📃 Chat with a PDF, AI assisting project management, what is a techie, and more – Of bits and bytes for May 22, 2023
Internet Travels
Of bits and bytes is my weekly round up of interesting links and ideas I discovered on the internet. It is published on Mondays for the previous week
Apps
If you have the PDF of a document you can now use ChatGPT to “chat” with it. ChatPDF will analyze the PDF and then allow you to ask questions about the contents. There are limits to what it understands in a PDF, and it can’t understand pictures of figures. The service has a free level of 3 PDFs of up to 120 pages (and less than 10MB).
Just when you thought ChatGPT couldn’t more accessible, OpenAI released a ChatGPT app for iOS with an Android version coming.
Pedagogy
John Spencer lays out how to use AI for project management. This is a great introduction to managing projects, the integration of AI is icing on the cake.
I’ve mentioned in the past that any AI detection should be scrutinized, but here’s the story of a professor that didn’t get the memo and failed half his class. This professor sounds like a real joy to have as a teacher with replies to students such as “I don’t grade AI bull****”. If you’re going to call out students, you better understand the technology, how it works, and the reliability of detection.
Larry Ferlazzo looks back at an article he wrote last year, “Help Me Understand Why Some In Education Spend So Much Time Beating Dead Horses?”. And yes, he covers the myth of learning styles but he also brought up two other myths that I didn’t know about.
Technology
Although iPads are a popular choice of tablets for students, a lot of district have bought 2-in-1 Chromebooks that work as both a tablet and a laptop. Typing in tablet mode has been cumbersome but the virtual keyboard is going through a redesign. It looks very nice!
It seems like few tears are shed when something bad happens to Pearson, but they’ve already have had to send a cease and desist to a company for using Pearson materials for training an AI. Pearson is looking at adding their own AI to their products in the near future.
Tips
I have never been a model student. My idea of studying is to wait until the last minute, read everything at that point, and then go take the test. That probably explains my OK grades throughout high school and college. If only I had been exposed to this list of 14 study habits. A lot of the list is common sense, but common sense failed me back then so how am I supposed to rely on it now?
Pop Culture
Seth Godin hits it out of the mark when answering What’s a “techie”?. The money quote:
I think we’ve long passed the point where an active professional can simply choose to not understand how tech works.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Macintosh turns 40 years old next year. When someone says they didn’t grow up with technology it’s time to remind them that they did.
Pot Pourri
With a headline like AI Chatbots Will Help Students Learn Nothing Faster Than Ever how could you not stop and read the article?
Here’s a video on why kids stopped walking to school.
Extra Credit
Here are extra links that I found interesting that may or may not be education related or interesting to you and I didn’t want to lose them.
- Taking curation to the next level with Pocket Gallery Editor
- Google’s AI pitch is a recipe for email hell – The Verge
- Moderator Mayhem: A Content Moderation Game
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