Your First Conversation with AI
Sit down with ChatGPT for the first time. Three guided prompts — factual, classroom-scenario, and creative — that show you what AI can and can't do, in about thirty minutes.
Open Session 1Free AI Training · Dr. Pesach Walter, Ed.D.
Two free 20-session AI courses. One patient guide.
I learned AI at eighty-one. Two years later, at eighty-two, I earned my doctorate. Along the way I built two twenty-session courses — AI for the Classroom, for the K–12 teacher trying to keep up with their students, and AI for the Late-Life Scholar, for the adult returning to graduate school. Both are free. Both are video-first. Both come with hands-on practice you can do the same day.
AI for the Classroom
Twenty lessons for the K–12 teacher.
Built for teachers who never planned on becoming AI experts and don't want to. Each session is short, plainly explained, and paired with practice exercises on this site that produce something you can use in class the same week — a warm-up, a parent email, a lesson pulse, a growth digest.
Open AI for the ClassroomAI for the Late-Life Scholar
Twenty lessons for the returning graduate student.
The original course. Written for adults 60+ heading back to graduate school — the same course I built for myself while I finished my own doctorate. Six AI platforms, from your first prompt to a full research workflow, in twenty steady steps.
Open AI for the Late-Life ScholarAI for the Classroom · 20 Sessions · Free
AI for the Classroom
Each lesson is a short video plus a page of hands-on practice built for real classrooms. You do not need a paid account for any of it. Start with Session 1 — thirty minutes and you'll have had your first three real conversations with AI.
The Anatomy of a Good Prompt
The three-part structure behind every prompt that actually works — role, task, constraints — practiced on lessons you're teaching this week.
Coming soonMeet Gemini — Your Second AI
Compare ChatGPT and Gemini on the same classroom question. Learn how to evaluate any new AI tool by putting it side-by-side with one you already trust.
Coming soonMeet Claude — AI for Careful Writing
Claude for parent emails, IEP language, and any writing where tone matters as much as content. Practice: rewrite a real email in three registers.
Coming soonPersona Prompts — Give AI a Role
Turn ChatGPT into a reading specialist, a math coach, or a veteran mentor with one sentence. The single most useful prompt technique for teachers.
Coming soonResearch with Perplexity
The AI research tool that cites its sources — how to use it for lesson research, curriculum planning, and answering the hard student question you weren't ready for.
Coming soonSummarize and Simplify
Turn a district PDF, a research article, or a chapter of a novel into something students can actually use — at the right reading level.
Coming soonAI as a Brainstorming Partner
From blank page to lesson outline in ten minutes. Practice: brainstorm three ways to teach the same standard, three different ways.
Coming soonEditing Your Writing with AI
Feedback on tone, clarity, and grade level for anything you write to parents, colleagues, or administrators. AI as a second reader who never gets tired.
Coming soonFact-Checking AI — the Hallucination Habit
Why AI sometimes invents things confidently, and the two-minute verification habit that protects you and your students.
Coming soonUpload a Document — Let AI Read for You
Drop a PDF, a curriculum guide, or a district memo into Gemini and get a plain-English summary in seconds. Practice with a real document from your inbox.
Coming soonMicrosoft Copilot in Your Browser
AI built directly into Edge — summarize a web page, compare two articles, and pull key ideas out of anything you're reading online.
Coming soonChain-of-Thought — Make AI Think Step by Step
The four-step workflow — Gather, Extract, Propose, Draft — that turns a rushed prompt into a thoughtful answer. This is where the course gets powerful.
Coming soonFinding Themes in Student Work
Use Claude to look across a whole class set — exit tickets, short-answer responses, or reflections — and find the patterns you'd miss on your own.
Coming soonAI Image Generation for Your Classroom
Create simple, appropriate visuals for slides, anchor charts, and handouts — and learn what image prompts should and shouldn't try to do.
Coming soonBuilding a Real Teaching Workflow
Combine Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT into a single Sunday-planning workflow: source → outline → materials → parent update, in under an hour.
Coming soonJust Do It — Ship One Thing This Week
The most important session in the course. Pick one recurring task you dread; use AI to finish it before Friday.
Coming soonThe Long Conversation
Stop starting over. How to keep one thread of thinking going across a whole planning session — and why that changes the quality of what you get.
