🙋♂️ChatGPT’s new feature, Smartphones in the classroom, and more
Of bits and bytes for March 4, 2024
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
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This past week I found a new feature of ChatGPT, gaslighting. This is all tongue and cheek because I now the machine doesn't have feelings and doesn't care about me in the least.
I was having ChatGPT proofread an article for me which had the date of February 29, 2024. The review starts out great!
It likes my title, but based on its next response I don’t know if the title was any good or not.
(Google Sheets was the topic of the article, by the way.)
Wait, what? Isn’t 29 days in February the actual definition of Leap Year?
Yep! Maybe AI doesn’t know what an intercalary day is? I had to look it up, and I learned something. Maybe that was ChatGPT’s goal all along!
I'd love to hear your stories about AI totally butchering reality and replacing it with something of its own, send them to me!
You Sit On A Throne Of Lies - Elf GIF - Will Ferrell Elf Buddy The Elf - Discover & Share GIFs
Apps
Maybe gaslighting will be the theme of this newsletter because it seems like Google is trying to gaslight me into believing popular threads in Google Chat are more important to me. A new feature to Chat adds avatars to threads and chats on who is participating. If Google knew anything about me its that I'm not one to go along with the crowd.
Google is also pushing more AI created content to the web by adding a generative text feature to Chrome. I'm sure there's no way that won't end well.
The sign in box for Google on the web is going to look different going forward. Not a big difference if you've also been using a Chromebook though.
Ugh, I'm starting to feel like Jan writing this, Google, Google, Google...
(And if you get that reference, you should forward this email. If you don't get this reference I still like you.)
Pedagogy
Right now AI can help creativity but it can't problem solve as well as humans. But for how long?
Four educators share their thoughts on helping students write.
The New York Times was really workshopping the title of the article promoting reading out loud. The first title was You're Never Too Old for Story time Then it was The Benefits of Reading Out Loud. Apparently, those weren't racy enough because the final title landed on A Simple Way to Build Intimacy: Reading Aloud. Whatever the title, it is good to read things out loud.
When You're Reading Aloud in Class | Teacher Memes - Bored Teachers
Technology
One problem with laptops is that as soon as it is open, a "wall" comes up between the student and the teacher. Tablets help in that respect, but then you pretty much have to add a keyboard and you wide up with a bulky mess. But, never fear because now we have Lenovo showing off a transparent laptop. Will it work? I'm going to guess that we'll have AR/VR glasses before this gets to a cost effective price for use in schools.
One feature that my Atari ST had in 1987 was the ability to hold down the ALT key and use the keypad to move the mouse cursor. This feature may be coming to Chromebooks which will be a win with the accessibility crowd.
I joke that ChatGPT acts a lot like a middle schooler, so, can we bribe it to get better results? The analysis is too long and in-depth to summarize here. However, the closing paragraph basically sums up the driving force in my life:
Overall, the lesson here is that just because something is silly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
Preach it!
Here's a twofer of Google AND AI with Google adding 3 new features to Google Search. I'm a little leery on the first one, Get Search Suggestions base on what others are looking for. If you've seen my search history you'd know why.
Tips
For your Microsoft Windows users, Windows Photos is getting a generative erase feature along with a couple of AI editing features. These will be available for Windows 11 and 10 users.
Pop Culture
One metric I don't see discussed much with education is the turnover rate. Every company or business will have employees coming and leaving, but if you have a high rate then you begin to have issues such as Boeing has had with quality assurance. As I type this I started thinking, what if teacher turnover rate was used for evaluation of head office administration, principals, AND teachers. There are several pros and cons, but let me know what you think!
Potpourri
For all my math AND history peeps, the use of decimal point is 1.5 centuries older than historians thought.
"I want to review all of the US constitutional amendments but I only have 8 minutes." I've got good news for you, YouTube has you covered.
I miss the big, comfy chairs at Barnes & Noble and I'm not alone. Some blame COVID, but they were being removed before then.
I am reading 📖 a Book 📕 😍✅ #bookmeme #bookstagram #bookmemes #books #meme #booklover #bookworm #bookish #booknerd #bibliophile… | Instagram
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.
Should Cellphones Be Permitted in Classrooms? Teachers Offer These Strategies (Opinion) - As I get older, I'm realizing that humans have a tough time staying in the middle. It's far easier to either ban or not limit cellphones, when the solution is probably in the middle.
Should Modern Newspapers Publish Poetry? | The Artifice - Yes.
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