AI and Ultralearning

Learn faster and more effectively with proven strategies. Discover how Scott Young earned a self-taught MIT computer science degree in one year, as revealed in his book Ultralearning. Explore practical applications, real-world examples, and insights from his experiences. Share success stories, lessons learned, and key pitfalls to avoid. 

“Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education.” – Goodreads.com

Scott Young’s MIT Challenge Explained

Summary of Key Concepts

Prompt: Create a learning plan over 5 days with multiple sessions a day to learn the techniques in the videos from Your Guitar Academy’s How to Play Like Stevie Ray Vaughan series. To create a comprehensive 5-day learning plan based on the techniques presented in the provided video series, we will structure the plan to incorporate

  • Pareto Principle: Focus on the 20% of a topic that provides 80% of its practical application.
  • Study Schedules: Delegate the creation of study plans to AI, including time for revision and testing.
  • Resource Recommendations: AI curates tailored learning resources, including videos, books, and podcasts, based on different learning styles.
  • Project Ideas: AI provides project suggestions based on the learner’s skill level, such as beginner programming projects.
  • Clarification of Concepts: AI simplifies complex topics and helps create mental models or analogies.
  • Critical Thinking Development: Using the Socratic method, AI challenges users with open-ended questions to enhance their reasoning and logical thinking.

Scott Le Duc’s 2025 MIT Challenge

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets

Scott Le Duc’s Ultralearning Blog Post Template

Scott Le Duc’s Student Session Blog Post Template

Scott Le Duc’s Resources for Presentation

Jeff Su’s Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula (in just 8 minutes)!

Jeff Su’s Learn 80% of NotebookLM in Under 13 Minutes!

Pre-Session Poll Results

PROMPT: You are a professional presenter and educator. You are presenting at a CTE conference and presenting how to create an ultralearning curriculum for high school career and technical education students. The audience is career and tech teachers. Use the resources in this notebook to create a short bulleted list of material to answer the questions included below from the survey responses from conference session attendees. Here are the poll results…

  • Recognizing my own limitations with AI (using it like Google) and trying new approaches.
  • What is Ultralearning?
  • Student accountability when using AI. making sure they don’t use it to cheat.
  • I would like to get resources related to AI, the future of AI, and student career choices.
  • Using AI in a way that encourages learning.
  • Very interested in this session and see what you’ve put together!
  • Affective AI use policy

NotebookLM’s Results

• What is Ultralearning?

    ◦ Ultralearning is defined as a self-directed and intense strategy for acquiring skills and knowledge. It’s about empowering individuals to become self-reliant and take control of their learning journeys.

    ◦ The goal is to help individuals master hard skills quickly and gain a competitive advantage, ultimately increasing their earning potential.

    ◦ Developed by Scott Young, Ultralearning is built upon nine core principles: Meta-learning, Focus, Directness, Drill, Retrieval, Feedback, Retention, Intuition, and Experimentation1. These principles provide a systematic “playbook” for rapid skill acquisition.

• Using AI in a way that encourages learning & addressing limitations with AI (using it like Google) and trying new approaches. The challenge of moving beyond AI as just a search engine is precisely where its power for ultralearning comes in. Here’s how AI can be leveraged for active, deep learning:

    ◦ Focused Learning Plans (Pareto Principle): AI can help students apply the Pareto Principle, identifying the 20% of a topic that will yield 80% of the practical application. This allows students to create highly focused learning plans, ensuring efficient use of their study time.

    ◦ Personalized Study Schedules: Students can prompt AI to create detailed study schedules, specifying available days and hours, and including dedicated time for revision and testing. This offloads the organizational burden and promotes consistency.

    ◦ Curated Learning Resources: AI can suggest a variety of learning resources such as videos, books, podcasts, and interactive exercises, tailored to different learning styles (e.g., visual) or specific needs (e.g., free resources). This saves significant time in resource discovery.

    ◦ Project Idea Generation for Active Learning (Directness): AI can generate skill-level appropriate project ideas, encouraging students to learn by doing. For example, a beginner learning C# for game development could get project suggestions like creating simple video games in Unity. Projects force the application of learned concepts, which is crucial for the “Directness” principle of Ultralearning4.

    ◦ Clarification and Deep Understanding (Feynman Technique, Intuition):

        ▪ Students can ask AI to explain complex topics in the simplest terms possible, as if to a beginner or a five-year-old, akin to the Feynman Technique3…. This process of simplification helps internalize concepts and develop genuine understanding, fostering “Intuition”.

        ▪ AI can also create mental models or analogies to aid understanding and retention3.

        ▪ It can guide students through visualization exercises to help them internalize concepts and imagine real-life applications, making abstract ideas more concrete.

