Teaching the ninth cohort of AI for Personal Productivity
Back in November 2023, Dermot Casey asked me what I was covering when he saw me delivering a post-graduate academic module in digital transformation. I told him about my syllabus and that it integrated ChatGPT in the hands-on workshops. We are running a distilled version of this training programme …
Teaching the ninth cohort of AI for Personal ProductivityDisconnecting from Perplexity
It is time to call QUIT for my Perplexity Pro account. She served me well for more than a year.
Disconnecting from PerplexityThanking @educatefran for showing me @D2L and H5P
I should write a major testimonial to Frances O’Donnell, an Instructional Designer in County Donegal, who showed me the magic of smart imports with H5P.
Thanking @educatefran for showing me @D2L and H5PUsing Joe Dale’s Tips for Teachers
I appreciate Joe Dale’s Open Education Resources and his enthusiastic expertise. We use most of these tools when training Transition Year students in Ireland.
Using Joe Dale’s Tips for TeachersLearning About People and Pages in Books
I can use Ngrams to search the entire Google Books corpus of books captured via Google’s OCR.
Learning About People and Pages in BooksThe Parrot's Tale
I discovered Punya Mishra’s blog after hearing him share his expertise with educators in Valencia, Spain, in early 2025. Punya shares a story that goes back to 1918 in a short fable that Tagore wrote called “The Parrot’s Tale”.
The Parrot's TaleWhile Planning a Storytelling Workshop #ICERI2025
I just finished an hour of ICERI workshop prep with co-presenter Brigit Kolen and here is what Zoom AI thinks I should do.
While Planning a Storytelling Workshop #ICERI2025Spice Bag Loses Authenticity
We’re running #empower25 on the quiet campus of TUS.ie this week. One of the workshop tasks asks teens to use AI to produce a selfie avatar with cultural cues. So I asked Perplexity to make me as “a man looking like Robin Williams sharing a spice bag with friends from America on the …
Spice Bag Loses AuthenticitySeating for Lunch #edulearn25
You can often tell a lot about a conference by the size of their dining area. During the final two days in June 2025, I’m attending EDULEARN, an international conference on education and new learning technologies. The photo shows some of the seats for more than 800 people who will attend the …
Seating for Lunch #edulearn25Three Luminaries Thinking about AI in Education
I’m looking at practical workflows educators can improve with AI. My interest is shared by a group of 20 educators in an edulearn25 workshop. We’re starting by determining what Mairead Pratschke, Andrej Karpathy, and Ethan Mollick think about educators using AI to improve their workflows …
Three Luminaries Thinking about AI in EducationEmpowered with Ideas. Helped by visualising them.
We’re using three different AIs in a action-packed session with young teens today. Otter.ai is recording thoughts about problems and the link takes you to an unedited transcript. Meta.ai is taking photos with Ray-Ban smart glasses and you can see some of those photos inside the Meta View album …
Empowered with Ideas. Helped by visualising them.How Search Ranking Works
I’ve added some recent long form content to my listing of Essential Readings for Web Analytics. Thanking for Mario Fisher for explaining how Search Ranking Works Key Takeaways Diversify traffic sources: Ensure you receive traffic from various sources, not just search engines. Traffic from less …
How Search Ranking WorksGamification of Journaling
As I prep for my final year as a university lecturer, I’m researching the effectiveness of gamification as a pedagogical strategy for enhancing cognitive skills development. I’m thinking about asking six students to carve a space for an Air Tag into their hard cover Media Writing …
Gamification of JournalingPlaying with SlidesGPT in my browser
I asked SlidesGPT to make me a PowerPoint deck that shows I am going to explain key points of interest about AI’s use with small business. The deck should mention the importance of having your own personal knowledge network. It should point out how Microsoft Copilot and GPT-4 can give insights …
Playing with SlidesGPT in my browserLearned section breakdowns from my students
One conclusion I reached while teaching online is I should attempt to deliver something of value to students in every section of my course materials. So I broke down each hour into several sections, each including a valuable takeaway.
Learned section breakdowns from my studentsEmpowered with Design Thinking
I will work with the Empower Programme this summer. It’s a week-long set of workshops that help young entrepreneurs leverage design thinking, machine learning, and technology analysis to scope the viability of their potential projects by integrating these methodologies to address various …
Empowered with Design ThinkingRemembering EdTech 2006
My last education event in Sligo happened 18 years ago when I watched Brian Mulligan make part of a podcast during EdTech 2006. At the time, I owned [podcasting.ie](https://podcasting.ie) and I was using it with creative multimedia students in Tipperary Institute. Brian's work with the Irish …
Remembering EdTech 2006Open Education for Good
While listening to Catherine Cronin talk about “open education for good” I heard several educators on the webinar share how their education practices and resources are meant to be used to benefit society and promote positive social change. I wrote this blog post during the Zoom webinar …
Open Education for GoodThird Blowback by the Luddite Brigade
This is the third time in 28 years where I received strong pushback from colleagues about my embracing of technology. The first time happened in 1996 when Irish artists were repulsed when I showed them what Adobe Photoshop could do with their original paintings. The second time was in 2008 when …
Third Blowback by the Luddite BrigadeSix Main Points for My AI Students
I’m doing some spring cleaning of recent training sessions and believe I can best share my impressions of various GPTs by breaking down my thoughts into six major sessions. 1. **Setting Up Your AI Introduction to AI and its capabilities Necessary hardware and software requirements …
Six Main Points for My AI StudentsEngaged with the Gibbs Reflective Cycle
I’m attending a week-long seminar critical thinking series in Portugal with people from Finland, Germany, Holland, Iran, Ireland, and Portugal. Today’s in-class assignment has us drilling down into the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. I think I’m going to make a Sway about the findings …
Engaged with the Gibbs Reflective CycleGetting Value from MSFT Copilot
Impressed with some of the facets of Microsoft Copilot. Much of the student work I now get uploaded into SharePoint can be cross-referenced by colleagues who teach alongside me but never enter my classrooms. Now they can dynamically see the evolution of student portfolios as core elements percolate …
Getting Value from MSFT CopilotPower Words in Subject Lines
Reviewing my listing of power words because many of them work well on me.
Power Words in Subject LinesGetting confused on first approach
Imagining hundreds of cars approaching the poorly marked entrance to our university campus at the start of our academic semester. And knowing that challenge will be faced by dozens of the young students who may feel stressed when they miss the entrance on their first attempt.
Getting confused on first approachDonors Choose to Fund Emergency Drawer
My daughter Misty approaches teaching as a vocation. She wants “to help my students reach Self-Actualization–or at least some academic content–while at school, so I try to have an environment where students feel safe, loved, and included in my classroom.” So she has an …
Donors Choose to Fund Emergency Drawer