Category: Teacher-author

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams:

A lot of teacher-authors also read my WordDreams blog (for writers). In this column, I share the most popular post from the past month. 

AI in Writing

I use AI judiciously and never without adult supervision. It is efficient if well directed, provides good summaries of articles on a factual level, and is fast if I’m not looking for clever, creative, complex, or any sort of conscience. Accepting those limitations, I find it good for summaries of articles on my education blog and lists for just about anything. AI loves lists.

What AI can’t do is at the absolute core of fiction writing:

• provide personal experience
• act with any sort of moral compass
• make judgments
• bare its soul
• bleed on a page
• put the lion in a character’s heart
• sacrifice, say, the easy wrong for the hard right 
• choose the right attitude in a given set of circumstances
• find a North star
• put charisma in a story or character–or setting

As a result, I use it where it suits, avoid it where it fails. How about you?

Copyright ©2024 askatechteacher.com – All rights reserved.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

“The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. 

Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.

Like everyone else on the planet, I understand I must switch to ‘airplane mode’ when flying. If you don’t know what airplane mode is (except to turn it on during flight), here’s a quick run-down:

• It stops your phone from sending or receiving text messages or voice calls.
• It disconnects your phone from a WiFi network. When it is on, your phone will stop scanning for WiFi networks or even attempting to join them.
• It disables Bluetooth on your smartphone.
• It may also disable your smartphone’s GPS functions.

As writers, there are surprisingly good reasons to invoke airplane mode even if you’re not flying:

• when your kids are using your phone, they can’t send messages or use the internet
• you need to save battery power. As writers, that could be when you’re reading a downloaded Kindle book or working on your WIP offline (it’ll sync when you turn the internet back on)
• as a ‘do not disturb’ feature:  if you are focused on writing or researching and want to avoid intrusions for a set period of time. The intrusions will return as soon as you turn it off.
• to avoid roaming charges if you travel internationally for book conferences or interviews
• to avoid being tracked: In airplane mode, location services are off and no one knows where you are.
• to sleep without interruptions. Rest assured, when you wake up and remove airplane mode, everything you missed will tumble onto your phone

How often do you use airplane mode?

Copyright ©2024 worddreams.wordpress.com – All rights reserved.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://jacqui-murray.aweb.page/p/46e8c9bf-eaed-4252-8aad-3688e233a4cc

“The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Man vs. Nature saga, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the acclaimed Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Endangered Species, Winter 2024

Copyright ©2023 askatechteacher.com – All rights reserved.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month.

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from previous months: 

I’ve been blogging for about sixteen years, some professionally (for my tech ed career) and others on topics of interest to me (writing, USNA, and science). That first post–

The Edit Block

(don’t bother to click through. It’s boring)

putting myself on the line, ignoring that I had no hits, wanting to approve comments from spammers because that would look like someone loved me–I thought that was the hard part. The second post was easier and so it went.

But somewhere around the twentieth post–

This is why I teach

more personal, but blocky, not visual, too long, and not about writing.

I figured out I had to do blogging right. No comments–no surprise!–so why was I doing this? It wasn’t to show up, spout off and slink away. There was a lot more I wanted from blogging.

I could have quit–it was getting to be a lot like work–but I enjoyed the camaraderie with like-minded souls. I learned a lot about writing by doing it and could transfer those lessons to others. So I honed my skill.

Do’s and Don’ts

Let me share what I wish I’d known early rather than late so you don’t waste as much time and energy as I did:

• Keep posts to a five-ten minute read–How? Avoid big blocks of text. People will skip them, and then skip your blog.
• Only reblog 10% of someone else’s post. If you’re on WordPress and push the ‘reblog’ button (if available), they take care of it for you. But if you copy someone’s post–even if you give them attribution–you blew it. You have to get permission if you are reposting more than 10% of someone’s work. Where was I supposed to learn that?

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A lot of teacher-authors read both my education blog (this one–Ask a Tech Teacher) and my writer’s blog (WordDreams). In this monthly column, I share a popular post from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams 

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I’ve started a new collaboration over there with an exciting writer’s blog called Story Empire. My column is: What’s happening in the literary world?

This series will spotlight what writers are talking about as well as literary-focused monthly events. I’ll keep the posts brief though I may return to one or more later in the year depending upon world events.

January’s topics:

• AI-powered writing tools
• AI-generated fiction
• Copyright and ownership
• AI training from internet content
• AI–ethics and bias
• AI–loss of creativity
• Calendar of literary events

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In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from my writer’s blog, WordDreams. Why? Because a lot of teachers are also authors. This one is from a while ago, but it’s about dogs. If you love these critters the way I do, you understand:

Today, Thomas Wikman,  proud owner of a Leonberger named Bronco, author of the definitive book on this breed, The Life and Times of Le Bronco, and I, soulmate to my fictional Canis-dog Ump, sometimes star of the Dawn of Humanity trilogy, will compare stories about our massive dogs. Despite that Ump passed on about 2 million years ago and Bronco more recently, the two huge furballs have gotten to know each other over the mythical Rainbow Bridge, the passage that carries pets to their Life Ever After. Though Ump is more wolf than domesticated dog (akin to the extinct Borophagus) and Bronco is a Leonberger, one of the largest dog breeds in the world, the two have a lot in common.