    ◦ Critical Thinking and Reasoning (Socratic Method): Students can engage AI as a “Socrat” to use the Socratic method. The AI will ask open-ended questions to challenge statements and provide constructive feedback on responses, thereby improving critical thinking, logic, and reasoning skills3. This directly aligns with the “Feedback” principle of Ultralearning.

• Student accountability when using AI & an Effective AI use policy. While the sources do not provide explicit policies, the Ultralearning framework, especially when augmented by AI as described, inherently promotes methods that foster genuine understanding and accountability, making it harder for students to simply “cheat” or avoid true learning:

    ◦ Focus on Application (Directness & Project-Based Learning): By emphasizing learning through hands-on projects and direct application of skills—as AI can help generate and refine—students are compelled to genuinely engage with the material. Success in a project cannot be easily faked if it requires practical output.

    ◦ Emphasis on Retrieval Practice: Ultralearning stresses actively recalling information from memory rather than constant reliance on notes or external sources. AI can be used to facilitate self-quizzing and retrieval exercises, challenging students to demonstrate knowledge independently.

    ◦ Feynman Technique for Understanding: When AI is used to facilitate the Feynman Technique, students are asked to explain concepts in their own simplified terms. This process immediately reveals gaps in understanding, ensuring that students aren’t just memorizing facts but truly comprehending them….

    ◦ Constructive Feedback: AI can provide immediate and constructive feedback on student explanations or answers, which is a core principle of Ultralearning…. This allows students to self-correct and deepen their learning without judgment, reducing the temptation to avoid challenging questions.

    ◦ Developing Intuition and Expertise: Ultralearning aims for deep intuition and mastery, where students can adapt and apply skills fluidly59. This level of understanding goes far beyond what simple AI-generated answers can provide and requires active, personal engagement over time.

• Resources related to AI, the future of AI, and student career choices. The provided sources primarily focus on how to use AI as a tool for accelerated learning of any skill, rather than providing specific resources about the future of AI itself or direct guidance on student career choices in relation to AI. However, the overarching message of Ultralearning is to equip individuals with the ability to quickly pick up in-demand skills to gain a competitive advantage and increase earning potential in a rapidly evolving world. This framework is, in itself, a crucial resource for navigating future career landscapes, regardless of the specific technologies involved.

How do AI tools enhance and align with the core principles of ultralearning methodologies?

Response from Google NotebookLM

AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, significantly enhance and align with the core principles of ultralearning methodologies by streamlining various aspects of the self-directed learning process.

Here’s how AI tools facilitate and support each ultralearning principle:

• Meta-learning (What, Why, How): The first rule of ultralearning, meta-learning, involves mapping out your learning journey by defining objectives, timing, and resources2…. AI helps immensely here by allowing you to tell it to create a focused learning plan using the Pareto Principle1. This means AI can identify 20% of a topic that will yield 80% of the practical application, making the “what to learn” much clearer and more efficient. Furthermore, AI can generate a study schedule, specifying when and for how long to study, including revision and testing times1. It can also suggest various learning resources like videos, books, podcasts, and interactive exercises, tailored to different learning styles or preferences (e.g., free vs. paid, visual resources)1, directly addressing the “how” of your learning strategy.

• Focus (Deep Work): Ultralearning emphasizes deep, concentrated effort to achieve higher quality and more efficient learning by minimizing distractions45. While AI doesn’t enforce focus directly, its ability to quickly generate structured learning plans and study schedules1 reduces the time and mental effort spent on planning, allowing you to dedicate more time and cognitive energy to the actual focused learning1.

• Directedness (Learning by Doing): This principle is about actively engaging in the process you want to master by learning through application and building projects45. AI directly supports this by helping you come up with project ideas appropriate for your skill level. For example, you can ask for beginner video game projects to strengthen C# coding skills, which forces you to apply what you’re learning.

• Drill (Addressing Bottlenecks): Drilling involves breaking down complex topics, identifying your weakest areas or “bottlenecks,” and intensely studying them to improve overall performance4…. When encountering hurdles or concepts that don’t make sense during a project, AI can be used to gain clarification. You can ask it to explain a topic in the simplest terms, as if to a beginner or a five-year-old, or to create mental models and analogies1. This helps in dissecting difficult areas and targeting them for improvement.

• Retrieval (Active Recall): Retrieval is a crucial strategy for cementing learned information into long-term memory by actively recalling it from memory, often through self-testing78. AI powerfully aligns with this through its capability to act as a Socrat. By instructing AI to “ask open-ended questions” about a statement you make and then “give constructive feedback” after your response, it continuously prompts you to retrieve and articulate your understanding, significantly strengthening your memory and critical thinking skills1…. The AI-generated study schedules also include time for revision and testing, further supporting retrieval practice1.

• Feedback (Constructive Criticism): Receiving frequent, constructive, and corrective feedback is vital for identifying areas for improvement that you might not see yourself…. As mentioned above, when engaging with AI using the Socratic method, it is specifically designed to provide constructive feedback to your responses. This direct and immediate feedback helps you refine your arguments, understanding, and logic without fear of judgment.

