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Here’s What We Know About GPT-4o (& What to Expect from GPT-5)

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Here’s What We Know About GPT-4o (& What to Expect from GPT-5)

Today, OpenAI announced its newest AI model, called GPT-4o. The “o” stands for “omni,” because GPT-4o can accept text, audio, and image input and deliver outputs in any combination of these mediums.

Buzz about a new generative pre-trained transformer from OpenAI has been circulating for months. “We’re going to make the model smarter; it’s going to be better at everything across the board,” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said discussing future iterations of GPT at the World Government Summit in January. “This is a bigger deal than it sounds because what makes these models so magical is that they’re general.”

Performance typically scales linearly with data and model size unless there’s a major architectural breakthrough, explains Joe Holmes, Curriculum Developer at Codecademy who specializes in AI and machine learning. “However, I still think even incremental improvements will generate surprising new behavior,” he says. Indeed, watching the OpenAI team perform live translation, guide a stressed person through breathing exercises, and tutor algebra problems with GPT-4o is pretty amazing.

While we still don’t know when GPT-5 will come out, this new release provides more insight about what a smarter and better GPT could really be capable of. Ahead we’ll break down what we know about GPT-5, how it could compare to previous GPT models, and what we hope comes out of this new release.

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A brief timeline of GPT models

June 2018

GPT-1

OpenAI put generative pre-trained language models on the map in 2018, with the release of GPT-1. This groundbreaking model was based on transformers, a specific type of neural network architecture (the “T” in GPT) and trained on a dataset of over 7,000 unique unpublished books. You can learn about transformers and how to work with them in our free course Intro to AI Transformers.

February 2019

GPT-2

In late 2019, OpenAI developed GPT-2, the successor to GPT-1. This large transformer-based language model had 1.5 billion parameters — variables that the model learns from data during training — and was trained on a dataset of 8 million web pages. For context: that’s 10 times the parameters and data as GPT-1 used.

June 2020

GPT-3

With GPT-3, OpenAI upped the number of parameters to 175 billion.

November 2022

GPT-3.5

In November 2022, ChatGPT entered the chat, adding chat functionality and the ability to conduct human-like dialogue to the foundational model. The first iteration of ChatGPT was fine-tuned from GPT-3.5, a model between 3 and 4. If you want to learn more about ChatGPT and prompt engineering best practices, our free course Intro to ChatGPT is a great way to understand how to work with this powerful tool.

March 2023

GPT-4

The latest GPT model came out in March 2023 and is “more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions than GPT-3.5,” according to the OpenAI blog about the release. In the video below, Greg Brockman, President and Co-Founder of OpenAI, shows how the newest model handles prompts in comparison to GPT-3.5.

May 2024

GPT-4o

OpenAI announced their new AI model called GPT-4o, which stands for “omni.” It can respond to audio input incredibly fast and has even more advanced vision and audio capabilities.

TBD

GPT-5

An official release date for GPT-5 hasn’t been announced yet.

What to expect from GPT-5

Even more multimodality

When Bill Gates had Sam Altman on his podcast in January, Sam said that “multimodality” will be an important milestone for GPT in the next five years. In an AI context, multimodality describes an AI model that can receive and generate more than just text, but other types of input like images, speech, and video.

In September 2023, OpenAI announced ChatGPT’s enhanced multimodal capabilities, enabling you to have a verbal conversation with the chatbot, while GPT-4 with Vision can interpret images and respond to questions about them. And in February, OpenAI introduced a text-to-video model called Sora, which is currently not available to the public.

The newest model, GPT-4o, uses one neural network to process all different types of input: audio, vision, and text. For example, you could use your device’s camera to show ChatGPT an object and say, “I’m learning Spanish, how do you say the name of this item in Spanish?” The new model will detect what the object is and translate it incredibly quickly. Take a look at this demo video from OpenAI to see it in action:

Future GPT upgrades will expand on the modalities that ChatGPT can work with: “Clearly, people really want that,” Sam said on the podcast Unconfuse Me. “We’ve launched images and audio, and it had a much stronger response than we expected.”

