【推荐1】Many experts have praised AI’s groundbreaking potential to help people become way more efficient at their jobs, and a lot of educators have been trying it out for themselves, including me.

I’ve used ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool that can instantly answer seemingly any instruction, in my job. Of course, there are potential downsides to the new technology. It can produce inaccurate or one-sided responses based on faulty data it collects, and it has the potential to cause huge data privacy problems. Despite those risks, I have used such AI-powered tools to plan lessons, provide feedback on student assignments, and respond to parent emails. And I’m looking for other ways to use the technology to make my job easier.

Take two other teachers, for example. Mike Kerr, a high school English teacher in Tennessee, uses ChatGPT to reduce Lexile levels-the measure of an individual’s reading ability and the difficulty of a text -for his students. High school students are often required to read relatively complex classic novels. The reading homework “can be a real big task for an English learner in their first couple of months here”. To help them, Kerr uses ChatGPT to give summaries of works of literature, which saves him from having to read all the assigned literary works, so he can have more time to better guide them through the text.

April Edwards, a 6th grade social studies teacher in Texas, shares ways that she uses AI in her instruction on a social media platform. “I use AI to help create lesson plans, presentations, to write emails, and to create checklists.AI is a great resource to use as a starting point for a task or to give you ideas,” Edwards said. She has not introduced AI to her students, because she wants to fully understand it before allowing students to use it in the classroom. “My goal is to show them how to use AI responsibly and effectively and demonstrate that to my students. If I am using AI irresponsibly, then so will they,” Edwards said.

【推荐2】Fabrizio Fidati, who lost his right hand in an accident 25 years ago, had not experienced the feeling of temperature in his missing fingers until trials for a technology unlocked the cool of iced water and heat of a stove burner for him.

Eventually, the researchers hope it could lead to a more natural feeling of loved ones when he is wearing his prosthetic (义肢). With thermal electrodes( 热电极) placed on the skin of their remaining arm, amputees such as Fidati reported feeling hot or cold in their phantom(幻象) hand and fingers, as well as directly on the arm, according to the trials by the Swiss university EPFL.

The 59-year old Italian is among 27 amputees who took part in the trials, with 17 of them reporting a successful test. Those tested have also been able to differentiate between plastic, glass and copper，pointing to where they feel the feelings on images of a hand.

“By stimulating (刺激) specific parts of the remaining arm of the amputees, we could induce the sense of touch in the missing phantom hands,“ said Dr. Solaiman Shokur, a senior scientist at EPFL who co-led the study. “What they feel in this phantom hand is similar to what they feel on their undamaged hand.”

The technology, which has been tested for more than two years, does not need to be implanted. It can be worn on the skin and combined with a regular prosthetic.

Dr. Silvestro Micera, who co-led the study with Dr. Shokur, said they now wanted to test the device on a larger scale before combining it with other technologies to improve sense of touch in amputees. “We think that we could give people a better sense of embodiment of their hands and maybe even give them the possibility to feel their loved ones in a much more natural way,” Dr. Shokur added.

【推荐3】Fashion house Alabama Chanin has a new line of organic cotton clothing made from its own cotton field. It’s not just an experiment in keeping production local but also an attempt to bring back to life the tradition of clothes-making in the Deep South.

Alabama Chanin, the fashion and lifestyle company founded by Natalie Chanin and Billy Reid, is best known for her flowing, made-to-order organic garments (衣服), entirely hand-made and inspired by the rural South of the 1930s and ‘40s’. “It’s not just ‘factory work’,” Chanin says. “This is a skill that’s dying out in this country. ” “It’s part of the nation’s ‘cultural sustainability to preserve these things’,” Chanin says, “to be able to make our clothes.”

Her business partner, K. P. McNeill, is the one who first thought about growing their own cotton. The ideas of going from field to garment made Chanin think of how generations ago, manufacturing was of a vertical (纵向的) affair. Could that be done today? And organically? They came up with a plan to test it. Reid says it meant no artificial chemicals. “A lot of the weeds had to be pulled by hand. It’s not just your normal cotton operation that’s automated,” Reid says.

Chanin holds a piece of ivory-colored cloth made from the hand-picked cotton grown in the Alabama field. “I’ve never seen cotton quite as clean and clear as this,” Chanin says, “I don’t think people have seen that since cotton was really a driving factor of destruction in this country.”

Chanin says this project is about transforming cotton into something more modern. “I mean, cotton has an ugly history. It has built fortunes, it’s destroyed nations, it’s enslaved people,” says Chanin. “But to me this cotton is part of making a new story for cotton.”

【推荐2】Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Shenzhen artists are sending hope and gratitude to the Chinese COVID-19 frontline workers through 215 artworks at the “We Are Together” exhibition running until May 17. The paintings, sculptures, photographs and music videos show medical workers, delivery men, cleaners, police officers and volunteers working tirelessly during the outbreak. Meanwhile, a selection of master Quan Shanyue’s paintings featuring flowers and birds are also on display until July.

