Tech-Neill-ogy #24 - 5 November 2023

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
November 06, 2023

Welcome to newsletter #24!

We did it! We survived “Suck-tober” (sorry Cassandra!)! It has been a good week at a conference in NYC, though I cannot appreciate the cold weather. Read more here (LinkedIn)!

There is a really interesting piece shared below in the Course Catalog section entitled, “AI: transformative for university teaching or ‘CV bullet point’?” The short piece outlines one perspective that use of AI appears to becoming just another professional skill that people will be expected to use. Another article further down speaks of the untenable situation of students “outrunning” faculty in AI use. This seems to be a critical point to return to question who is teaching the kids to use it. Does your institution have an answer? I would love to hear from you if yours does!

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!

AI: transformative for university teaching or ‘CV bullet point’?

Potsdam president foresees shift to focus on prompt engineering in teaching – but another AI expert thinks it is just another professional skill to rank alongside ‘can use Excel’

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-transformative-university-teaching-or-cv-bullet-point

Most students outrunning faculty in AI use, study finds

A new study finds over half of students use generative AI, while more than 75 percent of faculty members do not regularly use the technology.

www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/10/31/most-students-outrunning-faculty-ai-use

Using artificial intelligence to assess personal qualities in college admissions

Personal qualities like prosocial purpose and leadership predict important life outcomes, including college success. Unfortunately, the holistic assessment of personal qualities in college admissions is opaque and resource intensive. Can artificial intelligence (AI) advance the goals of holistic admissions?

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg9405

Mapping AI's Evolving Role in Education: Where Could and Should It Have Impact?

Two innovators in education, Laurence Holt and Jacob Klein, have teamed together to create a market map for charting the path and impact of AI in K–12 education. The map not only charts places that new AI companies and products are entering, but also highlights where AI could make a positive impact in a not-so-subtle nudge to innovators.

michaelbhorn.substack.com/p/mapping-ais-evolving-role-in-education#details

Build anything with artificial intelligence | Shiny.school

Shiny is an experimental learning platform aimed at teaching people like you how to use artificial intellgence tools. We believe everyone, regardless of technical ability should have the knowledge to use the most powerful invention ever created by humans.

shiny.school

Want Better Answers From Generative AI?

No matter if you’re a seasoned prompt engineer or starting out with generative artificial intelligence, follow these tips to get the most from this new technology platform.

www.salesforce.com/blog/generative-ai-prompts

Finito

With Finito, you can use AI in any app or website. Simply select text, press Control, and let Finito do its magic.

www.finito.ai

Circleback

Circleback is your second brain for meetings, providing AI-driven meeting notes and action items you can trust. I’m super curious to give this one a try…

circleback.ai

Fibery AI

Use Fibery AI Assistant to brainstorm ideas, improve writing, automate work, and experiment with your process — in the same context where you work and think.

fibery.io/ai

SparkReceipt receipt scanner & business document manager

SparkReceipt makes tracking your receipts and other business documents simple and efficient. Invite your teammates, share your documents with your accountant, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with digitized receipts.

www.sparkreceipt.com

Olle

Olle is an easy-to-use desktop toolbar app that can answer complex questions, write emails, and is usable everywhere*. With the Olle toolbar, you can seamlessly access your favorite websites or applications without interruption.

olle.ai

Airscreen

I’m obsessed with this one. I watch, typically, NFL behind my work… so good!

airscreentv.com

Call Annie

“Your always available AI friend.” Super creepy.

callannie.ai

Over the past couple weeks, I have been asked many times about safeguarding student data when using ChatGPT, for example, when drafting letters of recommendation. The video below shows how you can do that!

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].

Of course, it was to be expected… while you have read here in the past about differing levels and causes of fear in regards to AI, it was bound to happen that news has started to appear in regards to misuse of AI. This article outlines such malpractice, as does this one from Brazil. In my mind, this even further emphasizes the need for further education of our students.

That said, I do not want to end on a sour note, so below is favorite of mine…

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter. We are nearly at 300 readers! Help me get over the hump! Share with your colleagues!

Happy counseling,

Jeff