Improved “reasoning” and accuracy

AI systems can’t reason, understand, or think — but they can compute, process, and calculate probabilities at a high level that’s convincing enough to seem human-like. And these capabilities will become even more sophisticated with the next GPT models.

“Maybe the most important areas of progress will be around reasoning ability,” Sam said on Unconfuse Me. “Right now, GPT-4 can reason in only extremely limited ways.” GPT-5 will likely be able to solve problems with greater accuracy because it’ll be trained on even more data with the help of more powerful computation.

“Pre-training” is the process where the model learns from training data to generate probability distributions. The more diverse and robust the training data is, the better AI is at generating new content.

One thing to keep an eye on is the context window, Joe says. A token is a chunk of text, usually a little smaller than a word, that’s represented numerically when it’s passed to the model. “It’s basically how the model understands language,” Joe says. Every model has a context window that represents how many tokens it can process at once. GPT-4o currently has a context window of 128,000, while Google’s Gemini 1.5 has a context window of up to 1 million tokens.

“If GPT-5 makes similarly huge context available to the public I think it’ll have profound implications for research, learning, and analysis across a variety of domains,” Joe says. “You’ll be able to paste huge amounts of knowledge into a single question you’re asking the model, saving countless hours and dramatically increasing the productivity of knowledge work.”

Customization capabilities

The ability to customize and personalize GPTs for specific tasks or styles is one of the most important areas of improvement, Sam said on Unconfuse Me. Currently, OpenAI allows anyone with ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise to build and explore custom “GPTs” that incorporate instructions, skills, or additional knowledge. Codecademy actually has a custom GPT (formerly known as a “plugin”) that you can use to find specific courses and search for Docs. Take a look at the GPT Store to see the creative GPTs that people are building.

Sam hinted that future iterations of GPT could allow developers to incorporate users’ own data. “The ability to know about you, your email, your calendar, how you like appointments booked, connected to other outside data sources, all of that,” he said on the podcast.

How to use GPT-5

The release date for GPT-5 hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s safe to say that it’s in the works. (OpenAI had been working on GPT-4 for at least two years before it officially launched.)

GPT-4o will be available for everyone, even people with ChatGPT’s free membership tier (paid ChatGPT Plus subscribers have higher message limits). Additionally, developers can access GPT-4o through the API as a text and vision model. You can select the model you want to work with from a dropdown menu in ChatGPT:

You can change the model you work with in ChatGPT by clicking the dropdown menu.

TL;DR

So, what does all this mean for you, a programmer who’s learning about AI and curious about the future of this amazing technology? The upcoming model GPT-5 may offer significant improvements in speed and efficiency, so there’s reason to be optimistic and excited about its problem-solving capabilities. But it’s not going to instantly change the world.

“People have these unrealistic expectations that GPT-5 is going to be doing back flips in the background in my bedroom while it also writes all my code for me and talks on the phone with my mom or something like that,” Logan Kilpatrick, Head of DevRel at OpenAI, said on an episode of Lenny’s Podcast. “I’m like, ‘That’s not the case.’ It’s just going to be this very effective tool, very similar to GPT-4, and it’s also going to be become very normal very quickly.”

It’s crucial to view any flashy AI release through a pragmatic lens and manage your expectations. As AI practitioners, it’s on us to be careful, considerate, and aware of the shortcomings whenever we’re deploying language model outputs, especially in contexts with high stakes.

The best way to prepare for GPT-5 is to keep familiarizing yourself with the GPT models that are available. You can start by taking our AI courses that cover the latest AI topics, from Intro to ChatGPT to Build a Machine Learning Model and Intro to Large Language Models. We also have AI courses and case studies in our catalog that incorporate a chatbot that’s powered by GPT-3.5, so you can get hands-on experience writing, testing, and refining prompts for specific tasks using the AI system. For example, in Pair Programming with Generative AI Case Study, you can learn prompt engineering techniques to pair program in Python with a ChatGPT-like chatbot. Look at all of our new AI features to become a more efficient and experienced developer who’s ready once GPT-5 comes around.

