At least 6, and maybe 8, of these Rotating Sandwiches are not sandwiches. But controversy aside, this is a great resource for language teaching. Besides our yes/no, we can compare, we can guess the prices, we can list ingredients, we can make recipes. I’m sure there is more. Thanks to Kottke for the link.
Category: tools
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Tech Update
Advances in technology are, for me, heartwarming. I am at heart a progressive. As a world, we must always be improving, or we are decaying. Sometimes both happen at the same time. But these are in the plus column.
Khanmigo gets better. This looks like something we may even use for language learning. Especially the writing part. Watch this 13-minute section from the TV documentary 60 minutes.
I get a firehose of new tools with daily newsletter/posts from There’s an AI for That (TAAFT) and TLDR. It’s nice to focus on one thing once in a while. I like the first better because I can customize what it sends to me more easily.
Three more from Google this week. One for right now, one for a year or two down the road, and a third farther out.
- Gemini Version 2. I find Google’s AI just so much more useful when connected to things like Docs and Forms and their whole infrastructure. Looking forward to the improvements.
- XR Glasses: eXtended Reality includes AR and VR and is the fashionable term (Microsoft has been using it for years). The Glasses are a definite upgrade from Google Glasses of a few years ago. Lots of progress. Looking forward to seeing a real product soon.
- Quantum Computing. I’ve been spending way too much time learning what a big breakthrough this new chip called Willow is. Great explanation at NYTimes podcast Hard Fork (see the second story).
Here is one for teachers and other spreadsheet users. Kevin Stratvert has wonderful how-to videos. He used to do pretty much excusively Microsoft software. This is new for him and for me. AI in a spreadsheet. It does a couple of things like matching up names and grades on two different sheets that take me a long time to do. I’ve signed up and plan to use it this weekend.
That’s all for now. Lots more stuff coming down the pike, though. Teachers, check out Russel Stannard‘s channel for lots of good hands-on tools. Check out his latest on Magic School.
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Using AI: Helpful post
Ethan Mollick (new book out, I’m on the waiting list at the library)has a new newsletter out about things you should and should not use AI for. Check out #4 if you are a teacher, and then look closely at the NOT part. If you are a student who wants to LEARN a language (or anything else), be very careful on how you use AI.
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New Pi for $90
A computer in a keyboard. Raspberry pi 5 is out now. About the price of 3 textbooks.
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Illuminate is better than NotebookLM
People are talking about podcasts created by NotebookLM. We are astounded at how the two people discuss any topic we want, in such a natural dialog. The male voice sounds like a mild version of Howard Stern, and the female voice reminds me of…not sure. On the other hand, we complain that the voices are always the same, the speed and delivery also the same.
Google has another tool that lets you have more control over the output. Marc Watkins explains.
Right now you can write a prompt or link to a webpage for input, and select voices and dialog register (formality). Still no speed settings.