⭐️⭐️In this issue⭐️⭐️

• The case of the missing Sticky Note - a cautionary tale and bug report

• All Playground Stories temporarily down

• Seeking content for Dunk The Teacher!!

• Escape the planet is on the Marketplace $3

• Editorial: GPT-4o

Facebook

😑📘Koala Teachers Family recap

Another relatively slow week for the Facebook group.

Katie Hamons is looking for writing teachers to help with a webinar

This bug is still with us, just checked

Koala Go

🐨🦟The case of the missing Sticky Note - a cautionary tale and bug report

Over the last few days I submitted a couple of Stories and Playgrounds. As per usual, I did a walk-through to check everything out before submitted them. Only later did I notice that there were missing Sticky Notes.

Naturally I figured that I just screwed something up. But after the third time, I decided to investigate further.

I had a couple of clues, each time it was one missing Sticky Note, a crucial one, that I had added or changed or moved just before submission. The other clue was the annoying habit of your avatar jumping or spinning around while typing on the configure Story, End screen menu.

I did a quick test, and sure enough, any time you delete a character while typing in the submission form or the configure Story, End screen menu, you will also delete any Sticky Note that you still have targeted. 

After more investigating it looks like almost all the menus have this issue including the chat window, and not only that, but the Whiteboard also has the same problems.

So, learn from my troubles, make doubly sure that you don’t have ANYTHING targeted when typing in pop-up menus, forms, and even the chat window.

This bug has been reported, verified and should be fixed in due time. Thank you Koala Team!

Koala Go

🐨🦟 All Playground Stories temporarily down

I reported this bug a few days ago, it must be another tough one, because it is still with us at the time of this publishing.

When you try and run Playground Stories they get stuck on this screen.

No good workarounds for this one, however, I did let one student play it during class time in the Playground, She is an adult student but loves the games.

Before sending a Story link to somebody, check to see if it runs first.

Playground

💧👩🏻‍🏫Seeking content for Dunk The Teacher!!

Do you like the concept behind Dunk The Teacher but it doesn’t have the right content for you? Send me an email about it.

My original plan was to offer many different versions with the content that teachers like yourself wanted (each version at $3), but since I cannot read minds I need you to tell me what you need.😆

Marketplace

🐨🏪Escape the planet is on the Marketplace $3

Well after replacing that pesky Sticky Note, this Playground is ready to go. For some reason there are no pictures of it on the Marketplace, but you can see what it looks like below, or

:Edit: There was a bug with Playground Stories when this newsletter was published, therefore, this Playground Story may not work.⬇️

You find yourself with a broken down spaceship. You will need to navigate a maze answering multiple choice questions (15 questions), buy the parts for your ship, and eventually repair your ship so you can escape the planet.

This first version is for prepositions of place in, at, on. If this is not the content you need then you can contact me to make a version with your content, Or you can fill it with your own content.

I will be handling this template the same way as Dunk The Teacher, of which there are now a few versions to select from, all versions are just $3.

Editorial

✍️🃏GPT-4o, another leap forward

Only a few days ago, OpenAI released their new and improved LLM, and once again it is not just a little better than the previous model, it is next level.

I wonder how long they will be able to continue these constant breakthroughs, will their development track follow something like Moore’s Law? If it does then the next few years will be unbelievable.

Anyway, the 4o model is short for 4 omni, as this model is multimodal, it can hear, it can see, it can speak and it all runs on your phone. I currently cannot get the app to work here in Vietnam and I talked to people in other countries that cannot use the app in their contry yet either. The demos posted all over the web are both exciting and little disturbing at the same time.

4o talks in a very natural way, it tells jokes, it can display (or should I say imitate) emotion, it can sing, it can carry on conversations with other Als, it can translate in real time. The latency (delay), at least in the demos, is very low.

This model can also create images, if you scroll further down the page you can see some examples of that. If scroll even further down you can a few bloopers from 4o.

Submissions

🙋🏽‍♂️🤷🏻‍♀️How do I submit my Playground to be featured in Koala Bites?

If you have a Playground you would like to have in this newsletter, or for that matter, anything the readers might find useful. Just click that button that says “Submissions”. That will open an email for you to describe what you would like to submit.

I like to schedule a time where I can come to your classroom and tour the Playground. Then I will do a short write-up. There is no cost for this.

Bye-bye

👋🏾Well that’s it for issue 21

Don’t forget to share it with your friends or on social media!