Blueprint for success: Lisa’s degree story began with two certificates from HEC Paris

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Blueprint for success: Lisa’s degree story began with two certificates from HEC Paris

Lisa is a proud mom and homeschool teacher in Barbados, the most easterly island of the Caribbean Archipelago. She dreams of starting a business that supports other businesses caring for their employees. She wants to provide them with health services that feel safe to access. With this dream in mind, Lisa is earning her MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from HEC Paris. But how’d she find her way to this inventive program from the business school ranked first in Europe by the Financial Times? She began with two University Certificates from HEC Paris, earning credit towards the degree program before she ever even enrolled in it.

You see, learners like Lisa have multiple University Certificates to choose from, if they want to get a valuable credential now while also seeing if further learning might be for them. Lisa chose the Leading Innovation With Creativity University Certificate and the Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship University Certificate. “HEC Paris certificates stood out for me because they are credit eligible and there is a clear path shown to the MSc program,” she reveals, adding, “Doing the certificates helped me to enroll because I thought it was a good indication of the degree workload and expectations.”

With the online format, Lisa found she could learn at her own pace without straining her time or finances. She could estimate the time her studies would take her each week, and she’d spend a few hours on the program most days. Lisa describes the Coursera platform as easy to navigate, emphasizing she’s able to keep a record of her accomplishments and benefit from valuable feedback. She appreciated getting the viewpoints of her peers via discussion prompts too, and she enjoys the congratulatory messages she receives when she finishes a task because it feels like a celebration of her success.

From her certificate programs to her degree program, Lisa notes, “All the effort put in has value. Each course complements the other in the way it is built and delivered.” She also mentions, “The courses are all interesting on their own. The information can be applied right away. Tangible results are experienced.” Looking back now on her experience, Lisa tells us she was able to go beyond acquiring knowledge by learning how to apply and refine it as well. When asked why she preferred learning from HEC Paris on Coursera, Lisa says the university is globally recognized with great staff and strong alumni—plus, the cost isn’t prohibitive and it’s accessible because of the online platform.

Lisa goes on to say that the skills she’s learned have helped her change careers. She cites new strategic skills for innovation and negotiation, as well as new design skills for creativity and organization. She also highlights new skills in areas like leadership, marketing, analysis, and communication. Ultimately, Lisa tells us she’s learned so much both personally and professionally, gaining a wonderful perspective on how she and her business can thrive.
For other learners who may be considering a similar path with HEC Paris, Lisa wants you to know that learning online doesn’t mean you’re learning alone. She points out the people who’ll support you want you to succeed, and that you can make use of the many available resources while also asking for help when you need it. If you’re thinking of switching or advancing your career in the business world, check out the MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship today and see if earning a University Certificate from HEC Paris could be one of your first steps.

8 Coding & Tech Books to Read During AAPI Heritage Month 

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8 Coding & Tech Books to Read During AAPI Heritage Month 

Still get excited about a summer reading list? Us too! May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and as you kick off the summer season, you can also expand your knowledge of tech history by reading books written about AAPI issues and by AAPI authors.  

Ahead we’ve put together a list of tech-centric books we think any code aficionado should read this May. Some of these books are devour-in-one-sitting reads, while others will earn a permanent spot on your desk. We hope these titles help you develop a heightened appreciation for the AAPI technologists who paved the way and inspire you to make history of your own. 

This book unpacks the history of the “model minority myth,” a stereotype that all Asian Americans are hardworking, successful, and compliant in contrast to other racial groups. Historian Ellen Wu explores how these traits were glorified during the civil rights era due to a mix of government and media influence and have continued to hold Asian Americans back. Buy it here. 

