LEO - Learning English Online

28/08/2025

A quick reminder of some of the main AI updates that matters to us as teachers and educators

28/08/2025

A quick explainer on what critical is all about!

28/08/2025

Quick, easy activities to help kids re-energize, refocus, and give those brains a boost.
➡️ https://www.weareteachers.com/brain-breaks-for-kids/

28/08/2025

14/08/2025

04/08/2025

50 idioms for adults English learners

04/08/2025

10 Creative Ways to Stay Engaged in Class

04/08/2025

𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁! 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CUCqdhSuS/?

Thanks to Research in Language Education for sharing this great resource from Mahmoud Taha El-Hendawy!

Gamification of teaching can result in more engagement & improved learning with more retention! Check out some of the great gamification resources listed here!

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀: https://tinyurl.com/3bdfj3cp

04/08/2025

Use AI for Editing Not Authorship!

I came across this editorial recently, and its message aligns closely with what I’ve been saying for a while: use AI to support your academic writing, but never outsource the thinking to it.

When I talk about writing here, I mean academic and research writing, the kind of work that requires your expertise, focus, and original ideas. Using AI for emails or routine tasks is another matter entirely. Research writing is about producing knowledge, and that can’t be delegated.

And to make things clear I'll share with you how I personally approach it in my own writings.I start with the first stage, what I call 'the dumping stage'. At this stage, you write freely.

You draw from your research highlights and notes, and build your own narrative. You don’t worry about grammar or flow now, and you certainly don’t use AI (again NO AI at this stage). This is where the real thinking happens.

Once you have that draft, You can then enlist the help of AI. Use it to polish the draft but only on your terms. Feed it section by section, ask it to refine language and flow, and make it clear you don’t want new ideas. Ideation is yours; AI’s role is strictly mechanical.

Afterward, revise the edited version yourself to strengthen your voice. Be transparent: note that AI was used for editing, not authorship.

This approach brings clear cognitive benefits. Drawing on Gerlich (2025), we can frame this as a form of 'cognitive offloading'. This is the act of externalizing certain processes to reduce cognitive load. When the mechanical burdens of style, grammar, and syntax are offloaded to AI, cognitive energy is freed for the higher-order task of developing and sharpening ideas.

This is especially critical for scholars writing in a second language, though even native speakers struggle with the demanding register of academic prose

And since LinkedIn limits how much I can write here, I’ll end with this: I agree with the editorial: writing is thinking. But I’d add one point. The first draft you write yourself is the thinking. The second draft, refined with AI, is the polishing of that thought.

References:
1. Nature Reviews Bioengineering. (2025, June 16). Writing is thinking. Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 3, 431.
2. Gerlich, M. (2025). AI tools in society: Impacts on cognitive offloading and the future of critical thinking. Societies, 15(1),