S8E10: Choosing the Right Technology for Your Context

Founder of Charlie's Lessons shares three key questions to remember when choosing technology for your teaching context.

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Key talking points

Core Set of Tools:

Charlie emphasises the significance of technology in his daily routine, relying heavily on the Google suite of apps for communication and organisation. He highlights the role of technology in facilitating communication with teachers, students, and school administrators.

Integration of AI (Artificial Intelligence):

The conversation shifts to integrating AI in educational settings, with Charlie acknowledging its potential to cater to students' specific needs. However, he underscores the importance of testing and refining AI-generated materials to ensure their suitability for classroom use.

Tips for Choosing Technology

Charlie offers practical advice for educators navigating the vast array of available technologies, focusing on cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and unique functionalities. He emphasises assessing whether a particular technology addresses specific teaching challenges or merely adds to the existing toolkit.

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About Charlie

Charlie, originally from Bath, ventured into TEFL in Thailand before teaching in South Korea. Despite intending to go to Japan, he settled for South Korea for a year in Busan. With three years of experience, he pursued a CELTA course at Bath College, enabling him to teach in Europe. Arriving in Cadiz, Spain in 2012, he later moved to Seville before returning to Cadiz as Director of Studies of Foreign Languages at CLIC IH Cadiz. With a DELTA qualification, he shares teaching experiences and educational technology expertise through his website and YouTube channel, injecting humour into his endeavours.

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Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:26:08

Laura

TESOL Pop. Season eight Episode ten Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop: the mini podcast for busy teachers. My name is Laura and joining me today to talk about choosing the right technology for you is Charlie from the popular YouTube channel Charlie's Lessons. Now, in today's episode, Charlie is going to share some of the technology he uses, along with examples of it in practice, as well as tips on how you can test to find the right technology for you.

00:00:26:10 - 00:00:44:05

Laura

Before I get into today's interview, Haven and I are going to be exhibiting as TESOL Pop at IATEFL in Brighton this year. [2024]. I'm also going to be giving a talk about recording instructional videos. So to find out more information about that, you can go to the show notes or go to the TESOL Pop website because we'd love to see you there.

00:00:44:07 - 00:00:51:01

Laura

Now let's go to today's interview where I started by asking Charlie about what technology he uses and why.

00:00:51:03 - 00:01:15:12

Charlie

There's a core set of tools I use every single day, obviously, and those tend to be within the the Google suite of apps. But then outside of that, I'm also when I'm speaking to teachers, I'm looking at a whole host of different technologies that can either help teachers in the classroom or help admin and staff in the school itself.

00:01:15:12 - 00:01:42:24

Charlie

So yeah, I'd say it plays a big role in how I communicate with teachers, with students as well. And yet while I do still have face to face contact with people, so people still do parents and students, they still come into the school and I often as well visit other schools and and so that's still traditional. I guess in that sense, I still have that personal touch with people.

00:01:42:24 - 00:02:03:14

Charlie

But yet, to be honest, most of my day is, you know, in some way or another using technology to, to yeah. To work to develop my work and, and and my daily and my daily routine is always always involves technology.

00:02:03:16 - 00:02:13:10

Laura

You mentioned the Google suite there and I wonder if you could just give us a little insight into one or two tools that you're using day to day and how they serve you?

00:02:13:12 - 00:02:39:14

Charlie

Yeah, I mean, on a on a base level Gmail, you know, I know it's no, it's not the fanciest technology out there, but it's some I think everyone has their own preferred email service know a lot of people prefer outlook or I even come still come across people with Yahoo accounts but Gmail is is my it's what I use to to speak to people on a regular basis it's not only the actual emails.

00:02:39:15 - 00:03:04:05

Charlie

Also Google has a chat service as well. Whereas if you've got a Google account, you can actually chat with people, which again makes it really simple to communicate with people just on the spot and you can create spaces within those chats functions, so you can connect people who are in the same department together and then you can chat with each other instantly.

00:03:04:07 - 00:03:32:13

Charlie

And also Google Drive, which is where just where we house everything, everything that's ever existed in our school is on Google Drive in the form of a word doc. Well, sorry, in a word, a Google doc, I must say Google Sheets or Google calendar as well. You know, these are it's all just so there's a lot more. Actually, when I start to think about this, a lot more think and I remember that I would say Google Drive, Gmail, those are the two things that kind of interlink.

00:03:32:13 - 00:03:42:23

Charlie

And I'm I'm constantly using those. So I know there's a lot more to the Google suite of apps and just those two, but I'd say those two the biggest yeah.