Before becoming a Product Manager, Geetika Rudra was a journalist and fascinated by American history. Geetika, who is a second-generation Indian immigrant, wrote this deep dive into the rich and untold story of South Asian civil rights in the U.S. to solidify South Asians’ place in American history. Fun fact: In addition to writing books, Geetika founded Craft-a-Books, a tech platform that crafts personalized children’s books that center around unique narratives. Buy it here. 

Ever wonder how the Chinese language, with its thousands of characters and lack of alphabet, transferred into the realm of digital computing? Thomas S. Mullaney, an Associate Professor of History at Stanford University, researched the evolution of Chinese language computing technology for this book, which comes out on May 28. It’s a history book but also speaks to the profound relationship between technology and culture. Buy it here. 

This is the memoir of Dr. Fei-Fei Li, a renowned Computer Scientist and Founding Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. The book covers her immigrant journey in America and the pivotal role she played in shaping AI technology. She also highlights present-day ethical concerns surrounding AI development, so it’s an essential read for developers and AI practitioners. Buy it here. 

Julie Zhou is a Computer Scientist with experience managing teams of all sizes — from groups of tens to hundreds of people. She wrote this guide to becoming a more thoughtful and effective manager based on her personal experience. It’s great for anyone looking to move into a managerial role or improve in their current job. Buy it here. 

If you’re a visual learner, you’ll appreciate this fully illustrated guide to algorithms. It’s written and illustrated by Full-Stack Software Engineer and Artist Aditya Y. Bhargava and will help you see computer science concepts through a new (and less confusing) lens. Buy it here. 

This is a strategy guide for anyone interested in working with AI, machine learning, and deep learning. It’s written by machine learning pioneer Andrew Ng, who provides practical advice to Machine Learning Engineers based on his own personal experience at Coursera, Baidu, and Google where he directed Google Brain, a deep learning project. Download the free ebook here. 

Data Analysts Roger D. Peng and Elizabeth Matsui wrote this book to provide a simple and thoughtful overview of how (and why) we analyze data. It’s a great read for established Data Scientists and newbies who are learning to code to someday work towards a data career. Buy it here. 

More tech book recommendations 

Reading books is a great way to supplement what you learn in our courses. Be sure to check out our other book recommendations, like these beginner Python and C++ books, or this list of inspiring books about technology written by women.  

Manager-Led Employee Development: Unlocking Potential with Alison’s Free LMS

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Manager-Led Employee Development: Unlocking Potential with Alison’s Free LMS

A quiet but strong revolution is underway in the corridors of business leadership. Managers who were once seen as bossy taskmasters are now evolving into architects of growth. What is their secret weapon? Manager-led employee development in organisations that are beginning to realise that their people are their most valuable asset.

This paradigm shift has the potential to unlock greatness, foster innovation, and propel the organisation toward long-lasting success. But how does a manager harness this power? The solution comes from a transformative ally: Alison’s Free Learning Management System (LMS) – a game changer for manager-led employee development. 

This blog will showcase the benefits, strategies, and best practices of manager-led employee development using Alison’s Free LMS. Buckle up and get ready to explore uncharted territories of professional development so you can skillfully and effectively guide and support individual employee growth.

The Power of Manager-Led Development

Customised Learning Paths

As their manager, you already understand your team members’ strengths, areas of opportunity, and professional aspirations. With Alison’s Free LMS, you can use this unique knowledge to create personalised learning paths tailored to each individual. 

Whether it’s technical skills, leadership development, or soft skills, our Free LMS allows you to curate courses that align with the individual goals of all employees under your supervision and organisational objectives. 

Adopting this approach will allow you to enhance employee engagement, motivation, and retention, improving overall performance and productivity. 

Continuous Feedback and Coaching

As Keith Webb, ICF Professional Certified Coach and author, puts it, “The purpose of coaching is to close the gap between potential and performance.” Your team members will experience tremendous growth and development when you use Alison’s Free LMS to track their progress, identify areas for improvement, and provide timely feedback. 

