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This week’s latest tech releases, news, and highlights:
📚 Study links ChatGPT essay help to weaker recall, urging smarter use of AI and critical thinking in learning environments.
🖼️ Lesson of the Week: Critically analyze images and understand the messages they convey—another example of building AI-era critical thinking skills.
🤖 Universities adopting Microsoft and Google AI tools to boost teaching, research, and operations—highlighting the need to pair AI integration with critical thinking development.
🕰️ Weekly Tech Tip: Visit the Past with Google Earth.
🚀 What’s New: Smarter course navigation, clearer assessment timing, and improved performance.
📘 Book of the Week: “Mindset” by Carole Dweck.
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Is AI Undermining How We Think?
MIT researchers found that using ChatGPT to write essays led to lower cognitive engagement and reduced memory recall.
While the results suggest prolonged AI use may hinder learning, critics argue these effects stem from study design rather than AI itself.
Experts call for rethinking educational practices to better integrate AI and critical thinking—not one at the expense of the other.
Lesson of the Week
This week’s skill, “Introduction to Visual Literacy,” trains learners to interpret images more deeply—a foundational critical thinking practice in our AI-driven world.
Question of the Week:
What best describes how visual data encoding helps with interpreting charts?
Select one
A) It increases chart creation speed
B) It improves data storage capacity
C) It enhances communication
D) It simplifies complex information
See if you’re right–the answer is at the bottom!
How Higher Ed Is Adopting AI
As institutions roll out Microsoft and Google tools, they’re not just improving productivity—they’re redefining how AI and critical thinking coexist in modern classrooms.
Faculty training and thoughtful implementation are key to preserving depth in learning while scaling innovation.
Weekly Tech Tip
Visit the Past with Google Earth
To mark its 20th anniversary, Google Earth now lets you view historical Street View imagery—perfect for exploring how places have changed over time. Revisit past versions of your neighborhood or uncover hidden stories in evolving cityscapes with this immersive new feature.
What's New
Smarter navigation, clearer assessments, and performance boosts improve learning flow and time management on QuantHub.
Additional Tidbits
Over a million people now have access to the gen-AI powered Alexa+
Google adds AI features to Chromebook Plus devices
ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study
Meta unveils its Oakley smart glasses
MIT Sloan researchers examine how AI agents reason, negotiate, and collaborate with humans
UK may require Google to give users alternative search options and rank its results ‘more fairly’
Google rolls out new Gemini model that can run on robots locally
AI in higher education is driving a shift toward lifelong learning, Northeastern president says
Book of the Week
Carol S. Dweck’s book “Mindset” explores how beliefs about personal ability significantly impact success across various life domains.
She contrasts fixed and growth mindsets, introduces the idea of a “false growth mindset,” and extends her framework to group and organizational cultures.
Lesson of the Week Answer:
C & D.