Here are the questions Thomas and I will answer:

1. Quick one-sentence intro to our dog friend
2. Tell about life with a large dog
3. How do they hunt?

I’m taking the first three. You’ll have to click through to Thomas’ blog for the last two! I do have a wonderful large dog named Casey…

but for the purposes of this blog, I’m focusing on the proto-wolf Ump (to the right below) who stars in my latest trilogy, Dawn of Humanity while Thomas is sharing his wonderful Leonberger, Bronco (on the left below). Here they are together;

One-sentence intro to our dogs

Ump: Ump is about 150 pounds, the feralness of his proto-wolf genetics blended perfectly with the loyalty of an animal who understands the human who saved his life. She is now Alpha and her tribe, Pack. Nuff said.

Bronco: A Leonberger, which is a very large rare working dog and companion dog originating from Germany. For a Leonberger, he lived an unusually long life.

Describe life with a large dog

Ump: Large is critical in the feral world of our ancestors. Lucy (the 1.8 myo female star of Ump’s trilogy, Dawn of Humanity) doesn’t view Ump as a pet, but as a tribe member responsible for hunting and protection, just like any other tribe member. In Lucy’s view, there is no difference.

Bronco: Leonbergers are very large dogs. A male Leonberger weighs between 120-170lbs. They are also very athletic and strong, and they are considered to be great carting dogs. Their pull is very large, in my estimate 2-3 times that of a German Shepherd. Therefore, they need to be well behaved and the person handling them need to be physically fit. When they stand on their back legs their paws can reach the shoulders of an average sized adult. That combined with their weight makes it important that they don’t jump up on people, which unfortunately Leonbergers love to do, just to be friendly.

They are intelligent enough to open cabinet doors, and their powerful jaws, reach and strength enables them to destroy furniture, doors, and wedding albums. If you can reach something in the kitchen, so can they, making them expert counter surfers. Therefore, training and taking precautions for their size are essential. They need a lot of space so if you live in an apartment a Leonberger may not be a good choice.

How do Ump and Bronco hunt?

Ump: Ump considers Lucy’s tribe his pack so he hunts exactly as he would if traveling with his proto-wolves. They hunt in a group, sniff out clues, communicate with each other with huffs and yips, and instinctively know who protects and who attacks. Because of Ump’s speed, developed senses of smell and hearing, tearing claws and teeth, he is a valuable addition to Lucy’s tribe.

Bronco: Bronco loved chasing rabbits and he wanted to chase cats and coyotes. However, we wouldn’t let him. It is too dangerous to have a 140lbs muscular dog running lose in the neighborhood. He was able to chase rabbits once when he got lose. He was fast but not as fast as the rabbit. What he was good at was sniffing out rodents, like hamsters. Leonbergers have a very good sense of smell. On a few occasions he sniffed out the location of our runaway hamsters. Bronco’s hamster rescue operations gave us some amazing tales to tell.

Here’s the sign-up link if the image above doesn’t work:

https://forms.aweber.com/form/07/1910174607.htm

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Copyright ©2024 worddreams.wordpress.com – All rights reserved.

“The content presented in this blog is the result of my creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”

---

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

–photo credit Deposit Photos

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post that writer readers enjoyed: 

For those reading this article who are either established authors, in-training, or anything in between, you probably have already figured out that the learning curve to become a  writer is steep and endless. I’ve read a ton of how-to books, attended more than my share of conferences, and meet with fellow writers twice a month to discuss our passion. In each of these situations, no matter how often I attend, I learn something new. So it is no surprise that I also find epiphanies in social media. Some streams offer one person’s insight that addresses a chronic problem I also have. Others answer questions I couldn’t put into words enough to get an answer from anyone else.

Tips

Here are some of the best writing tips I’ve gathered on social media in the past year:

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. This particular post is on the hot topic of generative AI. While I do share a quick paragraph of my opinion (beware bias), the strength of this topic is in the post’s comments and the other 120 groupmember posts on this same topic (click here for the entire list of participants). If you’re looking for a great overview of generative AI, here’s a great place to start:

This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out. The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.

This month’s question — The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts on this topic remain heavily conflicted. Every time I come up with an opinion, I have a counter-opinion. The only one that remains always there, though, is

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A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my teacher education blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. If you’ve already read this one, skip it. I’ll have a new post in a few days!

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Tech Tips for Writers is an occasional post on overcoming Tech Dread. I cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have asked about. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future tip.

I used to think of a cloud document as its own backup–secure, safe, and always there. That–of course–is ridiculous. It’s one copy of an important file that can be corrupted or lost. It may become inaccessible–you lost your password or got hacked or your identity stolen and the bad guy changed your logins. Or, it may simply be you can’t access the internet. Whatever the reason, I realized I needed to back those up, too.

For example:

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