Today, I’m sharing what I’ve learned and my favorite links from this week. In a world where Perplexity can give us so much, it can’t give the perspective of an American teacher who is in the classroom and her observations on what is going on around us. And while I like Perplexity like others do, I used to do these blog posts where I would share what I’d bookmarked from that week.
I used Diigo for years and have been missing the functionality I had in that tool. So, I still have an account and I went back over there this week. This tool lets me bookmark and then generate a report that I can then share. For many years, it was such a great way to share, and honestly, as we move back towards valuing human curation.
(and yes, I do think we will shift that way. While AI is can be helpful, I predict there will be an inevitable backlash and a desire for human curation, particularly as people start sharing fake links and malware intrudes its nasty little head into non-vetted links and websites that aren’t adequately maintained but get cited by that form of search.)
What is the new Image Generation engine on ChatGPT 4.5 that everyone is talking about?
So, I watched this video (⬆️ above) on YouTube about Image Generation on ChatGPT 4.5 and my journey began.
How are Teachers using the new image generation feature in Chat GPT 4.5?
I’m going to do a whole blog post on this, but for creating infographics and content,t we have a massively exciting update to ChatGPT — image creation.
We were playing with it in class, and I turned a picture of three adventurous boys in the class into cartoon characters and then into Veggie Tales characters.
🔗 See what we did: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnDASfs4c
So I saw a note from Holly Clark on Linked In – about how she generated an image from the water cycle (the conversation underneath her post is an interesting one.) She encouraged educators to learn how to use this when it is in the free plan.
I shared this thought and graphic on her post that gives insight to some early observations I have on this tool.
So the free version is not quite there yet for teachers (but will be.) Also, I generated an image with our science teacher on blood circulation of the heart and there were subtle issues that she saw that I was clueless about – there is a selection and correction tool but we could not get it to work, it wouldn’t label the aorta for anything and we ended up having to go into canva to fix it. So this is yet another example of content knowledge being king.
So I’ve run out of credits until April 2nd (I have pro version ($20/month) and my teachers don’t – yet — that is a big price tag for the school to pay but we’ll figure it out.) But the problem with it for teachers is if it gets really really close the first time it is great, but if it makes mistakes and you have to fix them, it is almost impossible to get it to do that.
Revision is where it is very very weak. But I do agree with you that ChatGPT is the best and it is my favorite tool by far. (I will be blogging about the experience this week but this is the chart we finally abandoned and yes, this was a harder task but it is ok. It did get the deoxygenated and oxygenated blood right and it is attractive. Just needs to let us revise better. Thanks for sharing, Holly.
How can someone get started with ChatGPT?
I do agree with the “knowing the reasoning behind” and the ability to analyze photos and I also do use the “talk to ChatGPT” features in the car. If you’re feeling like a beginner and want to sharpen up your ChatGPT skills, this is a good place to start.
🔗 The 5 Best ChatGPT Features You Must Try
https://www.makeuseof.com/best-chatgpt-features-you-must-try
How can students use Notebook LM in order to study for final exams?
My AP students loved this lesson as I demonstrated Notebook LM to them for studying for finals. They thanked me. Now, these are the same students who expressed skepticism in my Global AI Literacy Day podcast I released Friday but they said, “now, finally an AI that helps me learn. I don’t want AI to do work for, I want it to help me learn.”
Note that students must be 18 or older to use Notebook LM from Google.
This video gave me the content, but I’ll be sharing in an upcoming video.
How is AI changing the way math teachers plan lessons?
Math and AI? Yes, AI is being used by math teachers – here’s how.
Opinion: I think what I like most about this article is I know how it was written. The reporter, Lauraine Langreo spent a good thirty minutes talking to me about all of the ways I use AI in the classroom (I have a small quote at the end.) I’m sure each person in this article she talked to them for just as long if not longer, since I’m more Computer Science than math (even though math is in my subject quite heavily.) We need to value, appreciate and reshare the kind of reporting that is humans talking to humans. Human written, human researched and shared. If we do not, we will delegate our most precious freedom – that of personal expression to the bots. And bots can parrot us but they cannot spot moral issues or other things as well as we can. Our words matter and humans matter and so as someone who loves words, I’m going to continue to write in my flawed, imperfect way and to cherish that in my own students.
I suggest sharing this one to your math teachers.
🔗 How AI Is Changing the Way Math Teachers Plan Lessons https://www.edweek.org/technology/how-ai-is-changing-the-way-math-teachers-plan-lessons/2025/03
In Inc Magazine, Ethan Kross says that we spend ⅓ of our time focused on the past or the future and not living in the moment, and we engage in those conversations with ourselves. The negative self-talk can consume us, as anyone who loves a personal struggle with mental health knows. This article says that if you can address yourself by name and use second-person pronouns in a strategy called “distanced self-talk,” you can literally help yourself. There are other powerful strategies in this article, and it is worth reading.
🔗 How Emotionally Intelligent People Learn to Control Their Inner Voice, Backed by Neuroscience
How do we talk to students about AI and the ethics of AI?
