Best AI Tools for College Success
Open AI will never write the way you do or have the same unique thoughts as you, but we can leverage this technology as a tool to unlock who you are and how you think to elicit more clarity and uplevel your educational capacity. Let's talk about the best AI for college students.
Artificial Intelligence's Role in Modern Education
After listening to many podcasts and reading various government reports on the explosion of AI, educators are nervous about this new technology. However, after listening to Sal Khan’s TED Talk, his subsequent interview with Adam Grant, and attending multiple discussions surrounding the introduction of AI based learning platforms at the annual NACAC conference, I am hopeful that this tool will help students and teachers in higher education expand their capabilities.
Benefits of AI Tools for Students
Khanmigo, by Khan Academy, will be rolled out shortly as the ultimate virtual tutor and supporter of student achievement. Sal Khan explained in his TED talk that when missing a distributive property, machine learning will help students learn faster by teaching them how to identify their missing step and offering another try along with the rule that would prompt their approach.
Additionally, when writing a research paper or essay, AI can support students by prompting their ideas, outlining, asking for more depth, aligned with the rubric teachers have established to guide their process.
When students are offered immediate feedback that continues their progress, conversely teachers are afforded a online learning assistant that knows the material, can support initial review of work, and are specifically designed to help identify where students need more support. As Khan explains, everyone benefits because the flow of information has exponentially increased through AI technology which, in turn, aids students in their academic journey.
Spotting Low Quality AI Tools
With this said, many AI systems do not have the same thoughtfulness embedded into their DNA or coders who are looking to make a quick buck at this moment. Just like scam phone calls, emails, or ads, there is a glut of scam AI systems that exist on every platform as well. One way to spot a fake is they have a terrific front page but when clicking the “try now” or “get today” buttons it does not advance you. In this case, taking a moment to research vetted systems where students can utilize platforms that have a conscience is vital. Below is a list of AI programs that I trust to help students, teachers, counselors, and their supporters level up their academic process:
The Best AI Tools for College Students
Dragon Dictation has been reimagined as Dragon Speech - For those who struggle with writing, you can dictate into Dragon and it will help translate your thoughts into sentences. If you use Google Chrome and are in a Google Doc, click on Tools, Voice Typing, and then start to translate your ideas onto the page. Terrific for talking to your computer and letting the generative AI writing tool do the work.
Khanmigo - For $9 per month or $99 per year you can have a personalized tutor and teachers can have a personalized teaching assistant through Khanmigo. This incredible learning app is currently in Beta mode but will be widely used through Khan schools and universities in the near term.
Duolingo Max - Our favorite app Duolingo is now transitioning its use of AI into Duolingo Max where they utilize a Large Language Model (LLM) to predict the way in which a user will put together a sentence or the next words in text messages. This system then helps the AI assisted tool create language learning lesson plans tailored to the student.
Loom - This is a personal favorite! If you ever wanted to avoid explaining something via email that takes much longer to type out or you have a quick question that can be answered in a video…Loom is your answer. Just download the AI system to your email, Drive, or any of your desktop products, then you can click the button to record, you can include your live image, or not, and screen share what you wish.
Kahoot! - For a fun interactive class that helps students engage with QR codes and questions, Kahoot! is a must. It can then provide AI generated, relevant questions based on the learning environment. This does have a fee associated, but often times you may have access through your school or organization. There is a similar AI system used to create questions from presentation and powerpoints as well called ClassPoint AI.
Notion - Typically this is used for businesses and team connection, but teachers, coaches, college and career counselors like me can use these systems to help students with a wide range of projects. From staying on track to collecting meeting notes, setting up calendars and helping with overall executive functioning skills.
There are many other AI systems to check out, but with anything you try define your goals, research the tools, integrate them into your systems, and then think about how it is helping you dig deeper on the topics you are writing about. These tools are not a replacement for your unique thoughts, but they sure can help ask more of you. In my case, the power of AI has helped streamline so many systems which allowed me to spend non-student facing time researching and writing effectively and at a high quality.
