Tech-Neill-ogy #18 - 24 September 2023

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
September 25, 2023

Welcome to newsletter #18!

I had quite a bit of FOMO this past week watching my social media accounts and seeing pictures of familiar faces having fun at NACAC in Baltimore. I’m sure others had the same experience. I look forward to hearing more about the event, as I have already gotten some great shared thoughts and ideas from attendees, especially the opening session with Jay Shetty!

In any case, the onslaught of technology and AI-based news relevant to college counselors continues. While some research continues to suggest adult usage is plateauing, it does seem that AI use among students is on the rise. Several articles below explore this.

Thanks, as always, to those who share resources with me. I appreciate it! In any case, feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

Enjoy this week’s newsletter!

Everyone is above average

Is AI a Leveler, King Maker, or Escalator?

www.oneusefulthing.org/p/everyone-is-above-average

AI and Counselor Letters of Recommendation

2023 may be remembered as the year artificial intelligence hit the world of college admissions head on. This is an alternative view on the use of AI in writing counselor letters.

hscw-counselorscorner.blogspot.com/2023/09/ai-and-counselor-letters-of.html

ChatGPT for you

AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I us…

seths.blog/2023/09/chatgpt-for-you

Mentimeter Lesson Plan

This Mentimeter lesson plan is designed to help educators implement the digital tool into their instruction. Not AI per se, but something to explore and share!

www.techlearning.com/how-to/mentimeter-lesson-plan

7 Steps To Update Courses In The Age Of Generative AI

How to systematically use generative AI to refresh a course: objectives, topics, pedagogy, tools, policies, lessons & students' intrinsic motivation to be more effective.

www.forbes.com/sites/beatajones/2023/09/19/7-steps-to-update-courses-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/?sh=3b9d7ede567c

ChatGPT Is Landing Kids in the Principal’s Office, Survey Finds

While educators worry that students are using generative AI to cheat, a new report finds students are turning to the tool more for personal problems.

www.the74million.org/article/chatgpt-is-landing-kids-in-the-principals-office-survey-finds

Alkanzo Smart Scheduler

Alkanzo's AI smartly manages your schedule to help you in protecting schedule from back-to-back meetings, protecting time to deeply focus on work and completing high-priority tasks on time.

smart-scheduler.alkanzo.com

EssayGrader

EssayGrader is a tool built for teachers to grade essays and papers online. Get essay feedback based on rubrics, find grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, summarize long essays and detect if an essay was written by AI.

essaygrader.ai

Rise – The calendar that works for you

Rise helps you schedule, optimize and protect your day to give you more time for what’s important.

www.risecalendar.com

Glimpse — Free AI Chat With Internet Access

The only internet-enabled AI assistant that understands every website. Ask questions, write, & summarize anything. Uses ChatGPT.

chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/glimpse-%E2%80%94-free-ai-chat-wi/gnjldokgdfignjclohppgejicdlbmldm/related

‎Wave: AI Note Taker

‎Wave is more than just an audio recorder—it's your AI-powered ally for capturing life's most important moments. Whether you're at work, in class, or on the go, Wave ensures you never miss a beat.

apps.apple.com/us/app/wave-ai-voice-recorder/id6451491556

Here is a prompt that I use periodically to get a sense of what is out there. I’ve also tweaked this prompt to ask the AI to review current news to provide an updated sense of the landscape. Keep in mind that ChatGPT, without activating a plug-in, only has access to information through September 2021, so I suggest using Bing or Bard or another tool. Conversely, it is interesting to see what ChatGPT says here! 

Analyze the current trends within high school college counseling and university admissions. Produce a brief paragraph for each of the top 10 trends that explains the trend in greater detail and that provides a suggestion for how to address it.

As always, if you’d like to explore some of the other prompts I’ve shared here and elsewhere, check out this link. If you have any great prompts or questions about prompting, send me a note at [email protected].

Thanks so much for reading. One of the points of feedback that I have received about the newsletter is that it generally seems to be accessible to people of all backgrounds, abilities, and levels of comfort with technology. Keeping that in mind, I wanted to end with a provocation for those of you on the more confident side of things. Take a look at the Tweet below that shows an advanced use of ChatGPT to create a PowerPoint presentation.

And, as always, please share any resources or questions as they come about!

Happy counseling,

Jeff