This weekend, I’m presenting at a QLD English teachers conference. This post shares the four AI tools I’ll be presenting in my session. Enjoy! NG
This weekend, I am presenting at the English Australia QLD PD Fest 2023.
The EA PD Fest is an excellent opportunity to engage with fellow educators and share ideas and experiences about teaching, learning and educational engagement. I always look forward to this event and have attended several times before. See more on the EA PD Fest 2017 here and the EA PD Fest 2018 here.
The session I am presenting will explore how some AI tools can be incorporated by English teachers into classrooms. I’ve been experimenting with using AI with my English language students for a while now and I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with other teachers – and hearing their ideas as well.
Innovative AI Tools for English Language Teachers:
The Future is Now by Nina Ginsberg
Attention all English teachers! Join us for an exciting session where you will learn how to harness the power of AI in your ELICOS classroom. In this session, we use some of the latest AI tools to engage students and reinforce English language skills. Not only will you leave with a better understanding of how AI can support language acquisition, but you will also gain practical tips and strategies for effectively integrating AI into your existing curriculum and classes. All demos are in real-time so you can see exactly how quick and easy it is to create unique and purposeful AI-supported ELICOS activities.
Bring a laptop or iPad if you want to follow along. All participants receive a handy take-home AI teacher’s resource pack. Suitable for new AI users and teachers who want to know more. This is an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve in education technology and bring some excitement to your English language classroom. So don’t wait any longer, embrace the future!!
Here’s a copy of my presentation PPT:
Student permission has been given for all work shared.
Paint by Text is a free and simple AI image editor tool that allows users to create and edit images using natural language commands. Users can give simple instructions, such as “make the sky more blue” or “remove the background”. There are three stock images to edit or you can upload your own photo.
Start with simple instructions and check the basics
- Get student suggestions and/or pre-teach some useful words
- Start with one simple instruction
- Use keywords not full sentences or complex instructions
- Check spelling
- Discuss ambiguity
AI takes things literally
Some good things to keep in mind from Re-Thought: Write positive prompts that describe what should be present, not what should be missing. “A man without a beard” will result in a bearded man. If it is in the prompt, it is likely to be mapped. So write “a clean-shaven man” for pictures with predictably clean-shaven man
Vocabulary: use concrete instead of abstract words. For example:
- Concrete: koala, bicycle, sushi, spaghetti, fire truck (more predicable)
- Abstract: hope, happy, success (more diverse results)
- Build up instructions
- Start with one word, then build up
- Give students a few examples: night, Umbrella, Christmas, gift, purple ribbon, in Tokyo
Grammar: discuss different language features
- Prepositions – above, next to, besides, from, in, out, under
- number noun OR adjective + noun
Class Activity: Change the Picture
Give students a chance to explore the tool. Ask them to change a picture three times and record what prompts were used. Students can also upload their own picture to modify. In pairs or groups, use the four images to practice key English language features, such as
- Compare and contrast
- Vocab: clothing, colours, setting, time, objects
- Past, present, future
- Tell the story…
- Predict what picture/will happen next
- Discuss what worked and didn’t work with each photo edit
MURF AI is a text to speech tool that employs a versatile AI voice generator to produce natural-sounding speech from text inputs. MURF AI voice generator can customize the speech by selecting different voices, languages, and speech styles to suit specific needs. The free version offers a 300-word immediate voiceover recording and 10 mins in the studio and there is a massive range of voice selections.
The two MURF features I’ve used are the free text to speech and the Studio.
1. Text to Speech
Access this online via the NUF website Product tab. It gives 200 words and have 3 voices to choose from. Once you paste your text, it will take a few second to covert. You cannot download this copy, just listen online.
2. The Studio
Upload any documents, Google Sheets, PDFs or web links and you get 10 mins free audio. Also has a great range of voices and functionality to change speed, share and export.
Also try Speechify which is the next step up in Text to Speech.
Teach Anything is a simple and easy to use free, open-source AI tool that allows users to ask a question which it then creates two different versions – easy or professional – of the same answer.
This tool can be used in a variety of ways:
- a tool to quickly modify a topic introduction for upper/lower levels
- exploring diverse perspectives
- outlining oral presentation topics
- comparing language registers
- discussing vocab/language shifts from spoken/written
- In pairs. Give one student the ‘easy’, the other student has the ‘professional’ answer. As a team look, for language shifts and changes. Then together, rewrite the answer again as a ‘new’ third version. I like to use the third as an ‘academic’ answer. This task practices and reinforces academic structures (topic sentences, TEEEL paragraphs, transition words, include examples, specific details and evidence, intext citations…etc). Or as a news report. Or as instructions.
Night Cafe is one of many AI Art Generators that uses Artificial Intelligence to create unique pieces of art in a matter of seconds. Users can input a prompt and/or select from a range of styles. Once you sign in, the interface is relatively straight forward and you can generate one free image at a time or get a set amount of free tokens per day.
In class, I usually show three different AI art generators (Night Cafe is one) and let students experiment and chose their favourite one to work with.
Student-created AI art can be used to in English language classes in several ways:
- Speaking and Listening: Students work in pairs or small groups to describe the AI-generated artwork to their peers. This activity can help students develop their speaking and listening skills, as well as their ability to use of targeted language features like grammar, conjunctions, transitions phrases and who, what, when, where, how and why aspects.
- Vocabulary Building: Elicit students’ own words, preteach or scaffold vocabulary. Use AI-generated art to reinforce and/or introduce new vocabulary words. Students identify objects, places or concepts within the artwork and practice using the new vocabulary in context.
- Writing: Use AI-generated art as inspiration for the writing assignments. Students write a paragraph, short story, poem, or dialogue based on the image, and teachers can provide feedback on their writing skills, including grammar, vocabulary and style.
- Paragraph/Essay Writing: Students write a paragraph or short essay (cause and effect, compare and contrast, advantages and disadvantages) about the image, focusing on developing vocabulary and grammar skills and applying language features learnt from class.
The example below is from a recent class. We had been working on the topics of climate change, animal extinction and social media to practice cause and effect writing. To end on a more positive note, I asked to students to reimagine a different, more positive future. I encouraged them to be as creative as they wanted. The students used Night Cafe to create an AI image and wrote a cause-effect explanation for their new vision which they then presented to the class. They love it! Here is one example (shared with student’s permission):