My goal is to bring in 1-2 real world examples of AI a week. Yesterday in Atlanta I filmed a Waymo training car driving down the street in Atlanta
We discuss what this will feel like. The impact on workers who work at the location and how people might respond to an AI order taker. We discuss what programmers must look for and how it will be trained.
Article Summary
According to USA Today, AI will soon be taking your drive-thru orders at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC locations as they partner with nVidia starting in April and through June. Let’s see how this goes.
🔗 AI will soon be taking your drive-thru orders at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC locations
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-soon-taking-drive-thru-100530533.html
How can AI help us in ELA classrooms?
AirPod Live Translation coming soon! While we’re talking Apple, the AirPods might get a live translation feature soon. It can translate live in-person conversations from one language to another. When this happens, it will be truly be a game changer for communications (and also possibly training data for the Apple devices, but they are already full of data.)
Could you imagine what this would do in ELA classrooms where students just grab their airpods and everything can be translated? Also, how do we teach them about mistranslation and what to do when it glitches and doesn’t translate everything correctly? Will this be a new school supply?
🔗 AirPods rumored to get a live translation feature soon
How can educators better use their commute time?
Some of my favorite apps for my commute are:
- Audible. -I love to listen to books in the car.It always gives me fresh content from brilliant minds to talk about that day in class.
- My Radar – is the best weather app. It willshow you live weather radar on your carplay. There have been times I have changed my leave time from school or direction home and avoided very bad weather. This is literally a lifesaver in my book that everyone should have.
- Overcast – My favorite podcast app after Castro went on the fritz for an extended period. (Plus my dear Cuban friend, Mirna just hated it when I recommended Castro even though it has nothing to do with Cuba.)
- Music apps – we all have these….
So, depending on how long you commute and even if you don’t have carplay, taking time to research the apps can make your commute better and more productive, so here are some links to do that.
🔗 These 5 free Apple CarPlay apps make my commute actually enjoyable
🔗 10 awesome Android Auto apps that most people don’t know about
https://www.androidpolice.com/underappreciated-android-auto-apps
from Android Police shares some great tools to get the most of out of your phone when you’re in the car if you have an android. On my iphone I love the live radar and the podcast apps that help me get the most out of my commute.
How can AI help me handle my Gmail faster?
If you use gmail, the new AI-powered search results factors in how you click on things, frequent contacts and they say that emails you are looking for are more likely to be at the top of your results. The new “most relevant” search results are rolling out now.
🔗 Gmail’s new search update finds relevant emails faster
https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-search-update-relevant-emails
How are student attendance numbers now in 2024-2025?
According to an article in Schools news, for the first half of 2024-2025 overall K12 school attendance rates have improved, says eschool news, in a study that analyzed more than 1 million students in 143 districts. The overall rate is 93.45%.
What are common interventions that are improving attendance?
They noticed that 7th grade is the “tipping point” where attendance rates drop and chronic absenteeism rises. The report goes on to recommend early warning systems and proactive intervention. Perhaps this is a conversation for middle school teachers in your staff meeting this week.
K-12 student attendance improves, but interventions are still needed
What are student technology leadership programs and how do they work?
So much of technology is taught in-situ as we experience concerns and problems. I can teach more with one real world problem than a thousand textbooks. If you want to produce tech whizzes, give them lots of problems. Tech and Learning has information on how this works and why they are so effective. If you don’t have one, check it out!
🔗 Creating a Student Technology Leadership Program | Tech & Learning
https://www.techlearning.com/news/creating-a-student-technology-leadership-program
How do we teach information literacy?
I do this with my truth or fiction game but this approach helps students learn about how people manipulate media and is a simulation. I’m not sure I’ll do with students until I spend some time testing this simulation but the interface and approach are intriguing and worth a look for all of you who are (hopefully) teaching information literacy.
Are people turning away from smart phones and using them differently?
Matthew Hew Lloyd on Linked in wrote about how he is using his smartphone now. It is a great read. I’m finding increasingly good content on Linked In, but let me give you a warning. As someone who has seen the algorithms come and go, I think writing where you control your ownership is very important. Otherwise, when something changes, as has Facebook and their live videos, you are stuck losing content. (If you want to connect on Linked In, here’s my profile link.)
Here’s my response:
And as I work with kids who have mental health issues – who are so concerned about possible war, problems with China, problems with Russia, the first thing we are taught to do to help is to take away the phone and get rid of all of the news. I know that isn’t great sounding but we have to start finding trusted news sources that are human-written, sometimes might be boring, are different from us.
For me, I’ve gone back to Feedly and am working to curate and add more of my favorite writers there. I’ve gone back to Diigo and am starting to bookmark again. And I’m pulling away from certain tasks being done by AI.
For example, I derive great joy from writing. It moves my heart and makes me feel alive. Therefore, generating does not spark the same joy for me as writing it myself. Also, no matter what I do, it cannot write like me.
It cannot share that I recorded a waymo self driving training car in Atlanta yesterday that I’ll show to my students or discussed the Taco Bell Ai ordering attendant with my family last night at dinner and rolled with laughter.
I’m also working to respond more on writing I like because then the algorithm will do a better job of not bringing the sensational and disturbing to me but good writing like this.
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