Covid-19 quiz exposes misconceptions

Almost anything we do about covid-19 is going to have a short expiry date. Nevertheless, I'm posting this exercise as it's from one of my favourite YouTube channels, ColdFusion. It's one of the new wave of semi-professional science & technology channels that offer fresh, well-researched and entertaining short videos that are perfect for use in English classes.

Dagogo Altraide is the person behind ColdFusion and his videos are not always perfect. But in a classroom situation, that can be an advantage as we want students to approach media critically. It's not so easy to be critical of well-funded, slick and professional films. Dagogo himself usually ends videos by asking, "What do you think?" and it's this kind of curiosity and openness that makes him a good role model. Furthermore, Dagogo's optimism is infectious.

Here's the video:

Altraide,  Dagogo [ColdFusion]. 29 March 2020. "COVID-19: We’re Fighting a War, But There’s Hope". Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/RFnSmcfKWQo

Here's the quiz: https://forms.gle/Fh3VCjRWpiVbzsTH8
I was a bit surprised to discover how many misconceptions people have about the new coronavirus. So the quiz is worth taking.

Here's a link that allows you to make a copy of the quiz (but you'll need to send an access request):
Quiz - Covid-19: We're fighting a war but there's hope

Multiplayer fun & learning with skribbl.io

To cheer ourselves up, a group of around 15 of us tried out skribbl.io for the first time today. It's a fun way to get together and can also be used to help students learn specific words and phrases.

You can drop into skribbl,io and play a game with random strangers just to get a feel for how it works. Each player gets a chance to choose a word from a selection of 3 words. Then, the clock starts ticking and that player has 80 seconds to draw a picture. During those 80 seconds, everyone tries to guess the word (or phrase) with just the drawing and a hangman style set of dashes to indicate how many letters are needed. Players can try as many times as they like but earn more points for guessing quickly.

As a teacher, you can create a private game, add in target language that will appear in the game and send the link to your students. When planning your game, remember that a round consists of 80 seconds for each player. So if you have 10 players, a round will take 13-14 minutes. You can adjust the length of time and how many rounds you wish to play.

Here are step by step instructions:

1) Write your name and (if you like) adjust your avatar's appearance.

2) Set the language. Note that if you just want to play a random game, English is best.

3) Create your private room for you and your students.

4) A round with 10 students will take 13-14 minutes (if draw time is 80 seconds per student). Adjust the number of rounds and draw time to suit you and your group.

5) If you have a set of words/phrases you want to include, enter them here, separated by commas. Your target words will be mixed with the game's own words unless you choose "Use custom words exclusively". Remember that each player will get a turn per round, so if you have 2 rounds with 15 students, you'll need 30 words to avoid repetition.

6) Copy the link and share it with students. As they sign up (by clicking "play"), they'll appear under "Players".

7) When everyone's assembled, click "Start game" and enjoy!