ABCs of AI: Reclaim Your Mornings: The One-Hour No-Screen Challenge
3 Fun Tools Added to Gemini
Get certified. It's Free...For Now.
Google Arts and Culture: World Toon Video and Learn Everything
In an age of increasingly powerful technology, the most important asset to protect is your own mind. Our philosophy is simple: HI+AI. We believe in leveraging technology as a tool when needed but also knowing when to put it aside and lean into your own Human Intelligence (HI).
To keep your HI nourished and running at its peak, I am inviting all readers to a simple but transformative experiment: No screens for the first 60 minutes after you wake up.
Five Days In: My Initial Observations
I have been practicing this challenge for five days, and the results have been striking. I am finding that I am sharper, more creative, and super productive throughout the day. By keeping the tools at bay during that first hour, I am better equipped to use them more effectively later on.
Beyond the productivity gains, there is a significant emotional shift. I have noticed that I genuinely look forward to this time each morning. There is no longer a sense of morning dread. I feel a much less aggressive "pull" to grab my device because I have reclaimed that space for myself. Instead of waking up to a glowing rectangle, I am starting the day on my own terms.
So join me in reclaiming your prime mental real estate. One hour. No screens. Just you and your brain at its freshest. I would love to hear how it goes.
For a deeper dive into the statistics to support the neurological impact of our devices, listen to the full episode of The ABCs of AI podcast.
Gemini can now make music for you!
Gemini's Nano Banana with a simple prompt using the Gothic Clay tool.
Check out these three powerful new Gemini updates designed to streamline your creative workflow and keep your classroom digital assets organized!
🍌 The Create Image tool now features a "Genres" selector, allowing you to instantly apply professional styles like "Cinematic," "Oil Painting," or "Gothic Clay" to your visual aids with a single click.
🎶 You can now create music directly in the app; simply describe a mood or topic to generate original 30-second tracks for presentations or background study music. Throw in some lyrics and you'll have a new hit song in seconds.
⭐ The new "My Stuff" folder provides a dedicated home for all your creations, making it easier than ever to find and reuse your previously generated images, videos, and music without digging through old chat histories.
For a limited time, Google is offering free Gemini Certification. If you're already using Gemini, the test will serve as a helpful review of the workflows and tools you've become familiar with. If you're new to Gemini, a study guide is available to help you prepare. Wherever you fall on the Gemini proficiency spectrum, this certification is an excellent opportunity to sharpen your skills and deepen your understanding of this powerful tool.
Click to see and hear Mr. Laines and his Inca Adventure
Students can star in their own educational adventure with World Toon TV, a new experiment turning their selfie into a travel toon, with the help of Google AI in a safe and student-friendly environment.
Your Journey:
Personalize Your Look: take a selfie and select one of six drawing styles to define your cartoon character.
Choose Your Scene: pick a backdrop from world landmarks and natural wonders to moments in history and far away galaxies
Generate your video clip: Google AI will transform your selfie into four possible travel toons based on your chosen drawing style and scene. Select the image that you like the most and animate it. Google AI then generates a short video clip with your custom character telling you a fact relating to your scene.
This is a true gem from Google Arts and Culture. The "Learn Everything" experiment in the Google Arts & Culture Lab uses multimodal AI to turn any object into a "visual metaphor" for a complex concept. It’s perfect for the classroom because it bridges the gap between the abstract (the lesson) and the concrete (the student's immediate world).Simply take a picture of anything, briefly explain the concept you want to learn about, set your knowledge level and receive a graphically interesting slide deck complete with understandable explanations.
See my "experiment" below. I took a picture of a Y2K Bug and asked for a simple explanation. For you kids out there, it was a moment in time when we all collectively wondered if our microwave ovens were plotting a digital uprising.
For those who weren't there, the Y2K Bug (or the Millennium Bug) was the ultimate "oops" of the early computing era. Back in the day, memory was expensive, so programmers saved space by using only two digits for years. "1998" was just "98."
The panic? As the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999, everyone feared computers would think it was 1900 instead of 2000, causing a massive logic meltdown. Airplanes would drop from the sky, elevators would freeze between floors, and your bank account would reset to zero. There were Y2K survival kids, stupid t-shirts, and that little stuffed animal. 12:01 AM arrived, the lights stayed on, and we survived to ready for the next series of worries, the Mayans, the AI takeover, and whatever else the internet decides is "The End" this week.
Slide 1 of a beautifully illustrated and clearly explained slide deck on Y2K.
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