Alyssa Mozel

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." -Nelson Mandela

Day: December 3, 2024

Half-Finished Gifts

December 3, 2024 / / 1 Comment

My placement of the Frog’s legs.

There has been a lot going on in the past couple of weeks. Large snow storms, plans for family gatherings being set, me getting a month-long temp job, and more. While it has been a bit of a rough time, at least I could use all of the extra time I gained from being snowed in to start a bunch of crochet projects. However, it got so busy after those few days that I haven’t been able to finish most of them. A lot of them are quite close to becoming completed, but I just haven’t had the time or the motivation to do so. This is a bit odd since I apparently have the motivation to start new things, but it just is what it is.

Almost finished!!

As for the finished pieces, the first is this frog. The pattern was created by CabinInTheWoodsFR and I found it on the LoveCrafts website. It was easy to follow and outlined everything decently well. There were no reference pictures on this pattern other than the one on download page’s preview, so beginners should maybe try a different plushie or two before doing this one. In other words, get confident with reading and understanding patterns first.

Finished and looking dapper!

I think that the frog is cute! In terms of construction, this was a relatively easy project. It involved creating a large ball and then sewing a couple of very small pieces onto it. I did deviate from the pattern a little bit since I felt the pattern’s leg positioning looked too human, and I wanted to it look more like a frog. So, I just sewed the feet on the bottom and placed the back ones wider apart to give them a more frog-like look (as much as nubs for legs can actually do that). I also decided to use the plentiful felt that was left over from the Deadpool and Wolverine plushies to do the eyes instead of embroidering, because I felt that using the felt would be easier and take less time. I also added a top-hat because I felt that the frog needed an accessory. I think it looks quite dapper now. All I did for this was 5 double crochet stitches in a magic ring, 3 rounds of double crochet stitches in each stitch (5 total stitches in each of the 3 rounds), and 1 round of double crochet stitch increases in each stitch (10 total stitches in the round). This is in UK TERMS!

The sweater was almost finished here.

I also decided that my short-haired cat, Luna, needed a sweater so that she could brave the snow for longer. I followed this pattern by Niftynnifer’s Crochet & Crafts that I found on the ApronBasket website. The sweater was originally meant for a chihuahua, so I had to adjust it for my cat as I went. I was mostly successful. If I am going to be honest, the neck part of the sweater is a bit too long for her and I placed the stomach strap too far back on it. The sweater certainly works as intended, but it seems to just be a little too uncomfortable for her right now. I am trying to figure out some ways (and trying to find some time) to adjust the sweater so that the strap is less of a bother for her, but she is tolerating it (and me) for now. I truly do not know how well she will respond to this sweater over time, but I though it would be a fun thing for both me and her to try.

Luna with the pretty much finished sweater on!

As for the unfinished pieces, they are meant to be presents for my internship co-op teachers. I felt bad about not being able to gift them something last year, and I wanted to send them something this year to show my appreciation. I still am low on money due to the Inclusive Education Certificate that I am currently pursuing, but I now have a new skill that I can use to create something handmade that will hopefully come across as something more meaningful. Although, it is turning out to be more like a New Year’s gift with the mail strike and the fact that I might not finish everything before half of this month is over.

  • The first unfinished creation is a dino that is in the Kipling school colours. I used the same pattern that I did with the last dino. I have this 90% done as I just need to embroider the blush and mouth. The frog is also meant to be a part of this gift, because frogs often represent wisdom and this co-op teacher had a lot of experience, taught me a lot, and is wise.

The front view of the unfinished Dino.

The side view.

  • The second, third, and fourth unfinished creations are a mini murder of crows (yes, a group of crows is called a murder). Their bodies are finished, but, like the dino, I need to put some finishing touches on the faces. Eyes and beaks are all that’s left. I followed the duck pattern that I used for my very first crochet plushie creation.

The buttons in that lid are going to be their eyes!