Managers can check in regularly to ensure that all employees under their guidance stay on track and continue to receive the support they need.

Upskilling and Reskilling

A rapidly evolving business landscape constantly requires new skills. As a manager with the employees’ best interests at heart, you can proactively address skill gaps in your charges by selecting relevant courses on Alison. 

Whether they’re mastering data analytics, digital marketing, or project management, Alison’s Free LMS offers many options.

Why Alison’s Free LMS?

Unlike traditional LMS providers, which often require lengthy implementation processes, Alison’s Free LMS gets you started swiftly. The absence of time-consuming project teams and complex setups means you enjoy efficient learning management. 

Alison’s LMS is free — there are no software, content, or implementation fees. Its revolutionary move away from the established per-user cost model enables you to administer online training to unlimited users without any financial constraints. The only cost to the business is the purchase of certificates at highly competitive rates once an employee has completed a course assessment.

Alison’s Free LMS comes preloaded with an extensive library of 5000+ quality, CPD-accredited courses. It comprises pre-made learning paths developed for various skills by industry experts. You can now say goodbye to the hassle of building everything from scratch and focus all your energies on managing the learning process.

Unlike traditional LMS contracts that lock you in for extended periods, Alison’s Free LMS offers refreshing flexibility. With no minimum term to worry about, you can adapt and evolve your manager-led employee development plan to include flexible learning schedules. 

Despite all the advantages it offers its users at zero cost, Alison’s Free LMS doesn’t compromise on features and is designed for learner-friendly navigation and engagement. You get an intuitive and straightforward LMS with robust reporting, ease of use, and an excellent learner experience. 

It is indeed “the best of both worlds – powerful and free.”

Strategies for Manager-Led Employee Development

1. Identify Learning Opportunities

As you explore Alison’s extensive course library, you will realise you’ve stumbled upon a treasure trove. There’s something for everyone, from technical expertise to soft skills like communication and time management. 

Alison’s Free LMS offers the perfect tools to encourage your team members to explore topics beyond their immediate roles. Broadening horizons fosters creativity and adaptability, two characteristics that are immensely valued.

2. Set Clear Goals

Collaboration with employees can make it easier to set clear learning objectives. Use Alison’s Free LMS to assign courses, track progress, and celebrate milestones. Since development doesn’t thrive with a one-size-fits-all approach, you can now tailor employee goals to individual aspirations and organisational needs.

3. Provide Feedback and Support

Regular feedback sessions with employees using Alison’s Free LMS can help you track their progress and provide guidance for improvement.

4. Encourage Peer Learning

Alison’s Free LMS can prove valuable in fostering a culture of knowledge sharing among your team members and enhancing collaboration and skill development.

5. Recognise Achievements

Celebrate wins! When a team member completes a course or earns a certificate, ensure they receive due recognition and praise. It is well-established that prompt acknowledgement of an achievement boosts morale and motivates employees to invest in further learning. With Alison’s Free LMS, validating achievements becomes as easy as ABC.

Some Employee Development Courses on Alison’s Free LMS

These free online courses and programmes on Alison’s platform cater to employee development needs and offer valuable skills enhancement and career growth resources across various fields.

KPIs to Track the Effectiveness of Manager-Led Employee Development

1. Management by Objectives (MBO)

MBO is a structured approach in which organisational goals are translated into specific individual goals for employees. You can sit down with your team members to collaboratively set objectives and track their progress. Monitoring the achievement of these objectives can help you evaluate an employee’s performance and alignment with organisational goals.

2. Subjective Appraisal by Manager

Most companies use periodic reviews to evaluate employee performance on various criteria, such as work quality. You can take advantage of the 9-box or 9-block grid to assess your team members based on their performance and potential and identify high-performing individuals. 

3. Product Defects

Although it originated in manufacturing, this metric has been successfully adapted to other areas. Tracking the number of product defects per employee or team can help you better understand their work quality. Fewer defects are valid proof of improved performance.

4. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

Your team’s engagement and satisfaction are a direct reflection of your leadership. Your organisation can measure leadership success by examining employee engagement scores and satisfaction survey results.

Free Online Courses from Alison to Measure Performance and KPIs

Success Stories

Onyx Management Solutions (B2B Arena):

Rialet Browning, HR Manager at Onyx Management Solutions, praises Alison’s Free LMS as “a genuine game-changer. Their free LMS provides content and cultivates a culture of perpetual learning.”

Medical Nigeria (Small Business):

Eniola Adewale, Founder of Medical Nigeria, says: “I am delighted that I can now refer my colleagues, staff, and clients to enrol and complete courses from our dedicated portal on Alison while monitoring their collective progress and securing their certificates easily.”.

Filisian Educational & Social Services:

Magie Hara, CEO of Filisian Educational & Social Services, says: “We created our Free LMS page after a free consultation, with little to no effort on our part, and had our organisation’s page up in minutes. If you have any difficulties along the way, the Alison business team is quick to offer support and assistance.”

To summarise, you hold the keys to unlocking your team’s potential. Alison’s Free LMS empowers you to create a culture of continuous learning where every employee thrives. Take the first step on this exciting journey, where you can explore a whole new world of possibilities, ignite your team’s curiosity, and watch them soar. 

Remember, great managers don’t just ensure task completion; they can sustainably cultivate employee development to improve productivity, boost morale, or future-proof their organisation. Alison’s Free LMS combines efficiency, scalability, and quality, making it a standout choice in the crowded LMS marketplace. Experience it firsthand by signing up for Alison’s Free LMS and empowering your organisation’s learning journey today!

What Activities or Hobbies Do You Do With Your Family?

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What Activities or Hobbies Do You Do With Your Family?

Is there an activity or hobby you like to do with your family, or with one family member in particular, such as your mother, a sibling, a cousin, a grandparent or an uncle?

Do you cook together? Play board games? Listen to music? Watch sports?

If not, is there an activity you’d like to start doing with your family?

In the essay “I Didn’t Truly Know My Mother Until I Cooked With Her,” the New York Times food reporter and cookbook author Priya Krishna writes about early memories of being in the kitchen with her mother and what it has meant to her. She begins:

My mother and I were not the “Gilmore Girls.”

Growing up, I didn’t open up to her about the people I had crushes on, the friend groups that were on the outs or who was invited to whose bat mitzvah.

But I did help her cook. Every day, when she came home from the office, I’d set up my textbooks on the kitchen island and pretend to do my homework, while really, I was gazing at my mother, the inimitable Ritu Krishna, as she deftly sizzled spices in ghee and smacked the valve of the pressure cooker closed with a spoon when it whistled. Partway through her cooking, I’d be summoned to wash chiles, chop cilantro or taste the food for salt.

We are opposites, my mother and I. Where she is poised, classy and no-nonsense, I am goofy, outgoing, a people pleaser. My whole childhood, we struggled to find common ground. We weren’t just from different generations. My mother was an immigrant from India; I was an American kid trying to navigate the world without a language to understand my identity. It was also very intimidating to have a mother who wakes up looking as if she just got a blowout, who is deeply admired by all her friends and co-workers, and who doesn’t wear deodorant because she, in her own words, “doesn’t smell.” I didn’t know how I would ever live up to the standards she set for me, let alone for herself.

But when she cooked, she was at her most accessible — changed out of whatever fashionable outfit she had worn that day, her hair pulled back with a clip, bobbing her head to Abba or Strunz and Farah as she nursed a glass of wine. In the kitchen, our relationship hummed.

On my birthday, we would make a chocolate cake from a Betty Crocker dessert cookbook together, decorating the top with rose petals and doilies. When I was gifted a children’s cookbook with a recipe for “green spaghetti” (pesto) — we made it one night and marveled at what would become our new favorite pasta sauce.

