Tech-Neill-ogy #29 - 10 December 2023

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
December 11, 2023

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #29!

I hope this newsletter finds most of you either already on holiday or looking to your last week before heading out! We here are eagerly looking forward to the host of early results coming out this week, while balancing a number of other duties and responsibilities (see LinkedIn post here).

That being said, my family and I are headed to Ohio for a couple weeks on Friday evening, so I will be taking a break from the newsletter for at least a couple weeks. Still, there is a Third Thursday on December 21; see the graphic below!

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 the newsletter! Happy holidays, and see you in the new year!

AI and the Authenticity Problem

AI is forcing us to question what's authentic. That might be a good thing.

erichudson.substack.com/p/ai-and-the-authenticity-problem

After a year of ChatGPT, is academia getting to grips with generative AI?

Students love it but faculty typically hate it. Both are asking for help with it. But how close are institutions to devising AI policies that protect both academic integrity and student employability? New York University Abu Dhabi vice-chancellor Mariët Westermann offers her reflections

www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/after-year-chatgpt-academia-getting-grips-generative-ai

AI won't replace writing instruction (opinion)

And here’s why, Mandy Olejnik writes.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/12/08/ai-wont-replace-writing-instruction-opinion#

AI ‘could reinforce bias’ in university admissions

Most disadvantaged students likely to be hardest hit if human element of selection is replaced by technology, conference hears

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-could-reinforce-bias-university-admissions

Three ways AI can support student success and well-being

A virtual assistant helped free up human resources at the University of Galway and revealed student issues that staff could not have predicted

www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/three-ways-ai-can-support-student-success-and-wellbeing

5 Things AI Can and Can Not Do For Students

Veteran educator Carl Hooker explores how generative AI tools can disrupt classrooms while also unlocking new opportunities to enhance teaching and learning

www.techlearning.com/news/5-things-ai-can-and-can-not-do-for-students

THE Counsellor

The new Times Higher Education Counsellor website has launched! Take a look for a collection of regularly-updated resources for college counselors!

www.timeshighereducation.com/counsellor

Descript

There are simple podcast & video editors and there are powerful ones. Only Descript is both, and it features magical AI, so you can skip the hard part of editing. Get started for free. I’ve been spending time using this amazing tool to explore turning the newsletter into a podcast and to incorporate more videos. It is so simple. I can envision this being a staple of college counseling offices around the planet.

www.descript.com

In the recent months, I’ve been asked about my weekly LinkedIn “week in review” posts (for example). I wish I could remember where this idea came from, but it came from some comments during a presentation I attended either last semester or over the summer. (Let me know if you know whose idea this was!) The aegis of these reports is not about self-promotion or self-congratulations. In fact, the purpose is to make more clear the extensive list of duties and tasks on the plate of a college counselor. With so few school administrators with a background in college counseling, this initiative is intended to make more transparent all that we do. And, of course, I use ChatGPT to help me craft these posts. Here is the prompt that I use: 

Please write a week-in-review LinkedIn post based on the following notes. Keep all names listed, and please add emojis and relevant hashtags throughout. Format this in a bulleted-style post.

<Enter notes here>

I simple jot down some rough notes in reviewing my calendar, and copy-and-paste them after this prompt. 15 minutes or so. The feedback from within my school community has been powerful as others get a sense of all that we do. In light of this, and thinking about how many people during this time of year are in search of New Year’s Resolutions, I would love to encourage more college counselors to engage in this! You’ll find a handful of folks that I am connected with do this on the regular. It makes a difference individually, but I suspect it will help us all if more engage in this practice. Think about it!

(On a side note, last week I shared my obsession with Bloks. There is a chatbot interface within Bloks that I’ve been toying with in order to prepare these week-in-review posts. I’m almost there!)

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].

I hope you all find some peace and relaxation during the upcoming break. We are fortunate to be off until January 22 after this Friday. Again, I’ll take a break for the next few weeks to allow myself to unplug fully for a while, but I’ll be back in the new year! Happy holidays!

And happy counseling,

Jeff