Tools and tasks
Here you will find interesting and useful tools that are definitely worth learning from the Problem identification and solving lesson, as well as assignments for successfully completing the course.
Today, we’ll be tackling a large proportion of our problem-solving tasks – from household repairs to programming – using GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini and Mistral. An increasing number of these tools feature a learning mode, and even if they don’t, it’s not difficult to trigger it manually using a suitable prompt. Gemini Notebook offers some very interesting features tailored to the academic environment or to learning in general. In many respects, it is a very good tool, but at the same time it is certainly true that formal education or a genuine understanding of a particular problem cannot be guaranteed by AI; indeed, it is difficult to be certain that there are no troublesome blind spots remaining in our field of knowledge, which may lead us to feel that we are experts when … perhaps the reality is quite different.
MOOC courses, which can be found, for example, on EDX, Coursera and Udemy, or shorter Czech courses available on Seduo and Eduskop, may be useful.
It is now possible to work with systems that utilise artificial intelligence and can help people tackle complex, general situations without any specific barriers. For more technically-minded users, TensorFlow is available – a comprehensive machine learning system that is open-source and supported by countless modules and tutorials.
Nowadays, it is essential to know how to use various tools designed for accessing guides and advice of all kinds. Apart from the ubiquitous WikiHow or the technically focused How-To Geek, there are major platforms, the best known of which are probably Quora or the formerly popular Yahoo! Answers. If, on the other hand, you want to create your own guides, you’ll certainly find various screen recording applications useful, such as FlashBack Express, OBS Studio or Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder. For larger projects, it may be practical to have your own MediaWiki installation or to host it on a service such as Wikidot or Wiki Spot.
Digital technology can also be combined with various areas of creative techniques or approaches. Probably the best known are mind maps, which capture the relationships between individual concepts and use them (according to predefined rules) to create logical or associative structures. Ayoa (formerly iMindmap) is available; this is a tool originally developed by Tony Buzan, the creator of mind mapping. The rather plain-looking FreeMind and the more attractive XMind are also popular; amongst online tools, Coggle.it or the more versatile Miro, with its AI features, are worth recommending. The fact that files or links can be added to maps alongside concepts gives mind mapping a whole new dimension.
For problem analysis, it is possible (and often very practical) to use various diagrams or schematics. There is a truly wide range of tools available in this area – Lucidchart, Gliffy, Draw.io. If you prefer desktop-installed tools, we can recommend MS Visio, SmartDraw or yEd Graph Editor.
Another interesting area is that of minimalist text editors, which aim to interfere as little as possible with the creative process, such as Writing Studio, Lattics, Anytype or CalmlyWriter. These minimalist editors are based on the idea that technology should distract the user as little as possible and not divert them from the task at hand.