She also reflects on how cooking together shaped their relationship:

I don’t think I realized it at the time, but cooking was one of the few ways we could really understand each other. As I got older, I became only more angsty, more rebellious, more frustrated by our generational and cultural differences. Yet I still wanted to cook alongside her, and she still wanted my company in the kitchen. Maybe she didn’t get the social significance of a grand prom-posal, and maybe I didn’t get why she wouldn’t let me drive with music on, but we both understood that this pot of beans would be greatly enhanced with a drizzle of tamarind chutney and a fistful of chopped red onion.

I was socialized to want a mother who was my best friend. Instead, I got one who awed, inspired and slightly terrified me. It took me a long time to appreciate her for who she is. But our path to mutual appreciation was paved in the kitchen. There’s something about cooking together — doing menial, repetitive tasks like washing vegetables or measuring spices (not that my mother did any measuring) — that makes conversation and connection easier. It lowers the stakes.

Students, read the entire essay and then tell us:

  • Does anything in the essay remind you of an activity or hobby you do with a family member or another special person in your life? If so, how has it shaped your relationship? Do you feel closer to the person because of this time you spend together? What have you learned from and about one another through this activity?

  • Tell us about one specific memory of doing that activity with that person. Be vivid in your description and use sensory details. What does this moment mean to you, looking back on it now?

  • If you don’t have a shared interest or hobby with a family member, is there something you’ve wanted to try, or get more into? Can you think of someone in your family who might be interested in learning or trying out the activity with you?

  • Ms. Krishna writes of her mother, “I don’t think I realized it at the time, but cooking was one of the few ways we could really understand each other.” She also notes that it was hard to find common ground with her mother when she was younger. Have you ever felt something similar? Do you sometimes find it hard to connect with your parents? What, if anything, have you found that has helped you bond? What advice would you give to someone else in this position?

  • As you know, Ms. Krishna went on to become a food writer. Do you think that any of your current interests, hobbies, activities or pursuits could be something you do for life, perhaps even as your career?

  • Does the essay you just read make you want to get in the kitchen to cook or bake? If so, who do you want there with you? Do you know how to cook and bake? If you do, who taught you?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

Word of the Day: bazaar

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Word of the Day: bazaar

The word bazaar has appeared in 103 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 17 in “In Sanliurfa, the Silk Road Meets the Stone Age” by Barry Yourgrau:

Urfa’s bazaar, parts of which date back over five centuries, sits close by. Really an agglomeration of bazaars, it’s a bustling sprawl of small shops, alleys and crowded passages, the congestion relieved by Ottoman courtyards.

Villagers come from the countryside for their shopping — everything from wedding fabrics to gold, knives, watermelons and handmade cradles. “From north of the city they’re Kurds, south they’re Arab,” Dr. Bedlek explained. “And they dress up for the trip.”

Can you correctly use the word bazaar in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

If you want a better idea of how bazaar can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

What’s Going On in This Picture? | May 13, 2024

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What’s Going On in This Picture? | May 13, 2024

1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?

We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!

More?

• See all images in this series or slide shows of 40 of our favorite images — or 40 more.

• Learn more about this feature in this video, and discover how and why other teachers are using it in their classrooms in our on-demand webinar.

• Find out how teachers can be trained in the Visual Thinking Strategies facilitation method.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Are You Good at Apologizing?

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onlinefreecourse
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Are You Good at Apologizing?

When was the last time you gave or received an apology?

How successful was it? Did the apology soothe hurt feelings or remedy the situation? Or was it defensive, halfhearted and insincere — only making things worse?

In “How to Apologize Like You Mean It,” Jancee Dunn shares six steps for making amends:

Most of us can remember receiving an unsatisfying apology. A friend of mine recently got a text message after a Bumble date stood her up: “Sry,” it read. (“He didn’t even spell out the whole word,” she told me.)

When my kid was in preschool, an email arrived in my inbox. “Sorry your daughter was bitten,” it said. (The sender’s child had done the biting.)

Why is it so hard to apologize? Why do so many of us get it wrong? Saying you’re sorry involves vulnerability, said Lisa Leopold, a researcher who studies apologies.

