Tech-Neill-ogy #101 - 21 July 2025

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
July 23, 2025

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #101!

A few days late… I flew back from Boston and International ACAC’s annual conference on Sunday and fell into a tizzy of spring cleaning (southern hemisphere) ahead of work starting this weekend and school thereafter. Apologies for the delay!

The conference was an amazing reminder of the transformative impact of coming together with one’s profession to exchange ideas and challenges. I walked away with a host of new ideas as well as new connections. Always a highlight…

After last week’s newsletter, I received a number of questions about DreamCollege.ai. My best suggestion is to reach out directly to Julia Liang, the founder and CEO, at [email protected]. She is a great person and insightful leader in our profession. Click the link below for more information and to explore the product.

For now, though, enjoy this week’s newsletter!

Is the Screen Time Debate Overlooking the Real Struggles of Working-Class Families?

Screen time is often judged through a privileged lens, overlooking the realities of working-class and lower-income families. Here, experts discuss the idea that all parents have equal resources or options when it comes to managing kids' tech use.

www.parents.com/is-screen-time-a-privilege-problem-11775414

Opinion: What Does Higher Ed Really Need From AI?

Colleges and universities know they need to get students comfortable with using artificial intelligence tools, but discussions should focus more on people and pedagogy than rules, regulations and specific brands.

www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/opinion-what-does-higher-ed-really-need-from-ai

Number of students using AI for schoolwork surges by double-digits

Artificial intelligence has surged in popularity across the United States and worldwide.

www.newsweek.com/number-students-using-ai-schoolwork-surges-double-digits-2101974

5 reasons why I still prefer Perplexity over every other AI chatbot

Do you value reliable, in-depth answers to your research queries? Perplexity's my pick over ChatGPT or Copilot every time. Here's why.

www.zdnet.com/article/5-reasons-why-i-still-prefer-perplexity-over-every-other-ai-chatbot

11 Best AI Agents for Meetings: Notes, Transcripts & More

Discover the best AI agents for meetings to automate notes, transcriptions, and scheduling. Stay organized, and save time.

clickup.com/blog/ai-agents-for-meetings

Athena | AI College Application Help

Your 24/7 College Essay Coach. Personalized brainstorming and essay feedback to supercharge your college applications. And rest assured, we're fully compliant with university policies! [FREE for high school counselors; register for a student account and then contact Athena! Tell them Jeff sent you!]

athenaco.ai

Chat with Z.ai - Free AI for Presentations, Writing & Coding

Start a free chat with your AI assistant. Tell Z.ai what you need—a stunning presentation, professional-grade writing, or a complex code script—and get instant results. [Pretty intuitive! See the Final Exam Section for an example!]

chat.z.ai

FlowPost | Automate Social Media Posts With AI

Grow your brand without opening social feeds. FlowPost uses AI to write, schedule, and auto-publish posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Threads, Pinterest, and YouTube. [I’m planning to explore this one in the coming year with my social media channels.]

www.flowpost.ai

Twistly - Your ChatGPT for PowerPoint | AI Presentation Maker

Instantly create, convert, and enhance presentations directly in PowerPoint using Twistly, your AI presentation maker. Trusted by over 3 million users. [I’m not a PowerPoint user — Google Slides — but someone told me about this one, which is a plug-in for your PPTs.]

twistly.ai

15Minutes | Book Summaries & Analysis PDF – Over 5000 Books

Explore 5000+ book summaries & analysis in 15Minutes. Enjoy 15‑min reads, or listen to our podcast and audiobooks. Quick plots, reviews & chapter synopses. [I like to read, but I’ve found value in using this to explore new books — or to remember those I’ve already read.]

www.15minutes.ai

https://edficacy.co/ - Tell them Jeff sent you!

Z.ai is a pretty cool chatbot that specializes in helping you create presentation content. 

I am a high school college counselor obsessed with artificial intelligence. I want you to create a flashy presentation highlighting the value of artificial intelligence in the work of a high school college counselor to convince skeptical college counselors of the merits of AI adoption.

Here’s the output. Not bad! What I would do next is to copy this into beautiful.ai (my personal favorite, though there are many AI slide deck generators out there) and let it run it’s magic. Here’s what came of the output above: https://www.beautiful.ai/player/-OVsz8R9vj4ZyDE9KHji. The deck needs a little more work, but this is an incredible starting point.

Please, if you have any great prompts or ideas, please share! Send me a note at [email protected].

Webinars & Live Events Page

Look here for upcoming webinars and other events (and recorded ones) by the College Essay Guy! New events are happening all the time…

www.collegeessayguy.com/webinars-live-events

This week’s non-tech article comes from Larry Ferlazzo, someone I’ve admired for a long time:

This Is the Most Effective Teaching Strategy I've Seen in 23 Years (Opinion)

An initiative to help students advance did just that by every measure captured.

www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-this-is-the-most-effective-teaching-strategy-ive-seen-in-23-years/2025/07

Though focused on a class of English Language Learners, those of us who are afforded class time with students to focus on college counseling can certainly find some parallels and possible benefits. I plan to give it a try this year!

Enjoy your week! Happy counseling!

Jeff