Microsoft announced new AI-powered classroom tools today. The company sees its new “Learning Accelerators” as helping students sharpen their speaking and math skills — while making teachers’ jobs a little easier — as children prepare for an even more technologically enhanced world.
Speaker Progress is a new AI classroom tool for teachers. Microsoft says it saves them time by “streamlining the process of creating, reviewing, and analyzing speaking and presentation assignments for students, groups, and classrooms.” It can provide tidy summaries of presentation-based skills while highlighting areas to improve. Additionally, it lets teachers review student recordings, identify their needs and track progress.
It will be a companion for Speaker Coach, an existing feature Microsoft launched in 2021 that provides one-on-one speaking guidance and feedback. For example, it uses AI to give real-time pointers on pacing, pitch and filler words. “Speaker Coach is one of those tools that kind of was a lightbulb tool for a lot of students that I’ve worked with,” said an unnamed teacher in a Microsoft launch video. “Being able to practice and get real-time feedback is where Speaker Coach really comes in and helps our students, and it even helps us as adults.”
Microsoft’s AI math tools are its answer to nosediving math scores during the pandemic. Math Coach deconstructs problems, walking students through the steps to solve them while encouraging critical thinking. Meanwhile, Math Progress is the teacher-focused companion tool, helping them generate practice questions and provide more efficient feedback. The company says the features work together: Math Coach uses teacher input from Math Progress to develop new lessons. Additionally, it says schools can use the tools’ overall math fluency data to track progress and better meet their goals.
Speaker Progress, Math Coach and Math Progress will launch in Microsoft Teams for Education in the 2023-24 school year. Meanwhile, Speaker Coach is available now in Teams and PowerPoint.
Netflix announced on Sunday that it's working on a remake of the One Piece anime, starting from the beginning of the manga. There's no release date yet. Wit Studio, the animation studio behind the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, will be producing it.
Apple has begun piloting an App Store feature called contingent pricing that will let developers offer cheaper subscriptions to customers based on the other subscriptions they already hold. The company says it's meant to help developers "attract and retain subscribers."
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has announced its return to flight with the New Shepard rocket, targeting Monday December 18 at 9:30AM ET for liftoff. New Shepard was grounded for over a year after a failure on September 2022 during an uncrewed mission.
Apple, Visa and Mastercard are being sued by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits on behalf of US merchants who accept Apple Pay. The lawsuit argues that Apple accepted a bribe from the two companies in an agreement to stifle competition, resulting in inflated merchant fees.
NASA shared a photo of two tomatoes that turned up on the International Space Station after eight months lost. They were harvested by astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned to Earth in September. The tomatoes held up well in space, appearing only dehydrated but otherwise intact.
This week: Google’s Gemini is the biggest threat yet to ChatGPT, Microsoft upgrades its chatbot, too, Lenovo’s huge handheld PC is here
Users can now download Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Meta Quest store for free.
California's Civil Rights Department (CRD) has announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Activision Blizzard for a case it filed in 2021, accusing the company of systemic gender discrimination and fostering a culture that encouraged rampant misogyny and sexual harassment.
Apple will pay $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of misleading customers over Family Sharing.
An anonymous and inventive Nintendo fan has recreated the Game Boy classic The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening with a twist. The widescreen Windows remake adds high frame rate support and lets you zoom out to view a larger portion — or even all — of Koholint Island.
Teenage Engineer’s OP-1 Field synthesizer just got a fairly substantial system update. Software version 1.5.0 brings a fun new bit crusher effect and an easier way to merge tracks.
The massively popular RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t coming to Xbox Game Pass, according to the developer. The game did, however, recently launch on Xbox Series X/S.
This week's best tech deals include the Xbox Series X for $349, a four-pack of Apple AirTags for $80 and discounts on Apple gift cards.
Twitch has quickly taken back its policy update that gave users permission to post sexual content as long as it was labeled.
Looking for a late holiday gift for someone who loses things all the time? Consider getting them some Apple AirTags. A pack of four has dropped to $80.
The OnePlus 12 has officially launched in China and now the company’s most powerful phone is coming to the rest of the world. OnePlus has announced global availability on January 24, including the US.
Samsung’s current flagship soundbar is a complete package, and a sonic powerhouse.
Here's a list of the best laptops you can buy right now, as reviewed by Engadget editors.
Instagram is rolling out a feature that allows users to create their own templates for Stories using text, GIFs and images. Other users will be able to riff on and add to someone else's template.
So long E3, we knew you weren’t long for this world.
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