🤖 Generative AI and search, failure of edtech, celebrating the 25th birthday of the iMac, and more – Of bits and bytes for August 21, 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

Google is experimenting with adding AI to searching and browsing. One feature gives you definitions of words while the other feature (under Android and iOS) helps direct the reader to the important parts of a long document.

Google is finally adding the ability to mark-up Google Slides presentations as you present. To use it, start a presentation and then on the bottom left menu select Turn on Pen.

Pedagogy

This past week there was a rumbling on the webs about the role of edtech and its failures. Since I’m a huge edtech fan, I’ve been researching the advantages of educational technology for a couple of decades now. Yes, there are a ton of companies trying to cash in on selling their end-all and be-all product for your school. That’s probably why I’m more of a fan tools that promote creativity, such as Canva or Adobe Express. I want to see tools that I can use to make things for my staff and students.

Do you know of organizations or groups that look down on those who express their creativity? Luckily, I’ve never seen these issues in the educational presenting world, although the topic of professional dress comes up a lot in schools.

Should we be teaching how to breath in schools? How you.
(and your students) breath has an effect on memory.

Technology

Do you remember 1998? Apple’s constant topic was not if it was going to fail, but when. Then Steve Jobs came back to Apple, cancelling several models of the Macintosh and then released one of the most influential computers of all time, the iMac. The iMacs bondi blue color and reliance on USB changed the trajectory of personal computers.

Here’s another YouTube playlist for learning how AI works h/t – How AI Works: Video Playlist.

I see Adobe Express as a complement to Canva, not a competitor. It’s always good to have options when it comes to design tools! Canva has had its generative AI tool for graphics for several months and Adobe is rolling out it’s generative AI tools for Adobe Express. The big difference between the two is that Adobe has trained their AI tools on licensed work, which means less copyright issues.

Tips

First up are some tips for teaching students how to use email and from there we move on to how to create mind maps in Google Docs. Their description of mind maps looks a lot like sketchnoting, but the article does highlight the ability to connect objects with a line or arrow that is attached to the object. This allows you to move the object on the screen and stay connected to the other objests.

Richard Byrne shows use the teacher and student views of joining Google Classroom.

If you use tab groups in Google Chrome you may want to see how you can save them.

Pop Culture

A social media account doesn’t have to have a lot of followers to create havoc at a school as this story of how an Instagram account’s affect on the school lingers years later.

How did presentations begin? Here’s MIT’s look at the history of corporate presentations.

Pot Pourri

Here is a photo gallary of calculators.

Finally, a look at how to rekindle your love of reading books.

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.

• Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst and uncertainty
• Who Answers It Better? An In-Depth Analysis of ChatGPT and Stack Overflow Answers to Software Engineering Questions
• ChatGPT gets code questions wrong 52% of the time • The Register
• Announcing the top three winning teams from this year’s Google Developer Student Club Solutions Challenge
• The Political Consequences of the Mental Load
• School district uses ChatGPT to help remove library books | Popular Science

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