Hailey's Blog

For my blog this week, I wanted to explore Google Sites. I have heard of it before, but I had never actually used it for myself. I wanted to see how it works and how it could be used in a learning environment. I use so many different Google owned things like my email and Google Drive, so I thought it would be good to learn another as well. Google Sites is a web-based platform where you can create a simple website, without needing coding experience. Most of the site is just dragging and dropping things like text, images, videos, and you can also embed things like Google Docs or Google Slides. Overall, it felt similar to Google Docs, just more visual and structured.  I tested it out by creating a basic site for organizing my class content. It was nice because I was able to make different sections for different topics, add in headings, and also embed a document just to see how it worked. It was easy to do and straightforward. I liked this because when you are working with things like ...

  This week I explored a new AI tool called NotebookLM. I had never used it before, so it was interesting to see how it compared to other AI tools. It felt different right away. Instead of just asking NotebookLM a question or giving it a prompt, you can upload your own sources, and then the tool will only respond based on the sources given.  For my notebook, I wanted to use some of the topics we are learning about in my other course this semester. The course is a happiness study class, so I uploaded three articles we were given this week. An article about contentment, one about effort and happiness, and one additional source about well-being. Once I uploaded my sources, I started forming my questions such as, "What are the connections between effort and satisfaction?" and "How is contentment different from happiness?" I liked how the responses stayed focused on the sources I uploaded, and pointed out where certain information came from. It felt more structured compa...

  This week I explored Perplexity AI. Perplexity AI is another AI powered search tool among the many that are out. I had never used it before, so I was curious to see how it would compare to regular search engines like Google, or other chat bots like ChatGPT. At first, it seemed similar to other tools, but after using it a bit more, it had differences. I noticed right away that it provided more direct and summarized answers, rather than just listing links like Google.  My experience with Perplexity AI was actually helpful! I tested it out by asking some general questions that I already had answers to so I could gauge its correctness. Then I asked it some school related questions. One thing that stood out to me when asking school questions was that it not only gave a clear answer, it also included sources. This made things easier because I could understand topic material quickly without struggling through different websites. I felt like it was more efficient. Especially if you ...

AI tools are a huge debate currently. No matter what someone thinks about whether AI is harmful or helpful, it is a commonly used tool and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. This week was interesting because it made me think more intentionally about how we can use AI tools, especially when it comes to prompting. In the times I have used AI, I don't put too much thought into it and just go with a basic question. I thought it would be better to just ask something simple and then see what came back. After working through our class assignment this week however, it shows how important it is to thoughtfully write out your prompt. Your prompt can have a huge impact on the quality of the AI response.  For this activity, I used Arena.ai. With this chatbot, you can select different chatbot models and have side by side responses and pick the one you like more. Below is an image of some of the ones that you can pick from. You can even search models as well if you are familiar with speci...