copy and paste physical objects into digital documents. It automatically removes the background from copied visuals allowing users to paste the object as it is into programs such as Photoshop, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Canva, Figma, and Pitch.

It’s a wonderful tool that teachers can use for teaching and creating digital content. Also, students can use it to incorporate visuals taken from the real world into their assignments.

The beta version has already gathered 100k active users in less than one week after its release. People across industries have expressed, through thousands of messages and reviews on social media, how this tool was going to help them save hours of work.

How Does ClipDrop Work?

On the desktop, ClipDrop works as a screen capture tool, allowing users to capture whatever that is displayed on their screens.

With the mobile app, users can instantly paste visuals taken with their phone’s camera into their computers. The procedure is easy: They point the camera at an object, press the shutter, and ClipDrop will automatically clip it for them. When the desktop is connected to the mobile app, they can simply bring their phone close to the computer and wait for the wireless transfer to complete.

Features

1. Capture directly from your desktop and just drag & drop to any other app.

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2. Incredibly accurate background removal: It uses state of the art vision AI to provide the best analysis & cut-out technology, no matter what you’re capturing.

ClipDrop: Great Tool to Copy Physical Objects into Documents 8

3. Integrates with your workflow: Drag & drop images directly to any other app or website.

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Download

ClipDrop is available on Google Store, App Store, macOS, and Windows.

Fees

The public beta lets you try 10 clips for free (text & photos are unlimited). Unlimited clips and full access to all features on all platforms cost $39.99 for a year.

References

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5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images

Images are considered a crucial component for delivering information, therefore teachers use them in several educational lessons and activities for different educational objectives.

As known, there are lots of websites that teachers use to find copyright-free images for their lessons, however, sometimes the images’ backgrounds aren’t appropriate for their intended projects. Hence, we listed below various user-friendly tools that help them remove background from images.

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images
1- Removebg

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images 10Removebg is a free website that allows users to remove the background of any photo automatically. They don’t have to manually select the background/foreground layers to separate them, they just upload the photo and instantly download it with the background removed.

2- Lunapic

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images 11Lunapic is a free online photo editor tool that provides users with a bunch of editing features such as adding texts, borders, filters, and effects, drawing tools, cropping, changing colors, and many more. Users can also use it to remove background from pictures by simply uploading the picture or pasting its URL then clicking on “Edit”, and choosing “Transparent Background”.

3- Canva

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images 12Canva is a graphic design platform used to design various forms of visuals including infographics, posters, presentations, documents, and other visual content. This tool has a powerful feature that allows users to remove background from images by simply uploading an image, clicking on “Effects”, and choosing “Background remover”.

4- Clipdrop

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images 13ClipDrop allows users to easily capture any visual from their physical surroundings and paste it right into their digital documents. It will automatically remove the background from copied visuals allowing them to paste the object as it is. Moreover, ClipBoard allows users to upload images and remove their backgrounds.

5- PowerPoint

5 Best Tools to Remove Background from Images 14PowerPoint also has an internal feature to remove background from pictures. Users can upload the picture, click on it and the “Format Pictures” appears on the menu bar. When they click on the “Remove Background” button,  the background will disappear.

References

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BOOKR Class: Best Storytelling App for Kids in 2021

What is BOOKR Class?

BOOKR Class features advanced multimedia content produced fully in-house that combines original animation, music, interactive games, storytelling, animated flashcards with 4,000 words, and a vast library of children’s books from prestigious publishers including Oxford University Press, Albert Whitman & Company, and Blue Apple Publishing to deliver a first-of-its-kind ESL tool for both classroom and home use.

Organized in multiple levels that specifically address all age groups from kindergarten through eighth grade, BOOKR Classutilizes Accidental Learning as a basis for its comprehensive approach to teaching English.  A burgeoning new category of instruction, Accidental Learning occurs when the student is immersed in a range of activities and experiences outside of the scope of traditional instruction that leads to learning.

This educational app promotes learning English vocabulary and structure as a by-product of enjoying the app’s diverse interactive elements.  To continuously measure each child’s reading ability, It employs Lexile® Framework for Reading learning measurement technology.  The app is also breaking new ground with its inclusion of flashcards powered by AI-based speech analysis that enables kids to practice pronunciation and receive instant feedback.

For the classroom, BOOKR Class provides teachers with a complete teacher’s dashboard that can monitor progress and help design custom sessions.  Designed for total flexibility, it presents more than 100 lesson plans, activity tips, printables, and a corresponding search engine providing teachers with instant access to the most thematically appropriate supplementary lessons for their class.

