A Little Bit of Everything

      Hi there my lovely and brilliant readers! 💖      And here we are—my final post of the term. Honestly, this course has been a really positive experience overall. One of its biggest strengths was that it was always up-to-date and practical . We constantly learned new things, especially about integrating technology and AI into language teaching, and it never felt repetitive or boring.      That said, the main weakness for me was definitely timing . Some tasks required more time and mental energy than we could realistically give during such a busy semester. I think assignments given before midterms should have longer deadlines—not just two weeks, but at least three. When midterms are approaching, the last thing anyone wants to do is start a heavy assignment. Also, not every task was meant for group work; some assignments would have been much easier and more efficient as pair or individual tasks . Other than these points, the course...

  Hi there, brilliant people! 💖      How have you been? I’m here with the last assignment of the semester—or maybe even the  very  last one, depending on whether we take another technology-related course next year. How fast time flies, right? I’m not complaining though; I’ve been going to school since I was two years old 😀 But ANYWAYS, that’s not today’s topic.      This time, we prepared an AI-integrated teaching material   designed for EFL high school prep students . Honestly, this task was one of the nicest ones we’ve done so far, and surprisingly, it didn’t turn into chaos (thankfully). We planned everything quite quickly, yet the process felt smooth and efficient. Working with my groupmates Buse , Berfin , and Melis  is always a pleasure, and collaborating on Canva  made the whole experience even more enjoyable and organized, as usual.       We decided to focus on pronunciation , and to mak...

  Hi again, my beautiful people! 💖✨ How are you? What’s new?      For this time, I want you to grab your coffee (or croissant, very on theme 🥐) and let’s talk about today’s post. yeeey      So this time, we had a task about Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in language teaching. Me and my friends Buse , Berfin , and Melis again accomplished a great job as a group, this time in a less stressful way. But before diving into our assignment and the process of it, let me explain to you what AR and VR are.      So, Augmented Reality (AR) is basically real life… but with digital layers added on top. It allows us to see extra information like images, text, or animations while still being in the real world, using tools such as smartphones or tablets. In language classes, AR can make learning more interactive and visual instead of purely text-based. For example, students can scan a picture of a landmark with their phone and see...

  Hi there, my beautiful people !! SOOO HOW ARE YOU??? I hope you’re doing fantastic ! ✨        Midterms are over (yuppie 😬 I guess) but now a bunch of other assignments decided to come and attack at the same time. Stress level? Off the charts. 📈      So today, I’m sharing our latest project. It required group work, of course. Compared to our previous group work, this one was actually way smoother because we were not that exhausted and thanks to my amazing teammates Berfin , Buse and Melis we did a great job (I am proud of us).       OK. Before I dive into our project more , let me tell you what a flipped classroom is. So, The flipped classroom is a teaching method where students first engage with new content outside of class, usually via videos or other digital materials, and then use class time for activities, discussion, and practice. For language classes, this method has several a...

 Hi there, brilliant people!💖        What’s new?👀 I hope you’re doing amazing because I… am absolutely NOT . Midterms completely wiped me out. They came, destroyed me, and left like nothing happened. I’m still recovering.😪      I was so overwhelmed that I had to finish this assignment , the one I’m sharing today, super fast 🔥with my teammates ( Melis , Buse , and Berfin ). And honestly, I still don’t know how our friendship survived this process. As I’ve said before in the previous posts last semester, I really don’t vibe with group assignments that involve too many people. Plus, I get very angry super fast. It’s chaos. Pure chaos. But it was mostly because of the timing of the assignment and the stress caused, not my friends.       For this project, our first assignment was to design a material for our learners using a data-driven learning strategy. So basically, we had to prepare a worksheet (which followed the CBLP frame...

     You know that feeling when you just want to post about how your summer went, how many kilos of strawberries 🍓you ate, and all that… but instead, you kinda have to write this as the “intro post” for a new semester? Yeah, that’s me right now.      SO HI, HOW ARE YOU? It’s been a very long time (the summer actually felt very short, but anyways).      Soo, I’m back to continue sharing my experiences and dramas with technology — but this time, it’s for another course: Current Issues in ELT, offered by my lovely instructor, Mustafa Polat . If you’re wondering what this course is about — well, pretty much the same stuff, except this time we’ll be putting ourselves in the teacher’s shoes instead of the student’s when doing the assignments. And most of our tasks will be AI-related (at least that’s what I got from the syllabus hehe ).      I can’t wait to see what kind of chaos and creativity this semester will bring. Hopef...

  HEY GUYS!      Can you believe the semester is already over? I CAN BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WON`T FINISH. BUT I am sad too, of course, bacuse I am going to miss you, my beautiful people😭. This will be my last post for now , but don’t worry — it’s not a goodbye, just a little “see you soon!” 👋      Writing this blog and sharing my experiences with technology has been such a fun (and sometimes chaotic 😅) part of my university journey. I really enjoyed sharing my thoughts, silly moments, and tech adventures with you all. It felt like a safe little space where I could just be myself and say what’s on my mind and that’s something I’m really grateful for.      I’ll be back next semester with more ideas, experiences and more experiments. Until then, take care of yourself, rest well, and do something nice for your brain 🧠 . Have a nice summer break, y`all!! 💖 See you in the next level!  - Elena 🌸

 Hi there brilliant people, how have you been!✨✨ Sadly, this is my final task and experience related post for this semester but don’t worry we will see each other next term!! 😁 I will also write a see-you-soon post but now it is time for sharing my experience with Magic School AI .      It was one of the easiest and fun tasks until now. I talked with Picasso! 😆 I mostly asked about his famous painting, Guernica.  I used the character chat bot of Magic School AI, an AI for educators and students, and it was awesome.💕 It gives you the opportunity to learn very much by discussing with people like important characters, historical figures, and so on. Well, as you can deduct, I had to speak with a character and write a report about it.  Pablo Picasso, Guernica , May 1–June 4, 1937 (Paris), oil on canvas, 349.3 x 776.6 cm (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) © Estate of Pablo Picasso    ...

Hi there, beautiful people! 💖✨ I know this is the second post of the day, but HEY, what can I do if we have 2 assignments with the same due date? Now, refresh your popcorn, sit back, and read this one too  :)  (pretty please)       So we had a task related to digital storytelling. It was a group assignment again, 🙄 and we had 3 options. Creating a PSA (Public Service Announcement), creating a HOW TO project video, or creating a fictional digital story . Me and my lovely friends Berfin and Baran   firstly wanted to do the story option. We had some crazy and fun ideas, we even created the story and the script, BUT because the time limit was `` no longer than 2 minutes `` and our story was longer , even after shortening at a level that the story was not making much sense anymore, we failed in creating it. 4 hours were in vain. 😭 We didn’t lose hope (we were so stressed because the deadline was close and we still didn’t have any product or ...

  Hi there, amazing people!💖        I am here to share another experience with you guyss. We did an online collaborating writing task with my dear friends Berfin and Baran (love u guys 💙). We chose the first option that required us to write a film review. We also had to comment to another groups review and that group had to comment  and express their ideas on ours too of course. ( Melis , Buse and Sevgi )        To be honest, I cant say that I   loved  the process though😐. It was the easiest task to complete among all the assignments because you just watch a film and write the things you liked about it. Thus, it was a little hard to manage the time because we had another task to complete with the same deadline. We also didn’t find a common slot to write simultaneously but in the end WE DID IT . 👏        When it comes to Google Docs , well, I used it several times before this task as a collaborativ...

 Hi guysssss! ✨🎇 Long time no see! How have you been, I hope you are all right because I am NOT. I am so tired because of the midterms and all the assignments but anyway, I still have the energy to dance even in the subway hehe. 💃           Today I am here to share another fun experience! Me and my bestie Berfin 💗(click here to see her blog) created a podcast! We created a very short-story namely The Melody of the Forest ( I embedded it at the final of this post)           We had so much fun but at the same time, we encountered a lot of problems. The voice recording was the most difficult part because some sites were not working properly 😠and we didn’t find a quiet place in the whole campus. Who knew that all the building's doors were closed on Sunday??? We even booked a room in the library but we didn’t know that the room was not separated and we had to record somewhere else. Guess where, it may sound a little di...

Hi there, beautiful people! 💖 Today, I want to discuss something very important—protecting your online data! 📂We all spend a lot of time on the internet, but do we ever stop to think about our privacy's safety? That's why I made a visual guide, an infographic, on safety & privacy in the digital world to ensure everyone stays safe while browsing.      In the modern online era, our personal data is constantly under threat . Our online activities are monitored by hackers, scammers, and even websites themselves without our knowledge. Threats such as phishing scams and data breaches can lead to identity theft or other bad things. That's why online safety is crucial. Being knowledgeable 💡 about the threats and making smart choices online will keep your personal information safe and your online experience secure. Click  here to see my infographic. ( And here for the updated version )      I created my infographic on Venngage, and it was so n...

 Hi there, brilliant people! ✨ Open your eyes👀 and take a look at the world around you. This is the 21st century, my dear readers. A century where technological, economic, social, and cultural transformations happen so rapidly that you have to be as fast as Lightning McQueen to keep up.🚀      What about learning? The days when we used to learn things in a boring way just by memorizing and taking notes are long gone. Welcome to 21st-century learning that describes the necessary skills needed today, such as digital literacy, cultural competence, critical thinking, and problem-solving, to thrive in today’s complex and interconnected global landscape (Bernhard, 2015). And when it comes to learning languages, especially English, this approach becomes even more important.      Just think about it—English is EVERYWHERE. From social media to movies, online games, and international jobs -  it is the lingua franca of the world. Should English classes st...

  Hi guys!  Welcome to my page. I am so happy and excited to finally start this blog. This is my first time using Blogger so I’m glad that I’m gaining experience points to add to my life level bar. :)) Yeey! 😊 Ok, so you may wonder what kind of content I will share here. Here’s the deal: I started this blog as part of one of my university courses, specifically Instructional Technologies and Material Design in English Language, offered by my lovely instructor, Gökçe Kurt. Since this is a learner blog, I will be sharing my thoughts and insights on topics such as education, 21st-century technology, using technology in learning English, podcasts, and many other subtopics. It’s a great opportunity to express my ideas without stressing out because of the fear that all eyes are on me and people are judging me. We can admit that talking online is much easier (especially if you’re a very anxious person). Sooo, if you guys are all ready, put on your seatbelts, and let’s dive into this...