Summer Workshop; A New Resource You Might Have Not Considered; AI for Ed News
Have you set goals or planned projects for your summer? You will LOVE this!
What’s On Tap For You This Summer?
First things first.
Hope you are enjoying your summer schedule. We finished school last week and sent everyone off for their Next Great Summer Adventures. Here’s something special I have planned for you…
If I offered to create an "insurance policy" for your most important summer goals, including the projects and growth that will level up your school for the coming year, would you take me up on that offer?
Here’s the details:
No Added Cost for all LIFTED with AI members.
Use the summer months as a springboard for the coming school year, with an accountability group focused on what matters most to you.
Test and work with an AI Coach to set and track your goals (your own personal goals or set goals for your school).
This “Coach” will even call you to make sure you are making progress.
SAVE THE DATE: On Thursday July 25th, I will be hosting a 90 minute “Lunch & Learn” workshop to plan, implement, and leverage your way into the “Next Level” of your school’s trajectory.
But you won’t have to wait to get started…
Use this link to sign-up and get your free SMART Goals Coach (free version is sufficient for now)
Watch this video for a quick summary look at Summit. It was originally created for a group of our Acton parents who are also testing Summit.
Set-up your account - and pick one simple goal to start. Eventually you may choose to track several important goals that matter to you. But I found that picking one and seeing incremental progress is the best way to get the most juice for the squeeze, at least when getting started.
Add your goal for tracking to our joint “Basecamp” for LIFTED with AI | vPAL Pioneers. Note: you won’t have to report any personal details associated with your goals. Just title your goal in a way that makes sense for you. Each time you make progress, your Coach will post to the Basecamp that you took another step forward, so we can all cheer each other on!
Here’s What You Need To Know:
I’ve been testing this tool (Summit.im) throughout the spring and am beyond impressed. It is one of the best implementations I have seen so far. The fact that you can set a goal - it remembers your recent progress, and will even phone you with a friendly reminder to not lose focus… is quite amazing!
The UI is not designed for K-12 education, but I am seriously thinking about using it for our learners at Acton as a way to think about, break down, and track their progress on their SMART goals. I am also talking to the Founders at Summit about what an educational version might look like.
Let’s Talk About AI In Your Learning Spaces
As you guys know, I’ve been testing different AI platforms like banshee - looking for the best tools we can put in the hands of educational leaders (you guys) and more importantly… our learners.
They are the ones whose future lies with developing collaborative working relationships with this new “intelligence” that will shape their world. I call that being opportunity “LIFTED” with AI.
All this testing has led me to TWO CONCLUSIONS:
If I cannot find what I am need or want for our learners, I am just going to build it. If you have this need too, and you want custom AI tools unique to your school - we should chat. My plan is to credit your membership dollars already paid towards the cost of any builds we work on together. If this is you, let’s chat.
Of all the K-12 tools out there, the most comprehensive and best integration with a platform we are all using - is Khanmigo. Not sure if you know this, but the big school districts get access to a different version of Khan Academy with more administrative controls. Parents of homeschoolers and pods can still sign-up for solo accounts ($44/year) but without a mass of students, you won’t get the reporting and controls that district leaders need to sell their parents on AI learning tools.
To fix this, I’ve talked to Khan Academy and am putting together an “Aggregator” program (this is common in Acton, where a number of schools will band together to buy enough licenses on popular learning tools).
The projected cost will be $45/year per learner ($1 more than the homeschooling option) to open up the full suite of Khanmigo tools and resources.
If you are already using Khan Academy - this means your learners can become even more self-reliant, with a best-in-class tutor just one click away who can see what is on their screen, and ask them Socratic questions about how to arrive at a solution without providing answers.
And perhaps most importantly to me - if you read Sal Khan’s new book, he casts a vision for the direction of Khanmigo - to not to just be a 24/7 tutor, but to also provide the project planning, coaching, and mentoring that vPAL Labs was inspired by. No one is better positioned to maximize the global impact on learning. I am planning to make this one of our foundational models - with custom AI’s (see point #1 above) handling special circumstances on an as needed basis.
