Week 5 - BALT 4361 - Teaching My Grandpa How to Use DALL-E

 For this week’s blog post, I actually sat down to try one of the tools we learned about rather than simply reading about it. I decided to use DALL-E and thought it would be fun to see how my grandparents would react to this tool. I had my grandpa sit down with me, and I explained that this tool creates pictures based off of words you type. He didn’t quite believe that it would work and thought a computer wouldn’t be able to create something from a description alone. I asked him to describe his farm from when he was younger and specific, and we both typed it into the tool.

As soon as the picture popped up he was genuinely shocked that the tool was able to create something so similar to his description. He kept commenting on how it reminded him of home growing up, particularly the red barn and open fields. What really stood out to me was after he got over the initial surprise he began to ask if we could change the color of the sky or add certain animals. Having to teach him made me learn more about the tool because I had to explain how prompts work and why the more detailed you are the better the picture. I realized that when you have to teach someone else, your learning is more impactful.

As this assignment relates to class, we’ve talked about communication to technology and digital tools our society uses today. Not only can these tools be used for funny pictures but they can be used to educate, tell stories, and even preserve memories. My favorite part about having my grandpa experience this was seeing technology bridge the gap between generations. Instead of tearing us apart, we can create conversations and experiences together. I really enjoyed taking the time to actually try one of the tools and teaching someone else.



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