00:03:43:00 - 00:04:07:05

Laura

It's really interesting that you mentioned about the Google chat feature. I I've seen it, but I've never used it. But you just maybe think that that could be actually really useful tool for my clients when I'm working with groups of podcasters. Yeah. At the moment I'm using a supplementary tool, so I really should have maybe spent some time thinking about what I already have access to rather than finding another solution to add to my resource pack.

00:04:07:05 - 00:04:30:03

Laura

I wanted to ask about AI [artificial intelligence] if that's okay because there's a lot of a lot of excitement and fear, I would say, around the topic of AI. And I've been reading things about how we should be using AI more and workers who do use AI are 60% more productive than their counterparts. But this is coming from the corporate world.

00:04:30:03 - 00:04:46:01

Laura

These statistics and studies tend to come from people working in HR or marketing roles and I wondered what your thoughts are given that we are in this wave of AI and how that may be used for you in your context and where you see it going.

00:04:46:03 - 00:05:17:00

Charlie

I think when we talk about how teachers can use AI and whether that reduces the time spent preparing or in the class. In my experience, I think AI can definitely help you when you have certain students who have very specific needs. And obviously I remember years ago when you start looking online for, I don’t know, so you've got a student who's a chemical engineer and they need to improve the vocabulary related to what they're studying or what they're or the area they're working.

00:05:17:00 - 00:05:51:09

Charlie

And you search for books for students who are studying chemical engineering or to teaching English to students who are chemical engineers, nothing would come up. And I think what happens now with with AI is that you can actually build materials that are designed for that specific need. And I think that's something that that solved the problem. I think in that sense. But, I would also say that, you know, when I'm trying to design activities for the classroom using AI, obviously a lot of times you end up going to either ChatGPT, Gemini or there's probably some others that exist nowadays.

00:05:51:09 - 00:06:08:21

Charlie

But these text generative sites, you know, when you when you get to finally produce a text or just Yeah, some text that you are happy with, that's not enough. Just having it on there, you don't need to take it off there and design it in a way that's going to be able to that you're going to take it to class.

00:06:08:21 - 00:06:32:09

Charlie

And so I remember just everyday building a quiz online, but then I had to import it into the site where I actually wanted to to present it to the students. And to do that I needed to for format it in a certain way that the programme could understand. And so I had to then it took a lot and took a lot of attempts, know the various attempts at trying to get the text into a format that the other programme could understand.

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:56:11

Charlie

And I think that in that way it probably took me just as long as I would it would have taken me designing it myself. So I'm not completely convinced that it's saving us a lot of time. I just I say I just I do think it is solving certain problems that we that we had before, but yeah. I'm yet to be convinced, whether it's saving us as much time as people make out it is you know.

00:06:56:13 - 00:07:19:24

Laura

Yeah it's certainly not the magic wand that it's being portrayed as by some advocates. I would say it does take some testing and refining to get it to work for you. When you were talking about that kind of adapting it to the format, it's exactly the same for when I'm working with editing media because it's a lot of AI tools in media editing now, but it is not going to do things perfectly.

00:07:19:24 - 00:07:40:03

Laura

You still need that human touch. Yeah, of going through checking things, adjusting things. Maybe the cuts aren't quite right, so you still have to kind of factor in that time. And I think that's a really important thing to convey to stakeholders who may not be using this AI, may not be creating materials that this is the extent to which I can use it.

00:07:40:05 - 00:08:06:11

Laura

This is how much time it saves me sometimes, but it's not going to reduce lesson planning time by whatever percentage, you know is being said in other articles up to 60% more productive, for example. I there's always kind of a bit more conversation to be had that right before we dive into that. With so many technologies and AI tools out there today, I know there’s teachers thinking, what should I use?

00:08:06:12 - 00:08:26:15

Laura

You know, how can I go about choosing the right one? And it can be really overwhelming. Certainly for myself, I'm like, I'm just going to stick with what I'm using. I'm not just going to leave it alone and hide but I know to move forward, it’s good to obviously try out new things. How can we go about choosing the right tech tools for us?

00:08:26:15 - 00:08:27:22

Laura

Do you have any tips?

00:08:27:24 - 00:08:51:05

Charlie

Yeah, I'm I think from experience I've I've, I've introduced tech to teachers and stuff that has worked. But also I've had the experience of it trying to introduce tech that while it seems to work fine, sat at my computer in my office when I've actually taken that into the classroom or taken it in to, to present to other people, you start to realize its limitations.

00:08:51:05 - 00:09:11:05

Charlie

And I think when I when I, you know, after doing that a number of times, you start to build up a criteria. I think I think crudely speaking, the first thing I think about is the pricing plan is, you know, is it free? How much is because usually you get a few different options about what features are available.