• Retention (Regular Practice): To avoid forgetting, ultralearning emphasizes regular practice and revisiting learned knowledge and skills9. AI assists with retention through the creation of study schedules that explicitly include time for revision. Additionally, by providing project ideas, AI encourages the repeated application of skills in different contexts, a highly effective method for retaining knowledge. Guiding visualization exercises to help internalize concepts and imagine applying them in real-life situations also aids in deeper understanding and retention.

• Intuition (Deep Understanding): Intuition in ultralearning refers to developing a “sixth sense” or deep expertise that goes beyond superficial recall, allowing for a true understanding of a topic. AI helps foster this by providing simplified explanations using methods like the Feynman technique (explaining as if to someone else), creating mental models or analogies, and guiding visualization exercises. These methods encourage a deeper internalization of concepts, making abstract ideas more concrete and relatable, which contributes to developing intuition….

• Experimentation (Trying New Approaches): As skill develops, ultralearners are encouraged to experiment with new approaches, refine their process, and find their unique style, which keeps learning engaging and at the cutting edge…. While not explicitly stated as “experimentation,” AI’s ability to suggest various learning resources that cater to different learning styles and come up with diverse project ideas provides a foundation for experimentation by offering multiple avenues and strategies for learning and application. This flexibility allows learners to explore different methods and approaches to find what works best for them.

In essence, AI tools like ChatGPT serve as a personalized, patient, and resourceful guide throughout the ultralearning journey, automating the more tedious aspects of planning and resource discovery, while also providing interactive methods for deep understanding, application, and self-assessment.

Post-session Survey

AI and The Disengaged Teen: Book Study

The material below was generated by Google’s NotebookLM. The material was an amalgamation of the resources in the resource summary section below. These resources were either referenced in the book or supported the discussions within the book, especially those related to the use of generative AI.

The Book

The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

Resource Summaries

Here are brief summaries of the resources referenced in this discussion:

• Excerpts from “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better” with Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson (YouTube): Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop’s “The Disengaged Teen” addresses the teenage mental health crisis and empowers parents to foster engagement. They present four dynamic learning modes: Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, and Explorer, which are fluid reactions to environments, not fixed identities. The aim is to help teens build “exploration muscles”. Key strategies include autonomy-supportive parenting (fostering trust and choices) and nurturing the “curriculum of the home” (discussions, modeling learning), which is twice as predictive of success as socioeconomic status. Parents should nudge kids to make their own plans rather than nag, as it’s more effective. The book encourages playing the long game, focusing on well-being and long-term engagement over just grades.

• Excerpts from “Jenny Anderson, Rebecca Winthrop, Ph.D, and Charles Duhigg – The Disengaged Teen” (YouTube): This source features Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop discussing the motivation behind their book, “The Disengaged Teen.” They share personal anecdotes that reveal how traditional metrics like grades can obscure true student engagement and motivation. The authors detail their extensive research, which identified the four modes of engagement (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, Explorer). The conversation provides practical advice for parents and educators on navigating these modes, emphasizing the importance of autonomy, identifying student “sparks,” avoiding nagging, and promoting well-being over perfect outcomes.

• Excerpts from “Educating Kids in the Age of A.I. | The Ezra Klein Show” with Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson (YouTube): This transcript details a conversation with Rebecca Winthrop, Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institute, and co-author Jenny Anderson, discussing their book “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better Feel Better and Live Better”. The discussion addresses the profound shift in education due to AI, the decline in reading among teens, and the need to rethink the purpose of education beyond job readiness. It introduces their “four modes of engagement” (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, Explorer) and offers insights on how to foster engagement and prepare children for an uncertain future, emphasizing human relationships and critical thinking over rote learning.

• Excerpts from “Assigning AI: Seven Ways of Using AI in Class” by Ethan Mollick (Substack): This source, written by an AI expert, explores how educators are already grappling with AI as both a threat and an opportunity. Mollick advocates embracing AI, even making it mandatory in his classes, and details seven ways AI can be used in classrooms: as a tutor, coach, mentor, teammate, tool, simulator, and student. He provides specific prompts and cautions about AI’s limitations, such as hallucination and bias, emphasizing the critical role of the teacher in guiding AI applications. The article particularly highlights AI as a coach (for metacognition) and as a tutor (for knowledge acquisition).

• Excerpts from “Oxford Researchers Discovered How to Use AI To Learn Like A Genius” (YouTube): This video explains how Oxford University teaches its students to use AI for more effective and efficient learning, focusing on AI as a “trainer” rather than a “doer”. It highlights retrieval practice as the most effective form of learning and suggests using AI for Socratic questioning, generating multi-level explanations, creating practice questions, and aiding academic reading by challenging students to think critically. The video also points out the benefit of AI in reducing embarrassment for students asking questions.

