Incandescent ID

How do we save ourselves!? This is actually a very difficult subject to discuss. While you can't quite tell in that photo, I was actually attending a medieval feast over Yule. Which is exactly what this all feels like. Living in medieval times and being ripped from our realities without our consent.  Our assignment this week is all about AI prompting. The image I created above was created by Google Gemini, using the prompt "Create an image of me worrying about AI tearing my hair out." I then had to upload an image they wanted me to have them transform, and that's what Gemini came up with. The only tweak I had to make was they had the "AI REPLACES ALL JOBS" image twice, so I asked them to replace it with "AI DATA CENTERS DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT." What's nice about Gemini is you don't actually have to be all that detailed in what you ask it, and you will still get very good responses. Meaning, yes, I use Gemini. On a somewhat regular basis...

Formatting is Your Friend Help yourself by helping your readers They'll thank you for it. (Really, they will) You don't normally think about formatting when you think blog  do you? A common misconception is you are just writing to write. Blogs are for putting your thoughts down on paper (or on screen in this case).  But do you know what formatting can actually do? It helps draw the eye. It helps the flow of your post. For all those people who have a hard time reading and only want the TL;DR , headings help draw the eye and give readers an idea what the post is about and whether or not they want to continue reading. Meaning, it's important what type of headers you choose.  You may have noticed I have subsequently smaller headers above. they are listed a little different in Blogger than they are in programs such as Word or other word processing programs. Below, I wrote how each is labeled in Blogger and I've put the normal descriptions in parentheses. Major Heading (Title...

Created by Gemini AI No one said instructional design was easy. Far from it. But a lot of people don't even know what this field entails. Some people may not have even heard of Instructional Design. I know I never knew it existed until a few years ago... It all started with a rotation opportunity at work. They called it the "Training Experience". They taught us their corporate way of training facilitation and had us lead virtual instructor led classes to upskill and onboard various sales and service specialists. However, I felt the experience was lacking. There were certain things I wanted to know that weren't being taught. So I decided to research how I could increase my knowledge of Training and Development. I was thrilled to find some Graduate Certificate programs at my local university. As I completed certificates in Training and Development and in Teaching Adult Learners, I discovered it was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from getting a Masters, so I did that ...

DID YOU KNOW... That you can screen record using two different programs at the same time? I did not! But now I do. This week, my HRD class is exploring screencasting using a program called ScreenPal . It's a very interesting program that you can download and use for free. Without creating an account, you can record up to 5 minutes at a time. With a free account, you can record up to 15 min. With a paid account, you can record an unlimited amount. We used the guest method allowing up to 5 min.  I was used to using the PRT SCR button on my PC laptop to bring up the snipping tool menu. That's a simple way to take screenshots or screen recordings. It's limited in extra features other than just recording your screen. But it can get the job done. I was looking forward to trying out ScreenPal to see what it can do.  What I was pleased to find out is you can actually use both at the same time!  WHAAATT? NOTE: Blogger only allows videos with a 100mb limit. If your video is larger ...

  What type of image should I use? Welcome back! Last week I gave you a glimpse of what Adobe Express can do when it comes to image editing. Now, let's actually start diving into it all. As shown above in the numbered sections, it shows that you can convert images to either a JPG, PNG, or SVG image file. But what do these even mean? It's important to understand the differences between them to know where you should use what type of image. 1. JPG Not that you need to know this, unless you are answering trivia questions, JPG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. You want to use this type of image when you are working with photographs, detailed images, or need web images with small file sizes.   The downside is they lose quality when compressed. They are raster based. Raster means a digital image made up of a rectangular grid of tiny colored (usually square) pixels. Meaning if you zoom in, it will be pixelated. And you can't make them transparent. 2. PNG Standing for Po...

This last week, Robin showed us how to do some elementary image editing using PowerPoint. Did you know it's a little easier in Keynote on a Mac?  Here, let me show you how. Keynote macOS 26 Adding Shapes Confession time. My Mac is old and I need a replacement, so I've been using iCloud.com. But good news, the experience using iCloud.com to use Keynote is just as easy as on the computer. When you first open the program, you'll see the following top center: Click the paperclip and it will show you the option to add whatever image you wish to edit. I plan on teaching the basics of editing using Adobe Express, so let's start with that. In a future blog, I will share the differences of .jpg, .png, and .svg. But I need to number each one to help guide readers to what I'll be discussing when. So we need to make that image. We can accomplish this with shapes . Click the circle/square image to open the Shapes menu. Then simply click on what shape you wish to use. I chose the...