CAPtain's Language Adventure

Ahoy, Me Hearties!  I’m Berat Çaputlu , your friendly ELT adventurer from Marmara University, and I’m excited to be back for another semester of exploration and reflection. This time around, I’m navigating the course Current Issues in Teaching , where we’re setting sail into the latest tech trends in English language teaching—think AI breakthroughs, data-driven insights, and even virtual reality adventures! My mission here is to share this journey with all of you, whether you’re here for the class or simply curious about how tech is reshaping education. Throughout this blog, I’ll be diving into how digital tools are transforming language teaching and learning. We’ll explore everything from the evolution of ed-tech to the magic behind flipped classrooms, as well as the role immersive tech can play in making language lessons more dynamic. Plus, I’ll be unpacking the potential of AI to create personalized lessons and empower students to learn more independently. My goal is to keep thi...

  Ahoy, Me Hearties!  Ahoy, mateys! Before I embarked on this course, I was optimistic about bringing technology into English language teaching (ELT). I saw its potential, but I wasn't sure how it would actually work in the classroom. Well, let me tell you, my thoughts have evolved big time! Now, I'm all in, ready to embrace tech to boost learning outcomes. Throughout the course, I dove deep into the tech world through various tasks. Blogging was a fantastic way to reflect on my journey, helping me put my thoughts and observations into words. Creating infographics was a creative challenge that taught me how to present complex info visually, making it easier for students to grasp. Podcasts opened up the world of audio content creation, showing me the importance of listening skills in language learning. The "Story with a Twist" task unleashed my creativity and narrative skills, proving that storytelling can be a powerful teaching tool. Collaborative writing projects hig...

  Ahoy, Me Hearties!  As an aspiring English teacher, exploring AI tools has been a thrilling adventure, both as a learner and as a future educator. This journey has shed light on how AI can revolutionize language learning, making it more engaging, efficient, and personalized to each learner's needs. From a learner's perspective, AI tools have been absolute game-changers. They offer instant feedback, tailored learning paths, and a treasure trove of resources at the click of a button. Take Grammarly, for instance—it doesn't just catch grammatical errors; it also suggests stylistic improvements, helping us grasp the nuances of English writing. Apps like Duolingo and Babbel serve up interactive exercises that adapt to our proficiency levels, keeping the challenge steady without being overwhelming. Personally, I found AI tools to be my trusty sidekicks rather than a hassle. My tech-savviness made integrating these tools smooth sailing. They provided immediate answers to my quer...

Ahoy, Me Hearties!  Allow me to paint you a picture of the quite eventful experience I had with Google Docs accompanied by Mustafa and Tahir . Our assignment was to either do an online collaborative movie review or address a global issue of our choice. Of course, we chose the movie review first because it appeared to be simpler and a whole lot more entertaining. Well I mean, hello people, who on earth I may ask, does not love watching movies? Google Docs is such a tool which raised no difficulty in our work, and as for me I’ve been a technological genius even from the age of five or seven. Cooperative writing was rather uneventful and went swimmingly. We broke up the subjects, discussed them in groups, and refined each other’s work effortlessly. Another thing I loved about Google Docs was that, it was less straining in all that it offered to me. The major advantage of using Google Docs is that you can all work on it at the same time type comments and make changes instantly. I almo...

  Ahoy, Me Hearties!  Let me tell you about the wild ride my buddies;  Samet and Mustafa ; and I had creating our own twist on the classic Snow White tale. So, we set a date to brainstorm story ideas, and I gotta say, it was a blast! We were bouncing ideas back and forth like crazy (we were not) , and then it hit me – what if instead of a poisonous apple, the witch gave Snow White a telephone? Talk about a modern spin on a fairy tale! My PERFECT idea. Watch the video if you wanna hear the rest of the story!! Once we settled on the idea, the real adventure began. We knew we wanted to bring our story to life visually, so we decided to give Pixton a shot. Now, let me tell ya, it wasn't all smooth sailing. We ran into a few bumps along the way, especially when it came to figuring out all the features. But hey, nothing worth doing is ever easy, right? Despite the challenges, we powered through and got our story done. Sure, it might not be perfect, but we're proud of what we...

Ahoy, Me Hearties!  Making a super short podcast about embracing silence was like a wild ride full of ups and downs. From coming up with the idea to recording the final version, it was a mix of fun and challenges. First off, I had tons of ideas bouncing around in my head, but I got hooked on the idea of silence. In our crazy fast world, we often ignore how awesome silence can be. It's not just about being quiet, it's about using silence to think deeply, stay chill, and connect with others. So, I got to work writing the script, trying to pack a punch in every word since I only had a minute to work with. But then came the tricky part – recording. Even though I was excited, getting the perfect recording was tough. I had to redo it over and over, fixing my pronunciation and tone. But each time, I got a better feel for what I wanted to say and how to say it. Despite the frustrations, recording was actually pretty cool. It felt awesome to hear my idea come to life in sound, knowing i...

  Ahoy, Me Hearties! In this project, the great thing is that I have an opportunity to manage the making of infographics which is like visual guides packed full of cool data. The topic that I chose was "copyrights and fair use," which is all about how one can enjoy stuff like music/audio, videos, or images, without any problems. The process of creating a well-designed infographic was, to some extent, a combined effort. It wasn't über easy, but it wasn't super tough either. I needed to discover the golden weight of looking attractive and featuring all important data. I used piktochart to make that awesome infographic. It was an easy-to-use tool for me cause it also gets help from AI but it does NOT end there. Not just infographics but it helps you with presentation, brochures and many others. Also, it lets you edit them. Even if you are an techno-moron (oops) ,  you would make the edits with ease. So, what are the cool points about information graphics in learning th...