Tech-Neill-ogy #70 - 20 October 2024

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
October 21, 2024

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #70!

Phew. It was a crazy week. (Have you heard me say that before?) I’ve got a banner number of seniors in my caseload applying early. 31 of my 38 seniors will submit an application by November 1, with a dozen or so having already submitted. Phew. And travel season begins this week as I’ll be in Austin, Texas for the College Board Forum. I’m in on a couple of sessions: I’m presenting one on “Artificial Intelligence in School Counseling” and on a panel for another one entitled “Advancing Opportunity: Trends in International Recruitment & Admissions.” Should be a good time. I hope to see some of you there!

In any case, enjoy this week’s newsletter!

Ethan Mollick, analyst: ‘Students who use AI as a crutch don’t learn anything’

The veteran professor, who has become a celebrity on social media, has published a book on how to better understand and use artificial intelligence in everyday life

english.elpais.com/technology/2024-10-03/ethan-mollick-analyst-students-who-use-ai-as-a-crutch-dont-learn-anything.html

College Admission: An AI Revolution

I am here to reassure college applicants, families, and educators that you can take your finger off the AI panic button.

www.forbes.com/sites/brennanbarnard/2024/09/17/college-admission-an-ai-revolution

Perplexity AI : How to Use It for Fast, Accurate Results

Learn how to use Perplexity AI to enhance your research skills with precise, real-time info. Discover its features and boost productivity!

www.geeky-gadgets.com/how-to-use-perplexity

STORM: Teaching With The Stanford-Designed AI System

The STORM AI tool can generate on-demand Wikipedia articles in minutes. It’s one of the most useful AI products I’ve come across.

www.techlearning.com/news/storm-teaching-with-the-stanford-designed-ai-system

Teens are looking to AI for information and answers, two surveys show

Teens use AI more since AI tools are increasingly embedded in apps and websites.

youthtoday.org/2024/06/teens-are-looking-to-ai-for-information-and-answers-two-surveys-show

Best AI Video Generator - Start Creating FREE AI Videos Now

Create AI videos from text with AI video generator. Get the most advanced AI avatars and voiceovers in 140+ languages. Try the free AI video generator today!

www.synthesia.io

AI Presentation Maker | Make it Beautiful with Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is the best AI-powered presentation software for teams. Stay on brand, level up and automate presentation design, and collaborate from anywhere.

www.beautiful.ai

Personal Information Removal Service | Incogni | Incogni

Data brokers are collecting, aggregating and trading your personal data without you knowing anything about it. We make them remove it.

incogni.com/deal

TrailMate - Your Offline AI Companion for Outdoor Adventures

TrailMate is an offline AI assistant for hikers, campers, skiers, and outdoor enthusiasts.

www.trailmateai.com

Bramble | Better Home Buying

Bramble does everything a top tier traditional agent would do, but for a low flat fee.

usebramble.com

This week I was experimenting with Synthesia, found above in the Extracurriculars section to make quick and easy AI-generated videos. First, watch this video on how easy it is to make a video:

And now take a moment to watch the video that the above process produced:

I see lots of applications for this ability, especially for those of us using social media to communicate our programming. I’d love to hear your thoughts! 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

Looking forward to getting on the road this week and to connecting with folks in Austin. That said, for this week’s non-tech article, I wanted to point you toward this one:

Here’s Who You’re Really Competing Against In The College Admissions Process—And It’s Not Who You Think

If you are applying to an Ivy League or other top school this fall, here’s who you’re really competing against in the admissions process:.

www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2024/10/15/heres-who-youre-really-competing-against-in-the-college-admissions-process-and-its-not-who-you-think

Despite the click-bait-y title, I’m curious what the motivation was in writing this, especially the part about competition with your classmates. I have plenty of personal anecdotes to disprove much of this, but I still wonder what the point of sharing this was. Who benefits? In any case, some things I was not meant to know.

Enjoy the week, and happy counseling,

Jeff