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BOOKR CLASS FEATURES

BOOKR Class offers a 3-in-1 solution for teachers and students: a fast-growing digital library and a teacher’s dashboard for tracking engagement and reading activity.

1. BOOKR Class Library App for Students 

  • Engaged Students
    Improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and social-emotional skills – thanks to 1000+ beautifully animated books, interactive games and flashcards.
  • Safe Learning Environment
    Ad-free application with thoroughly researched content 
by educators, children literature experts and psychologists.
 Accessible on mobile devices, computers, online and offline.

2. Online Teacher’s Dashboard for Teachers

  • Time-Saver and Data-Driven
    Easy-to-use platform with reading statisics, automatic exercise correction, book assignments, search engine, activity tips and printables.
  • Curriculum Ready
    Choose the best titles for your curriculum – thanks to carefully selected and labeled EFL/ESL content and the built-in search engine.

3. BOOKR Classroom App

  • Present books and games in entertaining and interactive ways – remotely or in-class, through screen share, interactive board or projector.

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BOOKR CLASS MULTIMEDIA FEATURES

BOOKR Class enhances stories to improve language skills through its:

  • Engaging Animated Content
  • Authentic Native Narration
  • Guiding Text Highlighting
  • Fun Educational Games
  • Quiz
  • Placement Test
  • Annotation
  • Assigned Books

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BOOKR CLASS METHODOLOGY

BOOKR Class is designed for teachers by teachers. To help children reach their full potential, our product development follows a proven researched methodology with texts and activities designed for individual and classroom learning. The illustrations and animations support the understanding of the texts, but don’t distract from reading, while the educational games practise the linguistic elements in a focused, fun and entertaining way. Read more

BOOKR ClASS CURRICULUM
  • World-famous stories in English, adapted to the linguistic needs of language learners, from beginner to intermediate levels (recommended age group: 3-12);
  • Contemporary nonfiction and fiction stories written for language learning and reading comprehension development purposes;
  • Educational games and exercises (spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening and reading, grammar and chunks, reading comprehension, useful expressions, mazes, coloring, puzzles, “find the difference,” etc.);
  • BOOKR is in partnership with Oxford University Press to provide classic world literature for young learners (The Jungle Book, Around the World in Eighty Days, Romeo and Juliet, The Wizard of Oz, etc.). Read more
BOOKR CLASS TITLES

Compiled by English as a Second Language teachers, experts on children’s literature and academics, the BOOKR Class library offers titles on six levels based on CEFR guidelines and the Lexile measurement. Classics and modern favourites of world literature, nursery rhymes, songs, unique stories by our in-house authors, as well as additional materials on civilisation and cultural insights, flashcards and fun activities provide an engaging teaching and learning experience. Check out the full library here.

SAMPLES OF BOOKS

1. Beginner

  • Book Title: At the Market
  • Description: Tomatoes, strawberries, bananas: what else can you find at a market? Let’s shop together!

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2. Pre Elementary

  • Book Title: A Day at the Beach
  • Description: Nobody likes it when the beach is dirty. Help the kids to clean it up.

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3. Elementary

  • Book Title: Around the World in Eighty Days I
  • Description: Phileas Fogg must get back to London by 21st December or lose all his money. Read the story and find out whether he succeeds.

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4. Pre Intermediate

  • Book Title: Countries and Nationalities
  • Description: There are almost two hundred countries in the world! What are these and how do we call their citizens? Let’s see and learn some of them!

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5. Low Intermediate

  • Book Title: A Scandal in Bohemia
  • Description: The King of Bohemia visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and asks for help. A young lady, Irene Adler, is involved. Read the story and find out what happens.

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6. Intermediate

  • Book Title: Homophones
  • Description: Homophone: each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings. Learn about homophones with the funniest illustrations.

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BOOKR CLASS DOWNLOAD

1. Download BOOKR Class library for students

  • Install the library application on the devices your students use. It works both on tablets (App StoreGoogle Store) and computers.
  • You’ll generate their access code online in step n°2.

2. Online Teacher’s Dashboard for Teachers

3. BOOKR Classroom App

  • Do you want to share educational content in-class or online?
  • Download the Classroom App on mobile (App StoreGoogle Store) or on the desktop and project any book or game easily.

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TEACHERS’ SOLUTION

As an educator or school leader, you are eligible for a FREE 14 days trial.

Request your free BOOKR Class trial here and see how it frees up your time so you can focus on what you do best: teaching.

FAMILIES’ SOLUTION

Teach your kids at home with an engaging and playful reading experience. Check out the families’ solution here.

References

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