Tag: teaching

AI in Teaching and Business

  By CSUDH, imagery, skills, teaching, tech writing, writing

I just finished the CSU series of webinars on Teaching and Thinking with AI, led by José Antonio Bowen. These included A.I. Literacy & Prompt Engineering, A.I. Grading, Detection, and Policies, and A.I. Assignments and Assessments. It was an amazing series on using AI in the classroom to help students think differently as well as great tips for usage in training in the real world. My big takeaway is that AI (generative AI) won’t be replacing us anytime soon, it has a ton of flaws returning incorrect information (fake references – so always check your references), and requires plenty of time to get prompts to return a modicum of usable results. One example I am experiencing is that I am getting contacted by recruiters on a popular job site for jobs I don’t do. The jobs are so far off of what I do that at first I assumed it was a mistake until I realized, after the webinar series, that whatever AI they are using isn’t providing reliable results. The prompts they are writing must be off.

However, it really got me to think differently about communication. Every bit of communication needs to be in a prompt that is submitted into AI if you want to be able to use or be inspired by your use of AI. If you want a specific tone, mood, specific time frame etc. – state it. So refine your prompt over and over until the results are better.

There are a variety of tools that will cost you per month for premium results and each has strong points and weak points. So, really getting to know your AI tool, like any other tool, and taking it’s results with a bit of skepticism can help. Don’t be afraid to keep tweaking your prompts until you get the desired results. AI is here to stay so keep practice learning how to use it. Learning it and being able to use it in business, training, and education will be a valuable future-skill.

AI in teaching and business

Some current existing AI tools (this is not a full list just some I found interesting but not necessarily had tried yet).

  • Claude.ai There is also a smaller Haiku and a larger Opus.
  • ChatGPT If you have only used the free version before May you have been using GPT 3.5
  • Gemini (formerly Google Bard).  Gemini Advanced – not free
  • Copilot Microsoft owns half of OpenAI so CoPilot (is really another version of ChatGPT as far as I can tell)
  • WolframAlpha combines the computational powers of Wolfram|Alpha with ChatGPT
  • Pi is focused on dialogue and role-playing and has a good voice interface
  • Poe and ChatHub provide access to multiple AI through one interface
  • There are additional open source models such as Meta AI, Huggingface, Llama 3, etc. Other resources include APIs, chatbots, study assistants, browser extensions, agents, voice, dialog, etc.

Imagery

Adobe Max 2024

  By Uncategorized

This year Adobe Max (October) had a variety of sessions. I personally attended the online sessions. There were plenty of AI focused sessions on Firefly with usage for video as well as still imaging. My favorite session on new skills happened to be Designing a Book Cover: Inspiration and Design Tricks with Faride Mereb. I think this was partly because of my interest in creating book covers but also the incredibly easy way InDesign can be used to create covers.

I also found 40 Years of Art and Design: Graffiti, Hip-Hop, and Fine Art with Cey Adams, founding creative director at Def Jam Recordings, an awesome walk down history. His amazing album covers and logos were innovative with a timeless style.

Use of a tool, for me an excellent session, goes to Mastering Low-Light Photography from Capture to Edit with Jarrad Seng along with Quick Hack: Animate Illustrations for Quick Content Creation with Adrianne Walujo. Both were great for tips and tricks as well as motivation.

There were also plenty of sessions that were motivational. My favorite session was surprising. It was called Unseen to Unforgettable; The Power of Personal Branding with Kristy Campbell, founder of Pink Pony Creative, is a New Zealand-based Brand Identity and Graphic Designer. This was a session I didn’t know I needed. Not for branding so much as motivation. Let’s face it, things can be hard in the business world no matter what you do. I think her best quote was “Conquer your mindset, embrace risk and bold moves, showing that courage and resilience we share in our journeys units us all.” That rings true for me in not matter what I do.

Check out 2024 Adobe Max

UC Riverside Writer’s Week 2023

  By Uncategorized

This week Week of Jan 13, 2023) is the UC Riverside Writer’s Week 2023. It’s a free writer’s festival with a lot of wonderful authors including Vanessa Hua, Courtney Cook, David Tromblay, Tom Lutz, Jan Beatty, and more! What’s wonderful is that it’s free as well and you can either attend virtually or in person. I’ll be there both virtually and otherwise. Tip: Online is hosted via Crowdcast.

For more information go to UCR’s website and register.

Blogging

  By creative writing, teaching

I’ve been blogging lately. On my creative writing blog, Zen Word of Creative Writing,  I’ve posted a tip I use to capture my ideas anytime.

cup-toros I am also going to blog at CSUDH faculty blog. MY current post will be about keeping students engaged in online courses. The link for California State University Dominguez Hills is at http://www.csudh.edu/   When I have the link for the faculty blog I’ll post.