Author: PigTailz

I'm the girl with no name.

Generative AI in EdTech

Support for Generative AI in an educational context is unfortunately considered to be a binary state. Either you are all in or all out, with no room for an argument of ethical adoption. And that is just not a healthy approach to what we are putting in front of our future students. If we want them to pass high stakes exams to become doctors and scientists, we need to give them the learning resources to do so.

I have studied ML classification algorithms, spent 1.5 years working in generative AI, helped to write curriculum for courses on AI, and generally just find the subject matter interesting. I have been dismissed from two positions within weeks of providing quantitative analyses of the quality of automated tasks. My academic advisor attempted to accuse me of academic misconduct in an effort to prevent me from graduating with my PhD after realizing the results of my dissertation suggested a more careful approach to automation. I lost the battle but I won the war on that one, being forced to graduate with my degree but without my dissertation (using past published papers instead).

As a quantitative analyst who has worked in the field, my opinion is that AI is a fantastic tool with significant shortcomings. I will be posting my thoughts an opinions here, results from my personal work in GenAI.

Bici Para Robar

I have been making gifts for friends, and they keep getting stolen. I’m feeling a bit like a famous artist. Instead of getting mad about it, I’ve gotten quite curious where the little guys are going, so I’ve made a bit of a game.

I am learning how to make wire bicycles. I decided to put the first bicycle out to steal and parked it in a bike rack. My friend decided to be the one to steal it! He attached it to his own bike, but it was stolen a few weeks later. The mushroom I made for another friend’s restaurant was also stolen.

We live in a city where people visit from all over the world. I regularly meet people that have come from far away places like Thailand, Germany, Australia, New Zealand. They are here to make the Camino de Santiago.

I wanted to know how far my creations traveled, so I decided to make a game of it.

You can check back here if you want to see what happens or follow @xgf2b on Instagram.

Praia Pedra do Sal

Praia Pedra do Sal is a beautiful beach in Carballo near Coruña on the northern coast of Galicia. This is a great spot for an afternoon with the family. There is ample parking, showers, and even public transport. On one side, there is a long, flat, open, white sand beach. There were a lot of people there enjoying with young children, building castles, and playing in the sand. On the other side, there are rocks and crevices forming little pools to explore the wildlife living within.

Overall, a great spot for a relaxed afternoon dozing in the sand.

Caldeiras do Castro

This was a nice afternoon hike. It was not a particularly long route, and we actually extended it a bit beyond the park because the weather was nice. The route was 6km in total, there and back, and mostly a flat easy walk.

The path starts in a park with a few walking paths. Caldeiras do Castro has a series of little pools that form naturally in the riverbeds. There is a walking path that overlooks the baths and contines along the river.

The larger walkway was not very long, and we found ourselves “como cabritas” pretty quickly. But the trail is clear and continues along the river. It is lovely and Galician Green.

After a short distance, the path moves off from the river and it is not straightfoward to recover. There is a farm blocking the river access, so you have to walk along the perimeter until you can guess where it is polite to cross down back into the river.

Fortunately, I encountered a farmer driving his tractor. He was able to give me directions and a few tail wags. He was, indeed, a very good boy. He pointed us down the middle of the farm where there was a small path between two fields.

On the other side of farm was a very sturdy bridge… so of course I had to cross it.

And on the other side was this really lovely island where the river split to flow around the sand bar.

The island was not very big but it was pretty! We had hoped to cross the river here to return, but there was not a second bridge so we went back the way we came.

We followed the river back and passed a little mill.

Returning to the car, we took the route closer to the water rather than the path higher up, so this is essentially the close-up of the first photo in the series. It looks like aa nice place to take a swim. It was a little cool for me by the time we came back, but I would absolutely return.

Farmer Dog was so cute he needed two photos. I could not decide which was more adorable so here is the other.