It's a bit later on Tuesday - but it's still Tuesday :) My first Tech Tuesday video is out. The idea is to share some of the tech that I have (or that is sent to me) and how it can be used with intention in learning, teaching, and becoming more productive. The Bigme B7 Color Tablet was sent to me and I was worried at first. It was a little challenging to get used to, was slightly slower than I thought it would be, and I was trying to figure out where it fit. Then - everything changed. I became familiar with it and it's starting to deliver more and more value - all in one reader.

How to turn an AI into your personal cognitive coach. Most people use AI as a "Ghostwriter"—they ask it to write an essay or solve a problem so they don’t have to. The problem? The AI gets smarter, and the human stays the same. This course changes that. This is a scaffold for your brain. We aren't using AI to "do" the work; we are using it to guide the struggle. Real learning happens when your brain has to work, connect, and retrieve. This Prompt Journal uses proven, research-backed techniques to make sure that what you study today actually stays in your head tomorrow. Using AI to Support REAL Learning - AI Powered Learning Journal Prompt Pack · Learning with AI &

I am always on the lookout for ways to use AI. This comes out of a general theme of mine: Local Knowledge. If you have local knowledge, apply AI to helping you work with that knowledge. I run Historical societies. I am in a book club. Those are places I use AI. Wife gave me a new one today. She is visiting end of Long Island in April, has a NYT article about what to do there and wants to know which of the locations are open. She was able to go to normal Google search, choose AI mode, type in the prompt of " Please read the following material about locations to visit around the Eastern end of Long Island and research which might be open in April 2026" Append a couple paragraphs from the article and it gave her exactly what she wanted. I urged her to not put in the entire 700+ word article but instead chunk it up and extract results. Frank's focus is often on learning. Transferring what is in a book to your brain. I think my interest is a little more focused on mastering techniques to extract relevant information and methodologies. Putting stuff in my brain seems a little more oriented to school and school seems a little more oriented to teaching one how to master material. I might argue that schools/learning are about to change. The main skill is not knowing the causes of the fall of Rome but how to find out what people think about the topic and how to integrate that with related topics.

AI will force education to move from Problem Solving to Problem Finding. In this rant I am going to fail measurable by trying to do 2 things. The first is the above idea. It comes from Youtube Nate B Janes. I usually suggest that only technical people listen to him but I am breaking the rule. Now we move to the second "thing". I have used Notebooklm to parce the Nate piece. IF you have a gmail account, send it to me at tpears@aol.com and I will send you an invitation to view this Nate piece in a notebook. It is all free. Back to thing 1, Nate. Nate points out that the education system has historically optimized for problem solving, but the AI era will increasingly reward "problem finding" and the ability to frame the right questions. Furthermore, as technical skills like programming become commoditized, human value will shift toward taste, judgment, and the ability to curate high-quality outputs from a sea of AI-generated options. The above was written for me by notebooklm. Come see what I am talking about.

Happy Friday everyone! We are getting closer to the upcoming course that runs in February on our Learning and AI Community - I'm looking forward to seeing the results you achieve. Please let me know if you plan to attend the course (it's free for the first intake - you can't beat that price!). Even if you cannot attend all sessions, they will be recorded and shared with those that are taking the course. To enroll, please respond to this post letting me know. I will then be closing the course to everyone except the people that respond so that I can close the recordings to only participants. I'll be doing this early next week - so don't delay. As a reminder - here is the course outline: