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An AI Newsletter

Like a lot of folks, I get tons of email about new AI tools, not to mention a million other topics. Since I was doing a presentation earlier this week, I thought it might be fun to gather a variety of content from those newsletters and see if I could get a summary of it all that would be helpful. Maybe the prompt could go like:

Read all the selected emails with the label of “AI News” and come up with a bulleted list email summary organized by section.

Ok, looks like Gemini in my Gmail was able to give me the bullet list. I had to copy-n-paste it to Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental to get the links added (it appears to have done a bang-up job!):

Inbox AI News Summary via Gmail Gemini

You know, I like that output (above) more than I do what you will see below. Of course, it IS different content since I was particular about what I put into the newsletters below. Reading the above version, I see I left out a lot of interesting content.

My takeaway? I can imagine doing something like this for colleagues based on all the emails I get.

Sources for Content

The original authors of the newsletters below might not appreciate me doing this, and in the end, I didn’t find it as readable and engaging as the originals. But for a quick update, the content above is great and the two previous versions (below) weren’t that bad. I highly recommend you subscribe to these electronic newsletters to stay up to date on AI topics.

  • Superhuman – Zain K.’s AI-focused newsletter that grew to over 800,000 subscribers.
  • Evolving AI Insights – A newsletter with over 2 million subscribers providing AI insights.
  • Futurepedia – A weekly newsletter joining 230,000 professionals learning to leverage AI tools for work.
  • The Neuron – An AI-focused daily newsletter that grew to 500,000 subscribers before being acquired by TechnologyAdvice.
  • Ben’s Bites – A daily AI newsletter providing concise updates on AI developments.

Ugh, reading it again, I’m not that impressed. Let me run it through Google 2.5 Pro Experimental and see if the result improves from the original.

Oh, well. It was worth a shot. Anyways, here’s the original (sans opening picture) and the revised version appears below. Some of the frontier model info is dated.

Newsletter

🚀 AI in Education: Your Whizbang Update! (K-16 Edition) 🎓

Get ready for the latest AI breakthroughs impacting classrooms, campuses, and the future of learning!

Whizbang EdTech Stories You Can’t Miss! 💡

  • 🤖 AI Tutors Get Personal: Platforms like Khanmigo are offering students tailored support and feedback 24/7, adapting to individual learning speeds and styles. It’s like having a patient teaching assistant for every student!
  • ✍️ Lesson Planning Magic?: Teachers are reclaiming hours! Tools like MagicSchool AI and Curipod help generate creative lesson ideas, differentiate materials, and even draft assessments in minutes. ✨
  • ♿ Boosting Accessibility for All: AI is breaking down barriers! Think instant text-to-speech for readings, real-time translation for multilingual learners (Google Translate, integrated features in Microsoft Tools), and tools that help identify learning differences earlier.
  • 📊 Smarter Grading, Faster Feedback: AI isn’t replacing teachers, but it’s helping! Tools like Gradescope (popular in Higher Ed) and AI features within LMS platforms assist in grading specific question types, freeing up educators for more meaningful feedback.
  • 🌍 AI Tackles Global Challenges (in Class!): Students are using AI tools like Google Earth Engine for environmental science projects or analyzing data sets with tools like ChatGPT’s Data Analyst to understand complex social issues.

🧠 AI Model Mania – What’s New for Schools?

  • ChatGPT (OpenAI):
    • The flagship GPT-4o model offers powerful text, image, and audio understanding. Great for brainstorming, content creation, and explaining complex topics. 🚀
    • ChatGPT Edu: Now available for universities, offering higher usage limits, improved security, and admin controls tailored for campus-wide deployment. 🎓
  • Claude (Anthropic):
    • The Claude 3 family (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus) excels at nuanced writing and complex reasoning. Opus remains a top performer. Excellent for research synthesis and thoughtful writing assistance. 🤔
    • Focus remains on safety and reliability, key considerations for educational use.
  • Gemini (Google):
    • Gemini 1.5 Pro: Boasts a massive context window (up to 1 million tokens!), meaning it can analyze huge documents or even videos! 🎬 Now integrated into Google Workspace for Education, helping draft emails, summarize meeting notes, and generate content in Docs, Slides, etc. 📝
    • Gemini Flash: A speedier, cost-effective version for high-frequency tasks.
  • Microsoft Copilot:
    • Deeply woven into the Microsoft 365 Education suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams). Helps teachers draft lesson plans, create presentations, analyze student data, and summarize class discussions. 📊
    • Constantly adding new skills and integrations relevant to educators and students.
  • Perplexity:
    • This AI-powered search engine provides cited answers, making it a potentially safer research starting point for students than general chatbots. 🔍 Still innovating with deeper research features.

💻 Open Source Power-Ups!

Why care about Open Source AI in Education? Think customization, privacy control, and research freedom! 🧑‍🔬

  • Hugging Face: The giant library of AI! Access thousands of models and datasets. Essential for higher ed programs teaching AI, computer science, or specialized research. 🤗
  • Run AI Locally (Ollama, LM Studio): Want to run powerful language models on your own computer for privacy or offline use? These tools make it easier than ever. Great for tinkerers and exploring AI capabilities safely. 🔒
  • Meta Llama 3: Meta’s powerful open models are widely available via platforms like Hugging Face and can be run locally. They offer strong performance for various tasks.

🐝 Big Ideas & Ed Policy Buzz

  • AI Literacy is NON-NEGOTIABLE: Schools and universities are rapidly developing curriculum and PD to teach students and staff how to use AI effectively, ethically, and responsibly. 🧑‍🏫 It’s the new digital citizenship!
  • The Assessment Shake-Up Continues: How do we measure learning when AI can generate sophisticated responses? Educators are exploring project-based learning, oral exams, and AI-detection tools (Turnitin has features), but the conversation is far from over. 🤔
  • Equity & Access Alerts: Ensuring all students have access to beneficial AI tools (and the skills to use them) is critical. Avoiding a new digital divide is paramount. ⚖️
  • Data Privacy & Security: Integrating AI tools requires careful vetting to protect student data. Districts and institutions are creating new policies and guidelines. 🛡️
  • Teacher Training Takes Center Stage: Effective AI integration hinges on empowering educators. Expect more focus on professional development for AI tools and pedagogy.

🛠️ Top AI Tools for Your K-16 Toolkit!

Here’s a curated list focusing on educational value:

For Teachers (Planning, Content, Grading):

  • ✅ MagicSchool AI: AI assistant for dozens of teacher tasks – lesson plans, emails, rubrics, differentiation & more!
  • 📝 Diffit: Easily adapt articles or text for different reading levels. Essential for differentiation.
  • 💡 Curipod: Create interactive, AI-powered lessons and activities.
  • ❓ Quizizz: Gamified quizzes and lessons, now with AI features for question generation.
  • 📊 Gradescope: Streamline grading for STEM and beyond, including AI assistance (mostly higher ed).
  • ✂️ Brisk Teaching: Chrome extension to help create materials, give feedback, and adapt content right where you work.

For Students (Learning, Research, Writing):

  • 🤖 Khanmigo: AI tutor and teaching assistant from Khan Academy (requires school/district setup usually).
  • 🔍 Perplexity: AI search engine with cited sources for research.
  • ✍️ Grammarly: AI writing assistant for improving clarity, grammar, and style (essential!).
  • 🗣️ Otter.ai: Record and automatically transcribe lectures or group discussions (great for notes & accessibility).
  • 📚 Quill.org: Provides AI-powered feedback on student writing activities.
  • 🧠 NoteBookLM (Google): Upload your source materials (notes, PDFs, articles) and ask questions about them – your personalized AI research assistant!

General Productivity & Creativity:

  • 🎨 Canva: Includes “Magic Write” and other AI features for creating presentations, documents, and graphics quickly.
  • 🖼️ Ideogram: AI image generator known for better text rendering within images. Great for custom visuals.
  • 🤝 Miro: Collaborative online whiteboard with AI features to help organize ideas and diagrams.
  • 🎬 Video Tools (Pictory, Synthesia): AI tools to create videos from text or using AI avatars (check ethical guidelines!).

(Note: Always check your school/district’s policies before using new AI tools with student data!)

✨ Other Cool AI Snippets

  • 🤖 Robots Learning Faster: Advancements in reinforcement learning mean robots (like those in university labs or vocational programs) are getting better at complex tasks with less direct programming.
  • 🧬 AI Accelerating Science: AI continues to drive discoveries in medicine, climate science, and materials science – inspiring examples for STEM classrooms!
  • 🗣️ Real-Time Translation Advances: Tools are getting scarily good at near-instant voice translation, potentially transforming language learning and international collaboration.

Sources: Inspired by insights from great AI newsletters like Superhuman, Ben’s Bites, The Neuron, and ongoing EdTech reporting. Always verify info!

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