Tech-Neill-ogy #79 - 26 January 2025

Your Weekly Guide to Leveraging Technology in College Counseling

Author

Jeffrey Neill
January 28, 2025

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #79!

Happy New Year to all! I appreciate my readership given the number of folks who reached out thinking that they had been dropped from the newsletter, apparently having missed that I shared I would be taking a break over the holidays. In any case, I’m back at it now!

It has been interesting to see what I perceive to be a recent, subtle shift in the dialogue surrounding artificial intelligence in the admissions process to move past the “how to” in many cases and more into the domain of ethics and appropriate use, which I applaud. Still, there is a dearth of guidance from university admissions offices out there and still a lot of sloppy language surrounding student use. And still not a ton of transparency about how university admissions offices are using or responding to AI use internally. Hopefully that will come soon!

Enjoy this week’s newsletter!

Why NotebookLM is the Ultimate Tool for Creatives in 2024

Learn how to use NotebookLM's advanced functionalities for seamless content creation and organization. Ideal for enhancing productivity

www.geeky-gadgets.com/using-notebooklm-a-step-by-step-setup-guide

Best Generative AI Tools for a Variety of Uses

Whether you’re looking to make images, video, music, or websites, there’s a generative AI model that can help you achieve your creative vision.

www.shopify.com/blog/generative-ai-tools

The last 6 decades of AI — and what comes next

How will AI improve our lives in the years to come? From its inception six decades ago to its recent exponential growth, futurist Ray Kurzweil highlights AI's transformative impact on various fields and explains his prediction for the singularity: the point at which human intelligence merges with machine intelligence.

www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_the_last_6_decades_of_ai_and_what_comes_next

How to Use ChatGPT to Make Engaging Technical Presentations

Making an engaging PowerPoint presentation is a talent that may set you apart from your colleagues at work and classmates at school or university. You can be a working professional, student, or business owner; learning the art of presenting can open up new opportunities.

www.marktechpost.com/2024/07/01/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-make-engaging-technical-presentations

SUNY adds AI education to its information literacy gen ed

As part of its existing information literacy general education requirement, students will now study the “ethical dimensions” of the technology.

www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2025/01/16/suny-adds-ai-education-its-information

DeepSeek

See what all the hubbub is about!

www.deepseek.com

FactSnap

FactSnap is your reliable fact-checking companion. Verify information while browsing the web with the Chrome extension.

factsnap.nand.io

Make translation 10X faster, cheaper, better

DocTranslate.io offers fast, accurate, and cost-effective document translation for over 85 languages, supporting various file types and maintaining original layouts. Its AI-powered tool is perfect for professionals, significantly reducing manual translation efforts and costs

doctranslate.io/en/translate/document/param?tone=Serious&domain=None&bilingual=false

MeetMinutes: AI Notetaking - Analyze, Transcribe & Summarize Meetings

Boost your productivity with MeetMinutes, the AI-powered notetaking solution that analyzes, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings. Never miss a key point again!

www.meetminutes.in

Visme: AI Presentation maker, Infographics, and One pager templates

Create professional presentations, interactive infographics, beautiful design and engaging videos, all in one place. Start using Visme today.

www.visme.co

Here’s a prompt that I routinely use to help sort through the often-overwhelming volume of news on our industry. Take a peek! 

I need 10 recent articles on the current landscape of US college admissions. Please provide the APA citation and a brief description of 2-3 sentences for why each article is relevant to high school college counselors.

You can try your hand at it to see the results, but here is a quick listing of the articles provided in response to this query:

Not a bad reading list! If you have any great prompts or ideas, please share! Send me a note at [email protected].

iVisa

Say goodbye to your visa processing worries and say hello to effortless travel! With iVisa, you can be sure of a smooth journey. Give iVisa a go. You’ll only regret not using it before.

HTTP://share.ivisa.com/6G3rVP

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

I am at Lynn University right now, as part of a fly-in program for their Counselor Admission Advisory Council. If ever you have the opportunity to join such a group, I strongly suggest it. I’ve enjoyed the deep conversations about our industry. Also, if you don’t know Lynn, take some time to look! An impressive place, by all counts!

For this week’s non-tech article, I’ve been thinking a lot about this one, which I wanted to share:

The Art of Calling Out Room Dynamics

Discover how naming what's happening in the room can defuse tense meetings, improve team dynamics, and elevate your leadership skills. Learn practical tips from an experienced tech leader on using this powerful communication technique to transform difficult conversations and drive better outcomes.

leadership.garden/calling-out-room-dynamics

I hope your new year is off to a great start!

Happy counseling!

Jeff