Tech-Neill-ogy #23 - 29 October 2023

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
October 30, 2023

Welcome to newsletter #23!

It’s always busy here, but I’m happy to report that I’ll climb onto the plane to New York City for the College Board Forum tonight having completed and submitted all of my (many) November 1 applications! Read more on LinkedIn here!

That said, I wanted to share a couple of items. First, in the category of “things we already new,” this article from Times Higher Education rang particularly true, especially over this past month in working with seniors. Apparently, helicopter parenting hurts kids mental health! Who knew? ;)

Second, I’m happy to be participating in the “AI Symposium for AMISA Member Schools” on November 4. If you’re an AMISA school, consider registering! The quick blurb follows: “Join our AI Symposium exclusively for AMISA Schools! Choose from a number of workshops to learn more about AI and education.”

There’s a lot going on in this week’s newsletter. While use of AI is allegedly plateauing, resources about it are not! And, thanks, as always, to those of you who share resources with me. I appreciate all of 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!

Admissions offices turn to AI for application reviews

Even as fears of robot-generated admissions essays abound, colleges are increasingly using AI in application reviews, raising new possibilities and ethical concerns.

www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/10/09/admissions-offices-turn-ai-application-reviews

Favorite AI Time Savers

A great piece from “leaders” who share their favorite AI time-savers!

www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/how-i-prompt-leaders-share-their-favorite-ai-time-savers

How to Prepare Your Child for an AI-Driven Future

The youth of today aren't merely going to interface with AI; they will be enveloped in a world that is infused with it.

www.usatoday.com/story/special/contributor-content/2023/10/17/how-to-prepare-your-child-for-an-ai-driven-future/71218833007

Parents Are Open to AI Use in Schools. But They Have a Lot of Questions

Sixty-two percent of parents say in a new poll that they have heard little to nothing about how AI can be used in education.

www.edweek.org/technology/parents-are-open-to-ai-use-in-schools-but-they-have-a-lot-of-questions/2023/10

My Student Was Submitting AI Papers. Here's What I Did

Like many educators across the globe, I was thrust into a brave new world of modern teaching that I had not been trained for and to which an appropriate response was unclear

www.techlearning.com/news/my-student-was-submitting-ai-papers-heres-what-i-did

22 Of The Best ChatGPT Chrome Extensions To Try

AI-powered tools are revolutionizing the digital marketing landscape. Here are 22 of the best ChatGPT Chrome extensions to maximize the benefits of ChatGPT.

www.searchenginejournal.com/chatgpt-chrome-extensions/485594

🌟 60-Second AI

Free things you can do quickly with AI

wondertools.substack.com/p/60secondai

ChatGPT and generative AI: 25 applications to support student engagement

In the fourth part of their series looking at 100 ways to use ChatGPT in higher education, Seb Dianati and Suman Laudari share 25 prompts for the AI tool to boost student engagement

www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/chatgpt-and-generative-ai-25-applications-support-student-engagement

10 Best AI Tools for Presentations in 2023 | ClickUp

Create more professional and engaging presentations with AI tools for presentations. Consider the features of these popular options.

clickup.com/blog/ai-tools-for-presentations

TalkNotes - Turn messy thoughts into actionable notes. Fast.

Turn hours of note taking into minutes. Just speak, and let the AI transcribe & structure your voice. Create task lists, transcripts, blog posts, and more! Works in 50+ languages.

talknotes.io

‎Cleo

‎Cleo turns stressful money life into a simple chat, where you can ask questions and learn about personal finance. Give it a try. This link, I believe, gives you US$250 coupon.

apps.apple.com/us/app/cleo-%24250-fast-cash-advance/id1447274646

DataGPT - Conversational AI Data Analyst

The First Conversational AI Data Analyst: Ask DataGPT any question and get analyst-grade answers in seconds.

datagpt.com

As referenced last week, this week’s “final exam” is not exclusively a solution for AI. After all, this newsletter is more broadly about technology in college counseling… although it has been dominated by AI. In any case, this tip has an ancillary application to ChatGPT (and Bard and Perplexity… and many other apps). I cannot tell you how many emails I’ve gotten from people trying out the various prompts shared here and revealing that when they copy-and-paste their results into another document (e.g. Word or GoogleDocs), the formatting is all wonky, including a shaded background. So, for this week, I wanted to share the magic of (on my Mac) SHIFT + COMMAND (open Apple) + V. This is a special version of copy-and-paste (CTRL + V) where is matches the style of the destination document. This is a relatively simple hack to help save you lots of time. Also keep in mind that this works in other copy-and-paste situations, not just ChatGPT. Give it a try!

As always, if you’d like to explore some of the other hacks, tips, and 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].

First, an apology to some readers. Apparently my referencing October as “Sucktober” bothers some in our profession! While it may be a hard month, the suggestion was made to reframe this in a more positive light. Given that it is my birthday month, it was suggested I offer “Jeff-tober” as an alternative. Take it or leave it!

Also, in closing, there’s one website I wanted to share called “Is that AI?” Link here: http://isthat.ai. Give it a look. Some pretty interesting things…

Happy counseling,

Jeff