• Excerpts from “Use of generative AI tools to support learning | University of Oxford” (Official Website): This official guidance from Oxford University provides an overview of how generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) can ethically support academic skills while emphasizing that AI cannot replace human critical thinking. It outlines five key considerations, six tips for effective use (e.g., cross-checking accuracy, providing context, using personas), and specific ideas for leveraging AI in academic reading, writing, and general learning support. The guide reinforces the necessity of critical appraisal and proper attribution when using AI.

• Excerpts from “Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies.pdf” by Dr. Ethan Mollick & Dr. Lilach Mollick: This paper provides practical guidance for educators on using AI to implement five evidence-based teaching strategies that are often time-consuming to execute manually. These strategies include providing varied examples and explanations, addressing student misconceptions, frequent low-stakes testing, assessing student learning, and distributed practice. The authors present specific prompts for Large Language Models (LLMs) and emphasize the critical role of instructor expertise in vetting AI output due to potential hallucinations and biases. They argue AI can act as a “force multiplier” for instructors.

I. Introduction: The Shifting Landscape of Education (5 minutes)

Today’s Focus: We’ll explore the insights from Anderson and Winthrop’s research and how AI can be a powerful ally in fostering student engagement, rather than merely serving as a tool for shortcutting learning.

II. Understanding Student Engagement: The Four Modes (15 minutes)

Introducing the Framework: Anderson and Winthrop’s research identified four fluid and dynamic modes of engagement that kids move in and out of constantly. These are not labels for children, but descriptions of their behavior in different learning contexts.

Passenger Mode

Description: Kids who are “coasting,” doing the bare minimum to get by, are often bored or overwhelmed, but may still get good grades. They are behaviorally present but emotionally/cognitively disengaged.

AI Connection: This is where AI poses a significant threat. Students in passenger mode might use AI to “shortcut the assignments,” such as having ChatGPT summarize readings or write essays, thus avoiding the actual learning process. This prevents them from developing critical thinking and writing skills.

Achiever Mode

Description: Kids striving for excellence, high effort, aiming for “gold stars” and perfect outcomes.

“Achiever Conundrum”: While seemingly ideal, this mode can lead to unhappy achiever syndrome, characterized by fragility, fear of failure, anxiety, and even depression, stemming from an insatiable pursuit of perfection. They may miss out on developing creativity and true self-awareness because they’re focused solely on external validation.

AI Connection: AI can perform many of the “excellent follower” tasks that Achievers are trained for. The skills Achievers focus on (following procedures, getting things “right”) are becoming automatable, making these skills incomplete for a world where critical thinking and initiative are paramount.

Resistor Mode

Description: Kids who are outwardly disengaged, acting out, withdrawing, or disrupting. They are often labeled “problem children” but are “children with problems”.

“Gumption”: Resistors actually possess strong agency, but it’s currently pointed away from learning. Their behavior often sends a clear message that “this isn’t working for me”.

AI Connection: While not directly addressed in sources for this mode, AI’s potential for personalized support and adaptive learning could help address the underlying issues (e.g., being overwhelmed or feeling a lack of belonging) that drive resistance, potentially offering a path to re-engagement.

Explorer Mode

Description: The desired mode is where kids are deeply engaged, curious, proactive, and intrinsically motivated. They actively pursue their interests and make meaning from their learning experiences. This leads to better achievement, mental health, and resilient learning skills.

“Spark”: Finding a child’s “spark” – a genuine interest or passion – is crucial, as this intrinsic drive spills over into other areas of learning and life.

Goal: The goal for all students is to cultivate this explorer mindset.

III. Leveraging AI to Foster Engagement and Learning (15 minutes)

AI as a “Force Multiplier” for Educators:

    ◦ AI can help teachers implement “challenging but well-proven pedagogical strategies” that are often too time-consuming.

    ◦ This is about AI supporting educators, not replacing them.

AI to Promote Personalized Learning & Deeper Understanding:

    ◦ AI as a Tutor/Coach: AI offers the potential for individualized support, adapting to a student’s unique learning style and pace without the embarrassment of asking questions in front of peers.

        ▪ Mollick’s View: AI can serve as an “AI-coach” to increase metacognition (e.g., reflection on team experiences). It can also be an “AI-tutor” that pushes students to generate their own answers through leading questions, which is key to learning.

        ▪ Winthrop/Anderson’s Caution: While promising, the concept of a universal AI tutor is “probably not yet” fully realized due to issues like hallucination and lack of human perceptiveness. Emphasize that “human instruction to oversee the process” is crucial.

    ◦ Retrieval Practice: Oxford University promotes AI for retrieval practice, a highly effective learning method. AI can facilitate Socratic questioning, provide multi-level explanations, and create practice questions to deepen understanding.