Hours: 9 a. m. -12 pm; 2 pm. 4. 30 p. m. closed Mondays.

He Xiangning Art Museum

Selected paintings by master He Xiangning are offering an in-depth review of her revolutionary and artistic career. The paintings mainly portray plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, tigers, and landscapes. Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese oil paintings produced in the past 30 years are also on display at the “AS Times Go By” exhibition until May 5.

Hours: 9:30 a. m. -4:30 p. m. , closed Mondays.

MixC Shenzhen Bay

The “Fantastic Dali” exhibition, running until May 5, presents an unimaginable world of 200 artworks by Spanish master Salvador Dali. Another exhibition running until May 28 features painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by Ming artist Qiu Ying (1494-1552) and vivid scenes for visitors to take photos.

Hours (Dali):10 a. m. -7 p. m. (Mon. -Fri. ), 10 a. m. -9 p. m. (Sat. -Sun)

Hours(Qiu Ying):10 a. m. -9 p. m. , closed

Mondays. Cartoon Museum

At this exhibition, you can come behind the scenes with us to see how cartoon characters are created in the past 30 years. You can feel the moon dust flying into your face or take part in a wildlife adventure in our 3-D cinema. You will search for and see elephants, rhinos, buffalos, lions and leopards, closely but safely with advanced 3D technology.

Hours: 9 a. m. -6:30 p. m. , closed Mondays

【推荐3】Australia may be better known for its beaches and natural wonders – and, of course, kangaroo s and koalas. But it is also a country rich in art and culture. From historical to contemporary art, including both local and international artists, there is a lot to be seen in Australia. Here is a selection of three Australian art galleries and museums to visit.

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Located in Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of the largest art galleries in Australia. It was first founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872. Presenting nearly 40 exhibitions per year, the gallery holds a strong collection of Aboriginal (土著的), Asian, Australian, and Pacific art. European and contemporary art are also present, as well as photographic works.

Location: Sydney, New South Wales

Opening Hours: Daily, 10 a. m.-5 p. m.(Wednesday s 10 a. m.-9 p. m.)

Admission: Free entry (a few special exhibitions might require tickets)

Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia holds one of the largest art collections in Australia: almost 47,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, ceramics (陶器), jewelry, and much more. The collection of Australian art is especially renowned, but European, Asian, and North American art are also represented. Located in Adelaide, the gallery welcomes around 512,000 visitors per year.

Location: Adelaide, South Australia

Opening Hours: Daily, 10 p. m.-5 p. m.

Admission: Free entry(charges may apply for some exhibitions)

Heide Museum of Modern Art

The Heide Museum of Modern Art is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Bulleen, Victoria. It was founded by the couple John and Sunday Reed, who collected a broad range of art themselves. The Heide consists of three exhibition buildings that hold a collection of over 3,500 works in all media. Besides that, a sculpture park and Heide’s heritage-listed gardens can also be visited. Admission fees are required to enter the museum but entrance to the gardens is free.

Location: Bulleen, Victoria

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a. m.-5 p. m.

Admission: Adult-$20, free for children under 16 (other concessions can be found on the museum’s website)

【推荐3】In 2001, artist Michael Landy destroyed all his possessions in a work he called Break Down. The exhibition, which was held in an empty department store in central London, cost £100,000 to put on and lasted for two weeks. Landy had spent three years cataloguing the 7,226 separate items.

More than 45,000 people came to watch him and his ten helpers destroy everything he’d ever owned, right down to his last sock, his passport and even his beloved Saab (萨博车).

Many of those who came to the exhibition applauded and encouraged Landy in his two weeks of destruction, but his mother wasn’t one of them. “I had to throw my mum out,” said Landy. “She started crying and I couldn’t handle those emotions. She had to go.”

Many other people were equally upset, especially those in the art world thought it was unacceptable to destroy famous artists’ work. Landy destroyed pieces of art given to him by people such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. But on that point Landy said he felt no guilt. After all, he had destroyed all his own work — a collection that covered 15 years.

Landy said that Break Down was an examination of consumerism — others said it was a case of madness. In fact, a minister and a doctor believed he was mentally ill and offered him counselling. However, Landy’s description of his state of mind at that time was very different. “When I finished, I did feel an incredible sense of freedom,” he said, “the possibility that I could do anything. But the freedom is gradually destroyed by the everyday concerns of life. Life was much simpler when I was on my platform.”

The art world eagerly awaited the destroyed remains of his possessions. Indeed, Landy was supposed to give the sacks of smashed metal, plastic and paper to the people who had given him financial backing for the project, and each sack would have been worth £4,000. But he had a change of heart at the last minute and ended up burying it all.

After the exhibition, offers from galleries all round the world poured in. He was even asked to repeat Break Down in a Brazilian gallery. However, as Landy points out, Break Down was a one-off.