philipjkerr
English language teacher education, says the British Council (Edmett et al. 2024: 21), ‘must include a focus on AI literacy’ and ‘teachers also need to develop their learners AI literacy’. This report is referring to Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT), the focus of my discussion here. There are...
philipjkerr
Much of the language we use is metaphorical. These metaphors both shape and reflect the way we think. Often, as in the preceding sentence, they give agency (a human attribute) to non-human entities, they give architectural form to abstractions and make them appear visible. We struggle to function...
philipjkerr
In the British Council’s recently commissioned report on AI and English language teaching, the ‘Executive Summary’ suggests that, ‘when it comes to AI replacing humans, the majority view is that AI will not replace the need for human teachers any time soon’ (Edmett et al., 2024: 11). This is based...
philipjkerr
Forgive me if you think these are badly-framed questions. Asking whether ChatGPT enhances learning is no different from asking whether technology more generally will enhance learning (a question that is fundamentally unanswerable), something that I had hoped we had moved on from some time ago. But...
philipjkerr
If you were watching the 2024 Qatar World Cup, you may have noticed the brand Byju’s, among the list of official corporate sponsors alongside Visa, Adidas, Coca Cola and McDonald’s. You may have also noticed the pitch-side adverts for Byju’s, which flipped to read ‘The Future of Learning’. You may...
philipjkerr
The July 2024 edition of ELT Journal (78 / 3) contains an article entitled ‘ChatGPT in ELT: disruptor? Or well-trained teaching assistant?’ (Ahn et al., 2024). It aims to ‘contribute to the growing discourse on technology integration in ELT and offers practical recommendations for creating a...
philipjkerr
Technology (which usually means AI these days) and inclusive practices in education are being linked with increasing frequency. Earlier this year, the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG organised a pre-conference event at the annual IATEFL fair entitled ‘Researching and promoting inclusive language...