    ◦ Varying Examples & Explanations: AI can rapidly generate numerous and varied examples and multiple explanations of complex concepts, tailored to different student levels and learning styles. This helps students decontextualize ideas and build deeper mental maps.

AI to Spark Curiosity and Relevance:

    ◦ AI can act as a bridge between abstract school content and the real world.

    ◦ Encourage students (and parents) to use AI to explore the “why” and “how” of topics, making learning relevant (e.g., asking about real-world applications of quadratic equations).

AI for “Learning-to-Learn” Skills (Metacognition):

    ◦ AI can help students reflect on their learning journey, identify obstacles, and devise strategies for improvement.

    ◦ It can assist with organizing notes, enhancing language study, and developing coding skills.

The Evolving Role of the Teacher:

    ◦ AI will not replace teachers, but it “changes the job of the teacher quite substantially”.

    ◦ Teachers become managers, editors, supervisors, coaches, and fact-checkers. Their role shifts to orchestrating teaching and learning experiences, guiding students in their AI use, and providing human connection and mentorship. The teacher maintains the “hand on the steering wheel”.

IV. Rethinking Education for the AI Age (7 minutes)

The Purpose of Education Reimagined:

    ◦ In a world where AI can pass exams and write essays, we must fundamentally rethink the “purpose of education”.

    ◦ It’s less about transactional knowledge transmission and more about developing “flexible competencies,” self-knowledge, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.

    ◦ The “deal” of traditional education (grades = good job) is being “thrown into some chaos” by AI.

Prioritizing Human Skills & Relationships:

    ◦ AI should not lead to a “frictionless world” that prevents children from developing the “muscle of doing hard things” or essential human skills.

    ◦ Emphasis on human-to-human interaction, collaboration, empathy, and self-regulation that occurs in a classroom setting.

    ◦ The “screens and phones debacle” offers a crucial lesson: caution, intentionality, and avoiding FOMO (fear of missing out) when adopting new technology. AI products should be “designed for children” with appropriate guardrails.

Parents’ Role: The “Curriculum of the Home”:

    ◦ Parents have a “huge impact” on student engagement.

    ◦ Focus on discussions about learning content (not just grades), modeling the thrill of learning, and leaning into their child’s interests.

    ◦ Foster autonomy: Give kids space to make choices and take small, safe risks, rather than nagging. “Nagging doesn’t work” – it shuts down the problem-solving part of the brain.

    ◦ What parents do at home is “two times more predictive of learning and outcomes… than socioeconomic status”.

V. Conclusion & Q&A (3 minutes)

Key Takeaways: AI presents profound challenges and opportunities. Thoughtful integration, guided by educational expertise and a clear focus on human development, is essential.

Moving Forward “Together”: This is an unsettled but exciting time, where we get to decide the future of education by fostering experimentation and shared approaches.

“You have good kids,” and the strategies discussed can help unlock their motivation and prepare them for a future alongside AI.

Q&A…

Scott Le Duc’s Resources for Presentation

Jeff Su’s Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula (in just 8 minutes)!

Jeff Su’s Learn 80% of NotebookLM in Under 13 Minutes!

Pre-Session Poll Results

PROMPT: You are a professional presenter and educator. You are presenting at a CTE conference and presenting material from the Book The Disengaged Teen. The audience is career and tech teachers. Use the resources in this notebook to create a short, bulleted list of material to answer the questions included below from the survey responses from conference session attendees. Here are the poll results…


How to assist students with research, independent work, and troubleshooting their AI-based projects.
how to encourage student engagement during class
How to get disengaged students in the game.
How can we can help students to become the Explorer and engage in epistemology
Define the disengagement!
How can we teach with the aid of AI responsibly?
Some strategies to reach some of my students

NotebookLM’s Results

Good evening, career and technical education teachers! I’m delighted to be here today to discuss key insights from “The Disengaged Teen” and how they can empower us in our vital work. Based on your survey responses, let’s dive into some practical strategies.

Here’s a breakdown of material relevant to your questions:

• Define the disengagement!

    ◦ Disengagement is multifaceted, indicating when students are not motivated to dig in and learn.

    ◦ It encompasses behavioral engagement (showing up, participating, doing homework), emotional engagement (finding school interesting, exciting, feeling they belong), and cognitive engagement (applying learning, connecting ideas).

    ◦ Research has identified four modes of engagement:

        ▪ Passenger mode: Kids are physically present and often get good grades but are bored and doing the bare minimum. They’ve “dropped out of learning”3…. This can be because school is either too easy or too hard for them.

        ▪ Achiever mode: Students put in high effort to get good grades and gold stars, developing skills like goal orientation and persistence. However, they can tip into “unhappy achiever mode” where they strive for perfection, leading to fragility, high anxiety, and poor mental health outcomes4…. They often lack self-awareness about what they truly care about and miss opportunities to develop creativity and initiative.

