🎉 Google Chrome updates, explaining how ChatGPT works, banning cellphones, and more – Of bits and bytes for August 7, 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 Chromebooks us a special version of the Chrome browser, which is why the Chrome browser on Chromebooks may get delayed in receiving updates. However, Google has been working on switching out this special version and use the version already being put out for Linux devices. ChromeOS 116 may be starting this push. What does this mean? There is a lot of speculation, but the big one is that even after a Chromebook stops receiving updates, the browser could still be updated. This would elevate a lot of the issues being discusses last week about Chromebook’s Auto Update Expiration.

Chrome 116 also adds ‘Allow this time’ option for sites accessing your camera, mic and location. Before this change, when you allowed a site access to you camera, mic, and/or location, Chrome set the permission to stick from every use of the site. Now you can allow access only one time, and the site will have to prompt for access the next time you use it.

Searching for relevant information can be a burden sometimes, especially with what seems to be a plethora of AI generated content made to rank high in Google but may or may not answer your question. A new search site, CrowdView, searches only online forums and not the open web.

I’ve played around with Notion, but for some reason it hasn’t really clicked for me. It’s very powerful, and obviously Microsoft thinks so since the’ve released their Notion clone, Microsoft Loop. If you are already in the Microsoft world, Loop may be a better option than Notion. Maybe once we get through August I’ll revisit Notion and check out Microsoft Loop.

Pedagogy

Our smartphones are wrecking havoc on our ability to deal with distractions and making us dumber. Research about smartphone use could be one of the drivers for a Florida school banning cellphone use, even during lunch. With the prevalence of so many one to one programs in schools, I’m not so against cellphones ban as I was in the past. However, the addiction to use and be distracted by a smartphone is strong, I’ve had arguments with adults where it became obvious that they have serious addiction issues with their phones.

Technology

Ars Technica posted an article explaining how ChatGPT and large language model works. Spoiler alert, it’s basically math and statistics and no intelligence to be found.

I’ve explained to others how ChatGPT reminds me a lot about how middle schoolers act, and the AI continues to live up to this idea. Researchers have figured out how to make AI misbehave and serve up prohibited content.

Here’s a YouTube video introducing AI to teachers and students.

Tips

I’m not a stickler when it comes to accepting late work, but if you are, Google is adding the ability to set a deadline of when to stop accepting an assignment in Google Classroom.

Pop Culture

Ingrained companies get scared when new technologies threaten their business, and photocopiers were no different with the publishing world.

My house is an outlier when it comes to watching sports, as shown by the absence of ESPN. However, now I wish I had it so I could watch The Excel World Championship. Who would have thought that Excel would become an esport, but here we are.

Pot Pourri

Why ‘Learning to Learn’ Is the Skill Every Leader Should Possess – I don’t usually like the use of the word “should” because it implies that you’ve been doing something wrong, but in this case, I endorse it.
Why Most of Us Are Nonverbally Illiterate | Psychology Today – Just ask anyone on a date how well they read the other person.
Fantasy Meets Reality – cabel.com – Fascinating look how designers see the world and how people then react to those designs. Something to think about whenever you’re laying out your classroom or changing things up in your building.

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.

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🎉 Google Chrome updates, explaining how ChatGPT works, banning cellphones, and more – Of bits and bytes for August 7, 2023

Internet Travels