00:09:11:10 - 00:09:36:04

Charlie

So I've got to take that into consideration and what are the features that we need and are they going to be included in a free package or am I going to have to pay for it? And I think when you're working in a school, you know, it can be you really have to make a really good case for certain technology to to for the school to invest in it because, you know, that's quite we don't I think in general, schools don't tend to invest in many technologies.

00:09:36:04 - 00:09:56:24

Charlie

I think I think is always better if it's free. So that's the first thing I look at. And the second thing is how easy is it to use? And you need to think put yourself in the shoes of someone who has a very limited understanding or knowledge about how technology works and think about well would that person be able to use it.

00:09:56:24 - 00:10:16:20

Charlie

That's the key for me. And I think, again, mistakes I've made in the past, I'm trying to when I tried to push maybe new technology into the classroom or push technology onto onto teachers, it's because I've used it. And and I believe it's quite easy. But really, I've got a good understanding about how these things work. And I've used them for a number of years.

00:10:16:20 - 00:10:44:04

Charlie

So it's so there are certain things I miss or ignore. And for other people, those, those can be big obstacles to using it. And I think so yeah, I think think about how cost effective is it, is it easy to use and I think do you I think number three would be is actually solving a problem or is it just another is it just another things adds to the to the variety of tools that you might take into the classroom.

00:10:44:04 - 00:11:01:06

Charlie

I think there are certain websites which are doing a very similar job to others that you already have and you think, Well, what is it that why am I bringing this in? Sometimes there is that novelty value to it know, I think sometimes students respond well to that, especially if you if you use the same website a lot of the time.

00:11:01:06 - 00:11:27:03

Charlie

I think a good example of that would be quiz sites. There's a million quiz sites nowadays where even where students can connect. I think every every one is plan. Each one is quite similar. So I think in that sense, do you really take that in? And also just other sites where other technology tools where they're trying to replace a more traditional activity that you would do in class, but actually ends up being take out more time, especially for you?

00:11:27:03 - 00:11:46:05

Charlie

I think I think again, when we talk about the ease of use, I think it's not only from the teacher side, but from the students as well. You know, if you if it's a technology that is going to require students to collaborate and work together or to to to join, then that's something you need to think about. I think a lot of the problems that we come across as well as you do.

00:11:46:05 - 00:12:10:11

Charlie

Do all your students have mobile phones? If they have mobile phones, that doesn't mean they know how to use them. And so that can often make what seems like good technology to bring into the classroom, is as is actually not appropriate or not not conducive for the learning environment. So I think about cost effective, is it easy to use from that, from the students and teachers side?

00:12:10:11 - 00:12:23:13

Charlie

And also, is it just another tool or is it something unique? Is actually you going to get your students to do something that they couldn't do before? So those are the kind of three things that are usually going through my mind. Yeah.

00:12:23:15 - 00:12:45:14

Laura

They're really helpful tips. And when you're talking about costing and implementation, that's also part of cost, isn't it? Like how much is this going to cost to implement and train people to use? Because we can't just assume, because we're using mobile phones for social purposes that it's going to translate that those users are also going to use technology for educational purposes in the same way.

00:12:45:14 - 00:12:50:04

Laura

So we need to factor in learner training, teacher training, and that’s also added cost.

00:12:50:06 - 00:12:50:13

Charlie

Exactly.

00:12:50:15 - 00:13:03:22

Laura

These are really good points to to kind of think about. Charlie. It's been really insightful talking to you today. I would love for you to close today's episode by telling listeners where they can find out more about technology that they can use in the classroom.

00:13:03:24 - 00:13:33:07

Charlie

Okay, well, obviously they can come to my YouTube channel. So my YouTube channel, just search for Charlie's Lessons. I try to release a video every or at least a long form video or a longer video every month at least. And I'm always trying to look for technology that's practical that I've seen being used. In that sense, I think teachers can get a lot out of the videos because it's something they can go away and go and use in wherever they're working.

00:13:33:07 - 00:13:51:22

Charlie

That's really my YouTube channel is where everything's happening. Then obviously I've got my TikTok channel under that. Everything's under the same name. So if you if you're using Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, just look for Charlie's Lessons. And you know, each one is kind of doing something a little different. But yeah.

00:13:51:24 - 00:14:17:09

Laura

That's brilliant. Thank you so much, Charlie. And as always, those links are in the show notes so you can find these easily. If you have a question that you'd like us to answer or a topic that you'd like to pitch for TESOL Pop, then you can contact us via Instagram, Facebook, or the website TESOLPop.com Finally, you can support the work we do here at TESOL Pop by sharing today's episode with your teaching community by leaving a rating review wherever you listen to the podcast or by buying as a coffee at ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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