        ▪ Resistor mode: These students are often seen as “problem children,” acting out, withdrawing, or disrupting. They may have high chronic absenteeism. While disengaged, they possess “chutzpah and gumption” and are signaling that “things aren’t working for them”….

        ▪ Explorer mode: The ideal state, where students are engaged across all fronts – behaviorally, emotionally, cognitively, and agentically (proactive and curious). They love what they’re learning and dig in, showing excitement and building resilient, independent learning skills…. Less than 4% of middle and high school students regularly experience this in school.

• How to encourage student engagement during class & How to get disengaged students in the game.

    ◦ Shift students towards Explorer mode: The goal is to move students out of Passenger, Achiever, and Resistor modes.

    ◦ Cultivate autonomy and agency: Give students choices and a say in their learning. This means letting them make small decisions and experience the consequences, fostering self-driven learning…. For example, instead of nagging about homework, ask them their plan for getting it done and trust them to execute it.

    ◦ Identify and lean into their “spark”: Discover what genuinely interests and motivates your students, even if it’s not directly academic or “productive” in the traditional sense. When students find their spark, it creates an internal drive that spills over into other areas of their learning and life…. Schools in North Dakota, for instance, have used “studios” where students design their own classes around passions like creating an escape room based on historical events.

    ◦ Prioritize discussion and curiosity: Engage students in conversations about the content of what they’re learning, not just their performance…. Model your own curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.

    ◦ Address underlying issues for resistor students: Their resistance often stems from overwhelm, a lack of belonging, or mental health challenges. Understanding the “why” behind their behavior is crucial, and addressing these barriers can quickly help them re-engage, sometimes even more rapidly than students in other modes because they already possess strong agency….

    ◦ Rethink “Achiever” strategies: For students aiming for perfection, encourage small risks and emphasize well-being over constant striving for flawless outcomes. Help them understand that failing and bouncing back builds resilience – a crucial skill7….

• How can we help students to become the Explorer and engage in epistemology?

    ◦ Becoming an Explorer means being proactive and curious about learning.

    ◦ Epistemology, or the nature of knowledge, is implicitly addressed by teaching students to critically evaluate information in an age where AI can “make stuff up”….

    ◦ Use AI to foster critical thinking, not just provide answers:

        ▪ Encourage students to generate their own answers: AI can be prompted to ask leading questions and push students to articulate their thinking, similar to a Socratic tutor….

        ▪ Compare student work with AI output: Students can summarize a text or generate examples, then compare their work to AI’s output to identify gaps in their understanding or critique AI’s accuracy.

        ▪ Fact-check AI: Explicitly teach students to cross-check AI-generated information against established, reliable sources….

    ◦ Model a love for learning: Share your own intellectual curiosities and how you explore new topics, including using AI.

• How to assist students with research, independent work, and troubleshooting their AI-based projects.

    ◦ AI as a “force multiplier” for learning: AI can significantly extend student performance and understanding if used thoughtfully….

    ◦ AI as a Coach: AI can prompt students to reflect on experiences (e.g., team projects), encouraging metacognition. Students need instructions on how to interact with AI responsibly, understanding its limitations and taking charge of the process….

    ◦ AI as a Tutor: While a “universal AI tutor” is still developing, AI can help students understand concepts by explaining ideas, providing examples and analogies, and asking leading questions to help students generate their own answers…. Teachers can use AI as an in-class exercise to teach responsible use.

    ◦ Supporting Academic Tasks:

        ▪ Reading: AI can help generate lists of key terms, thought-provoking questions, or alternative explanations for complex topics. Students can summarize texts themselves and then compare with AI-generated summaries to improve critical reading….

        ▪ Writing: AI can provide feedback on grammar and structure, help overcome writer’s block, and suggest ideas for visuals. However, it cannot replace the development of these skills, and all AI outputs must be critically reviewed.

        ▪ Coding: AI can suggest ways to get started, recommend languages/environments, and help with functional code chunks. Students should still write and test their own code and verify AI suggestions.

    ◦ Troubleshooting AI-based projects: Students must be taught that AI “makes stuff up” (hallucinates) and that its outputs are “unpredictable” and “statistical”34…. This provides a learning opportunity for students to be in charge and critically evaluate the AI’s responses.

• How can we teach with the aid of AI responsibly?

    ◦ Teacher’s pivotal role: AI should be a tool to augment teaching, not replace human instructors. Teachers remain critical for assessing AI output, tailoring its use, and guiding student learning….

    ◦ Ethical use and academic integrity: Teach students about plagiarism and the need for clear attribution when using AI tools. Unauthorized AI use can lead to academic penalties.

    ◦ Transparency and Critical Appraisal: Make it clear that AI is a statistical model, not a human. Teach students to always cross-check AI-generated outputs for accuracy against established sources….