“We also have to admit our own wrongdoing, our own failings,” she added, “and that requires tremendous humility.”

But it’s worth making the effort, Leopold said. A meta-analysis of 175 studies found that apologies did, indeed, influence forgiveness. Other research suggests that apologies can benefit the giver as well as the receiver by reducing guilt, fostering self-compassion and strengthening relationships.

But not all apologies are equal. For a show of remorse to be truly effective, it should be focused on the other person’s feelings and needs, not your own, said Karina Schumann, an associate professor of social psychology and head of the Conflict Resolution Lab at the University of Pittsburgh who researches the topic.

Ms. Dunn says that while the ingredients of a successful apology can vary, there are six that many experts agree on, such as “acknowledge any harm you’ve caused” and “offer to repair.”

Here are the first two tips:

Express regret.

Do not say “I want to apologize,” or “I would like to apologize,” Leopold said. “A lot of people use that language,” she explained, but expressing a desire isn’t as effective as apologizing. Instead, simply say “I apologize,” or “I’m sorry,” she said.

Using an “I” statement strengthens your apology by taking responsibility, Leopold said. “I’m sorry for my outburst this morning,” for example, is more effective than saying “that shouldn’t have happened.”

Explain — but keep it brief.

Being specific about what you’ve done can make the other person feel understood, said Beth Polin, an associate professor of management at Eastern Kentucky University, who studies apologies. But, she added, you should keep it sincere and short.

Skip justifications and excuses, she said, because an apology “should not be to make us feel better or defend our actions.”

And while you are explaining, Leopold said, avoid conditional words like “but,” which can weaken the apology (“I apologize for the delay, but I had multiple deadlines to meet”).

“If” is another conditional that helps us dodge responsibility. “‘I apologize if I offended anybody’ implies that there may have been no victims and hence, no transgression,” Leopold said.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

  • How good are you at apologizing? Do you feel comfortable saying sorry? Or do you usually give self-serving, defensive and excuse-filled apologies? Have you ever given one when you didn’t really “mean it”?

  • What makes a “successful” apology? What’s the best one you have ever given or received? How did it help to repair or remedy the situation?

  • What makes an “unsatisfying” apology? What’s the worst one you have ever given or received? Why was it so bad?

  • What do you think of the six tips for a successful apology offered in the essay? Which, if any, would you like to incorporate into your own future acts of contrition? What are your dos and don’ts for saying sorry?

  • Ms. Dunn writes that apologies can benefit the giver as well as the receiver by “reducing guilt, fostering self-compassion and strengthening relationships.” Do you agree? What value do you see in genuine apologies?

  • After reading the article, do you think you are more likely to give a sincere and meaningful apology in the future?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

Pet Alligator

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onlinefreecourse
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Pet Alligator

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this photo, or write about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about the related true story.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

Word of the Day: reconnoiter

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Word of the Day: reconnoiter

The word reconnoiter has appeared in three articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 14 in “He Was Spinning Vinyl. She Spun His World Around” by Rosalie R. Radomsky:

“Do you like vinyl?” asked Nasir Cedell Qadree as he walked up to her in the Union Market district of Northeast Washington, trying to plug Byrdland Records, a nearby vinyl shop where he spent Saturday afternoons spinning funk, soul, boogie, disco and house music.

Mr. Qadree, 38, primarily works as a managing partner of Zeal Capital Partners, a venture capital firm he founded, which focuses on investing in diverse management teams.

“I do,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

He was encouraged by her more-than-one-word reply.

“I’m spinning vinyl at 2 p.m.,” he said. “You should come by.”

They then locked eyes, took off their Covid masks and smiled.

Ms. Louvouezo, 37, a single mother whose son Myel, now 7, was away for the weekend, quickly called her friend. They decided to reconnoiter at Byrdland before lunch.

Can you correctly use the word reconnoiter in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

If you want a better idea of how reconnoiter can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.

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