Coming soonScheduled Tasks — Your AI on a Calendar
Build a Daily Teacher Dashboard, a Weekly Lesson Pulse, a Parent-Communications Digest, and a Growth Digest — all running on a schedule.
Open Session 19NotebookLM — Your Own Research Notebook
Load every article, PDF, and note about a unit you're teaching into one place — and let AI answer your questions using only those sources.
Coming soonIf any of this makes you wonder
"Could I go back to school myself?"
Every one of these lessons was built while I was finishing my doctorate at eighty-two. If working through this course makes you think you'd like to go further — a master's, a doctorate, or just one serious course — that's exactly what the coaching side of Graduate Ed Connect is for. Applications, school selection, financial aid, and the emotional adjustment of returning to academic life.
AI for the Late-Life Scholar · 20 Sessions · Free
AI for the Late-Life Scholar
The original course. Twenty short sessions, six AI platforms, video lessons, no credit card, no subscriptions, and no experience required. Built for adults returning to graduate study — the same course I built for myself.
Welcome to AI — Your First Conversation
Discover what AI chatbots are, write your very first prompt, and take your first steps into a technology that will change how you learn.
Open sessionThe Anatomy of a Good Prompt
Learn why some prompts produce amazing results and others fall flat — and discover the three-part structure that makes every prompt more effective.
Open sessionExploring a New AI — Google Gemini
Meet your second AI platform, understand how Gemini differs from ChatGPT, and learn to evaluate AI tools by comparing their responses side by side.
Open sessionMeet Claude — AI for Thoughtful Writing
Explore Claude, an AI renowned for its careful reasoning and nuanced responses, and learn the power of specifying your audience to transform any explanation.
Open sessionGiving AI a Role — Persona Prompts
Discover how assigning a role or persona to ChatGPT transforms its responses — one of the most powerful prompt techniques for getting expert-level guidance.
Open sessionAI-Powered Research with Perplexity
Discover Perplexity — the AI research tool that searches the web and cites its sources — and learn why citations are essential for trustworthy academic research.
Open sessionUsing AI to Summarize and Simplify
Master the art of using AI to extract the essence from complex academic texts — turning dense jargon-filled articles into clear, actionable insights.
Open sessionAI as a Writing Partner — Brainstorming and Outlining
Use ChatGPT as your creative thinking partner to generate ideas, organize your thoughts, and build structured outlines for academic papers and projects.
Open sessionEditing and Improving Your Writing with AI
Turn Claude into your personal writing tutor — submit your own work for feedback on grammar, clarity, tone, and academic style, then apply the suggestions yourself.
Open sessionFact-Checking and Verifying AI Output
Learn why AI can be confidently wrong — understand the phenomenon of "hallucination" — and build the critical verification habits that protect your academic credibility.
Open sessionUploading Documents — Let AI Read for You
Unlock Gemini's document analysis capabilities to summarize, analyze, and extract insights from PDFs and research articles you upload directly.
Open sessionMicrosoft Copilot — AI in Your Browser
Discover Microsoft Copilot, the AI built directly into your web browser, and learn to use it to summarize, compare, and interact with web content as you browse.
Open sessionChain-of-Thought Prompting
Discover one of the most powerful advanced prompt techniques: asking AI to show its reasoning process — and watch the quality of responses transform dramatically.
Open sessionAI for Literature Reviews
Use Claude to synthesize multiple research sources, identify thematic patterns, spot contradictions, and uncover the research gaps that could define your own scholarly contribution.
Open sessionAI Image Generation for Presentations
Use Google Gemini's image generation to create professional visuals for academic presentations — and learn the art of writing precise, descriptive image prompts.
Open sessionBuilding a Research Workflow with AI
Combine Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT into an integrated research workflow — from source discovery to annotated bibliography.
Open sessionJust Do It
Video lesson and practical exercises for adult graduate students learning AI.
Open sessionThe Long Conversation
Video lesson and practical exercises for adult graduate students learning AI.
Open sessionTemplates
Video lesson and practical exercises for adult graduate students learning AI.
Open sessionNotebookLM
Video lesson and practical exercises for adult graduate students learning AI.
Open sessionThis course is free.
It is here because every teacher and every adult learner deserves a calm, clear introduction to the modern scholar's tools. If you would like a guided pass through it, that is what coaching is for.