    ◦ Context and Limitations: AI can generate errors, reflect biases, and draw on outdated data. Teach students to provide significant context in their prompts and to be aware of the AI’s limitations….

    ◦ Avoid “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out): Do not adopt AI just because it’s new. Use it when it solves a “real problem” in education, such as providing explanations or examples that are time-consuming for teachers to create manually….

    ◦ AI for Teachers: AI can be a “force multiplier” for educators, helping to implement evidence-based teaching strategies more easily. This includes generating multiple examples, varied explanations, low-stakes tests, assessing student learning, and distributed practice materials…. This frees up teacher time to focus more on students.

    ◦ Focus on uniquely human skills: In an AI-integrated world, the premium shifts to human capacities like critical thinking, creativity, communication, social-emotional skills, and interpersonal interaction. Education should prioritize these, rather than skills easily automated by AI….

    ◦ AI Literacy: Beyond just using AI, teach students how AI works, its risks, benefits, and the ethical considerations of incorporating it into their lives. This includes understanding its addictive potential and how companies incentivize its use.

• Some strategies to reach some of my students.

    ◦ Tailored approaches: Recognize that students are in different modes of engagement (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor) and adjust your strategies accordingly.

    ◦ Nudging, not nagging: Avoid constant criticism or “nagging,” as research shows it can shut down the problem-solving part of a teenager’s brain. Instead, gently nudge them towards planning and responsibility….

    ◦ Model the thrill of learning: Share your own curiosities and how you learn new things. Curiosity is contagious.

    ◦ Empower through choice and ownership: Give students agency over their learning, letting them practice making choices. This helps them become self-driven learners, crucial for navigating an uncertain future….

    ◦ Connect learning to the real world: Show the relevance of academic concepts to students’ lives and the broader world. Use AI to bridge this gap by asking it to explain how abstract concepts apply in real-world contexts….

    ◦ Address mental health and belonging: Recognize that student disengagement can stem from mental health struggles or a lack of belonging. Schools should foster human-to-human socialization and provide support for emotional well-being….

    ◦ Utilize AI for differentiation: While not fully personalized, AI can help teachers differentiate instruction by generating varied examples, explanations, and practice questions tailored to different student levels and needs….

I hope this comprehensive overview provides valuable insights for your work with career and technical students. Thank you!

Post-session Survey

Le Duc’s Teaching with AI Methodologies and Strategies

Video Recording from the Summer 2025 Conference

PART I – HUMAN

Scott answers the questions posted to the poll for the conference session.

Scott’s initial response to AI in schools
Podcast generated by Notebook LM highlighting Scott’s teaching methodology.

Pre-Session Poll Results 8/5/2025

  • What AI tools actually teach learning rather than give answers.
    • It is really how the AI is used. Who’s doing the thinking in the interaction with AI? That said, Magic School.ai has some great resources

PART II – HUMAN + AI

Scott answers the questions posted to the poll for the conference session by creating a ‘new’ structure for learning and teaching. The details below are what he used to design a new structure around students learning how to learn and teachers organizing a classroom for continuous improvement.

Scott’s Notebook LM Prompt

PROMPT

  • As a Career and Technical Education (CTE) professional curriculum designer, you need to create a course outline based on the nine steps of Scott Young’s ultralearning and kaizen from W. Edwards Deming’s Total Quality Management principles applied to education.
  • Format this for a WordPress blog post with headings and links to the recommended resources.
  • Use headings for each of the nine steps.
  • Under each heading, highlight short bulleted checklists starting with action verbs as directives to students and teachers to complete. These steps should be in the necessary logical order needed for completion of the ultralearning project.
  • Include recommended AI learning techniques and cite the best AI tools for the task (Claude for writing, Gemini for Google integration, etc) to help the student be an active learner and not rely on AI for answers.
  • For the teacher, highlight kaizen continuous improvement principles from W. Edwards Deming’s Total Quality Management in each step of ultralearning.
  • Structure the continuous improvement kaizen elements for the teacher to manage all the students in the class. Highlight which data can be gathered from students to track progress. Each student will have their own ultralearning plan. But the teacher needs to manage all the students’ plans. Include student progress data gathering strategies to help the teacher manage the class progress.
  • Use clear language that both high school students and teachers can understand.

Notebook LM Resources Accessed by the Prompt

Scott’s Notebook LM Prompt Results

I copied and pasted the results from Notebook LM. Then I went through and curated the material to make sure that the language is accurate resources worked, and generally streamlined the process.

RESULTS

Course Outline Podcast

Course Outline Slideshow

Course Outline

Here’s a course outline designed for CTE students and teachers, integrating Scott Young’s Ultralearning principles with W. Edwards Deming’s Kaizen for continuous improvement, formatted as a WordPress blog post.