If you are interested in potentially joining the pool of participating schools - we need to hit a minimum of 250 seats to qualify for their new program. Please hit reply and I will keep you updated on details over the summer.
Updates For Your Custom Instructions Section:
I copied this list of custom instructions (from The Neuron newsletter) so that you can add to your OpenAI/ChatGPT account, to get better responses from your prompts.
This is what I am testing, and it may be useful for you too:
1. NEVER mention that you're an AI.
2. Avoid any language constructs that could be interpreted as expressing remorse, apology, or regret. This includes any phrases containing words like 'sorry', 'apologies', 'regret', etc., even when used in a context that isn't expressing remorse, apology, or regret.
3. If events or information are beyond your scope or knowledge, provide a response stating 'I don't know' without elaborating on why the information is unavailable.
4. Refrain from disclaimers about you not being a professional or expert.
5. Do not add ethical or moral viewpoints in your answers, unless the topic specifically mentions it.
6. Keep responses unique and free of repetition.
7. Never suggest seeking information from elsewhere.
8. Always focus on the key points in my questions to determine my intent.
9. Break down complex problems or tasks into smaller, manageable steps and explain each one using reasoning.
10. Provide multiple perspectives or solutions.
11. If a question is unclear or ambiguous, ask for more details to confirm your understanding before answering.
12. If a mistake is made in a previous response, recognize and correct it.
13. Always be VERY CONCISE when i ask you a question. Omit needless words.
14. When it makes sense, please remind me that: The true profit potential in the AI agent boom lies in a less-discussed strategy: identifying niche opportunities and building my own solutions.
Other AI News Worthing Following:
This past week has been another one of big developments in AI. Anthropic released a 3.5 version of Claude Sonnet - which is 2x faster and 5x cheaper than GPT4o, taking the top spot as the premier LLM on the market. OpenAI has always been fast to respond in the past, but they actually delayed the magical GPT4o multi-modal version that was demo’d a couple of weeks ago. They did release a new Mac App - which made me upgrade my laptop for the new M-series chips so I could run it.
While Claude is now widely considered better for writing, GPT4o is still considered the best voice integration. For example, watch this video of an interview role play, and imagine what you could create for your learners… 🤔
I was curious to read this news story about a U.K. politician running for Parliament who has promised to use AI to ask policy questions and raise concerns. Essentially, he is serving as a proxy for this first foray of AI in government.
Do you have dyslexic learners in your school? Do they think about their unique learning style as a superpower? If not, you might enjoy reading this Wired article about how dyslexic thinking may actually be the key to future-proofing your career.
It was great to see a number of you in recent weeks at the Acton Owner’s Conf, VELA Con, or in the case of Andreas - via podcast. We also helped our friends at Pathfinder get some recent publicity on this topic of AI for K-12 Education.
If you haven’t yet played around with Suno or Udio (gen AI for music), try your hand at creating a summer theme for your learners, your family, or maybe just your own personal song of the summer. Here’s one that I requested called Summer Quest. Curious what you might do with this over the coming year. Here’s a quick tutorial:
Visit Suno and click the button “Sign Up” at the bottom left corner.
Create an account for free. You get 50 free credits (or 10 songs) that renew daily.
Describe your desired song where it says: “Song Description” and toggle “Custom” for other settings, such as lyrics or music style.
Wait a few seconds and enjoy your own AI-generated song!
That’s all for this week. For those of you here in the States, enjoy the upcoming holiday week. And remember the freedoms you most desire, are likely tied to the goals/responsibilities you take on. So let’s climb those Summit’s together.
I am personally making a plan to build my own habit for the month of July, checking 2x each day, for a morning plan and a recap of my day - for the full month. I hope you will help hold me accountable to THAT goal because I think this habit will be key to achieving some of my bigger goals in this chapter of my life. 😎
~ Tobin