Teachers are expressing more and more frequently their frustration about the increasingly large workload. For example, teachers may have to plan their lessons while catering to each student's learning needs and styles, at the same time they may have to plan the evaluation instances in the same manner, all of this without taking into account the correction of in-class assignments and homework. As this situation can seem overwhelming, this is when Twee comes into play to save the day.
Twee is an artificial intelligence powered tool "designed to make the lives of teachers easier" (Edwards, 2024). It can be accessed with an internet browser and, once one has created an account, can access a lot of features (some of which are only available with a paid subscription). These features include using AI to create CEFR-aligned content for language lessons (English or otherwise), assess students' responses to exercises and managing the workflow of the teacher and the students (Twee, n.d.).
Here is a short tutorial that explains how to use the tool:
This website can provide considerable benefits to the ELT classroom, for example:
Twee can automate tasks like generating question-and-answer activites based on a YouTube video, transcribe the speech heard in the aforementioned video, create true or false questions based on a text and many more similar tasks (Edwards, 2024).
It can replace traditional tools with technology (like a physical, paper worksheet with an electronic one) while providing functional improvement (like feedback with a two-way communication between student and teacher), thus reducing the teacher workload while improving the students' ability to interact (with each other or the teacher). This benefit can be identified as what Choudhury (2023) defines as Enhancement within the SAMR model.
The tool can also generate original reading material such as stories, newspaper articles, blog posts, et cetera. These texts can be tailor-made for a specific language level and to tackle specific vocabulary (even the length of the text can be set in advance). However, this benefit poses a serious challenge regarding how critically the outputs have to be assessed since there may be hidden bias and discrimination in these generated texts, as UNESCO (2023) explains that generative AI "are likely to generate new biases and forms of discrimination based on the training data and methods used by the models, which can result in unknown and potentially harmful outputs" (p. 36).
Example task
By way of illustration, the teacher could use the Audio&Video Question Creator tool to create an listening activity for a YouTube video previously selected. In this activity, students would have to watch the video and then, answer five open-ended questions based on what they would had watched. After that, the teacher could use the Find Discussion Questions to create discussion questions based on the topic of the video to host a student-led discussion as a follow-up activity.
This activity exemplifies how AI can be used to enhance previously existing tools, either using technology as a direct substitute or with some functional improvement (in accordance with the SAMR framework).
Taking everything into account, Twee is a powerful tool with a myriad of resources for teachers to design worksheets, activities and whole lessons. It can not only produce tasks for students to complete, but also generate original material like stories and blog posts. Nevertheless, it should be approached with a critical eye, since generative AI can produce biased and discriminatory material.
REFERENCES
Choudhury, S. (2023). SAMR and AI: Don't Get Stuck on Substitution. Flint. https://www.flintk12.com/blog/samr-and-ai-dont-get-stuck-on-substitution
Edwards, L. (2024). Twee: How to Use It to Teach. Tech&Learning. https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/twee-how-to-use-it-to-teach
Twee (n.d.). Create, Share and Grade Language Lessons in Minutes. https://twee.com/
UNESCO (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386693