This is really cool. New from Google Arts and Culture is this Talking Tours tool. You use Google Maps to 'walk' around landmarks, nature reserves, cultural institutions, archeology sites and more. While you "walk", you listen to a guided tour of the site. The image here is from the tour of one of my favorite museums in Málaga, Spain, El Museo Thyssen.

Illuminate is a new Google Labs experiment that aims to help you break down research papers and classic novels into short audio conversations. This Google AI tool could be your a favorite study aid - and it's free. Illuminate uses AI to adjust the content to your learning preferences so that you can understand the material. Give it a try! Right now it's mostly science papers and classic novels (Think Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice..) but more is coming!

Please remind your students of the Tech Help group in Blackbaud. There are some useful Topics in there such as using Adobe, AI Tools and how to navigate the new assignment center. I'm happy to add more as needed so let me know if you'd like to see something there.

People (I am!) are switching from X (Twitter) to BlueSky. So what is this new platform?

Bluesky is a social media platform that allows users to share short posts, images, and videos. It's similar to Twitter, but is designed to be more open and give users more control over their experience.

Features:

• Timeline: Users can focus on friends, news, or explore with an algorithm

• Content filters: Users can set moderation lists and content filters

• Custom feeds: Users can create custom feeds without coding .

There's a super free tool as well called Sky Follower Bridge (a Chrome Add-on) that can transfer who you follow to your new Blue Sky account.

https://bsky.app/profile/saralynnewhite.bsky.social

Split Screen: A great feature of the CreateBoard is the ability to have two tools one the screen at once. I personally like to have the whiteboard up for taking notes, then a browser or document on the other side for reference.

Next Week I am going to give AI a try to create this newsletter. Let's see how it does!