  • The last unfinished thing is the dishcloths. I wanted to give both of them something that could be used practically along with these plushies, and I figured that dishcloths would be something I could do that was faster and easier than other things. I used this pattern from Crochet Dreamz that I found on ApronBasket.
    1. I have created a test dish cloth. I switched the yarns too early, so the white border is a bit bigger than it should be. The stitches of the border also look lopsided due to the fact I did not place each stitch the exact same distance away from the edge of the piece.
    2. I also had to literally test this cloth as a dish cloth, because I do not have the best yarn. The cloth works just fine and is okay in the washer and dryer at normal/medium heat levels with other things. It did seem to shrink slightly, but it was not noticeable until I literally measured the length and width of it. Jeanette’s Blog Post did tell me that acrylic yarn is okay to machine wash as long as it is not going to get washed constantly, gets washed with other things, and is not dried on an extreme heat. If these things do happen it could get more rigid and less soft (it is the opposite of that right now). I mean, realistically the dish cloth being a little bit rigid is a good thing as that should help with getting rid of the hard stuff on dishes more easily.

      My (mostly) successful test dish cloth. I used a yarn that changed colour as it went, and it somehow came out with this cool diagonal pattern!

Thank you for following my learning journey, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my creations as much as I enjoyed learning and making them!

Up Next: How Far I’ve Come

Time to Test AI!

December 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The AI that I chose for my test was Perplexity. I was intrigued by the search engine aspects of it and wanted to see how accurate it truly was. Admittedly, I was very skeptical at first, but I found that it was fairly accurate. Perplexity does give you a good snapshot of the answer you are looking for; however, the simplified answer it gives sometimes misses some crucial background information (in my opinion). Granted, I was only using the free version, so maybe the paid version will give that elaboration.

The Perplexity Home Page

Despite this issue, I think that Perplexity could be a really great starting point for students. Yes, the initial information that is given is lacking, but it also cites its sources and gives you access to a bunch of relevant links that provide even more information. This helps to somewhat combat the lack of context issue, but you actively have to click on and look at other sites to ensure that you would get the added information. Some people will not end up looking deeper, but you may be able to combat this particular issue by training students how to use Perplexity and what your specific guidelines are for its use.

The first half of one controversial question.

Another issue is that Perplexity, at times, really likes to cite Wikipedia. Although, it seems to avoid doing this unless you are looking up something more pop culture-related. The other sources it brings up are largely reliable (I got links to CDC webpages, Government of Canada webpages, Harvard webpages, research articles from PubMed, and more). The AI will also turn to relevant research articles instead of opinion pieces when it comes to biased, controversial questions. I asked Perplexity questions (based on hateful rhetoric I have heard) like “Do vaccines cause Autism?” and “Are minors getting gender affirming surgeries?”. The AI answered these questions will a bunch of reliable evidence and even formatted additional questions to go in a more productive, non-rage bait, not hate-filled, objective, and research-based direction. I did only play around with a couple of these questions, so maybe it will go wrong with other questions. However, there was only objective, research-based fact when it came to the questions I asked.

The second half of that controversial question.

Note: I have encountered students who have asked me these questions or ones like them, and, while they would take my word for it more times than not, it would have been nice to have something like this in my toolbox where I could pop their question in and give them the resources and knowledge they need to have an informed opinion.

Moving on… For students that struggle with Googling, getting started with assignments, or finding relevant and reliable resources for assignments, searching on Perplexity would be a great place to start. Students could use this to just figure out if there is enough information out there to support a thesis or write about a certain topic. They could use it to find all of the sources required for an assignment. They can use Perplexity to find differing theories and look into those further. Perplexity is everything that a regular search engine is, but it gives you an even better, and often more reliable, resource list than any Wikipedia article would likely have.

Relevant Questions related to a relevant question related to the controversial question.

However, you 100% will have to make it clear to your students that they cannot cite Perplexity itself due to the lacking context issue. Plus, the AI is pulling information from many sources and citing it right beside specific pieces of information. Giving the credit of that knowledge to Perplexity with proper sources right beside the generated information would just be plain wrong. It is also far more work to cite something that someone else has already cited as you have to show where the original idea or discovery came from.

The big question is: Would I allow the use of this AI in my classroom?

Explanation short, I would allow students to use Perplexity in my classroom. Just the fact that I am saying this does mean a lot. I don’t hate AI, but I certainly don’t trust it especially when it comes to search engine-type things. Despite my enthusiasm, I would absolutely have to train students on the proper use of the tool and ensure that I was clear on how I wanted them to use it. I would also try to ensure that students are double-checking the reliability of the sources that are recommended by Perplexity. The AI seems to have the ability to cite sources that are not always the most reliable, so I would want my students to be aware of what to look for to make sure that Perplexity is not leading them in the wrong direction. Essentially, if you have students that are old enough to properly use an AI like this once they understand your expectations for using it, there should be no problem with letting students use it.

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