Mastering Your Craft: An Ultralearning & Kaizen Blueprint for CTE Success

In Career and Technical Education (CTE), hands-on skills and real-world applications are paramount. But how do you accelerate learning, truly master complex abilities, and ensure continuous improvement in a dynamic field? This course outline combines Scott Young’s Ultralearning – an intense, self-directed strategy for rapid skill acquisition – with W. Edwards Deming’s Kaizen (continuous improvement) principles, adapted for the modern classroom.

This blueprint provides actionable steps for students to take ownership of their learning and for teachers to cultivate an environment of sustained excellence. We’ll also explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be powerful allies in this journey, not as substitutes for thinking, but as extensions of your own cognitive power.

1. Meta-Learning: Charting Your Learning Expedition

Before diving into the “how,” take time to map out your learning journey. This initial research and assessment phase helps clarify your purpose, identify essential knowledge, and strategize your approach. Dedicate 5-10% of your total learning time to this crucial step.

For Students: Define Your Ultralearning Project

  • Identify your core learning objectives: What specific skill or knowledge do you want to master, and why is it important to you?
  • Determine the desired outcome: What will success look like and how will you measure it?
  • Brainstorm potential resources: What courses, tutorials, books, or experts can guide you?
  • Anticipate challenges and potential bottlenecks: What difficulties might you encounter?

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “You are an expert at [CTE topic, e.g., ‘sustainable architecture’]. How would you recommend a beginner learn this topic effectively? Create a syllabus and lesson plan, and list other essential concepts to explore, explaining why each is important.” This helps construct a sequence for learning.

• NotebookLM:

    ◦ Use: Upload any initial research papers, articles, or relevant documentation. Use NotebookLM to summarize dense information and identify key concepts, reducing cognitive load.

For Teachers: Cultivating a System for Clarity

  • Facilitate initial project definition: Hold individual conferences with students to help them articulate their Ultralearning goals.
  • Collect student “why” data: Create a centralized log (e.g., a shared Google Sheet) for each student’s chosen project, objectives, and their personal “why.” This helps connect learning to intrinsic motivation.
  • Identify systemic needs: Review collected goals to find common themes or resource gaps across student plans, signaling areas where the system can be improved. This applies Deming’s principle of “understanding variation” to classroom needs.
  • Design for transparency: Ensure students understand how their individual projects contribute to broader learning objectives in the CTE program, aligning with a “systemic view”.

2. Focus: Building Your Deep Work Sanctuary

Effective learning requires deep concentration. Without it, your efforts will be scattered and inefficient. This step is about designing your environment and routine to minimize distractions and maximize focused effort.

For Students: Optimize Your Learning Environment

  • Design a dedicated “deep work” space, free from interruptions.
  • Eliminate digital distractions: Put your phone away, close unnecessary tabs and applications.
  • Schedule specific blocks of time for focused learning in your calendar.
  • Practice single-tasking: Resist the urge to multitask during these sessions.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “Suggest strategies to manage digital distractions while studying. Provide a personalized focus routine I can implement daily.”

• Google Calendar (integrated with Gemini):

    ◦ Use: Use Gemini’s mobile version to voice-create tasks for your deep work sessions, ensuring they’re scheduled and accessible.

For Teachers: Nurturing a Focused Learning Climate

  • Model focused work: Demonstrate concentrated effort during class sessions.
  • Drive out fear (Deming): Create a classroom environment where students feel psychologically safe to make mistakes and experiment, reducing anxiety that hinders focus.
  • Observe engagement patterns: Note periods and types of activities that foster or disrupt deep focus across the class, providing data for process improvement.
  • Optimize class activities: Adjust lesson structures or provide “mindfulness” breaks (as suggested by JW Wilson) to help regulate energy and refocus attention.

3. Directedness: Learning by Doing

True mastery comes from actively engaging with the material, not just passively consuming it. This principle emphasizes “learning by doing” and tailoring your practice to the real-world contexts where you’ll use your skills.

For Students: Apply Your Knowledge Actively

  • Translate theoretical concepts into practical application immediately through mini-projects.
  • Prioritize hands-on exercises and simulations over reading or listening.
  • Tailor your practice: Ensure what you’re doing directly matches how you’ll use the skill in a CTE setting.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “Given the concept of [e.g., ‘CAD software basics’], propose three practical mini-projects or design challenges where I can apply this skill.”

• Claude:

    ◦ Prompt: “Draft a simple project plan or task list for [project name] that incorporates the application of [skill/concept, e.g., ‘welding techniques’].” Claude’s structured output can help organize steps.

• Google Sheets (integrated with Gemini):

    ◦ Use: Ask Gemini to create tables to track project progress and skill application within your Google Sheets, making it easy to see what you’ve accomplished17.

For Teachers: Empowering Project-Based Learning

  • Design for direct application: Structure CTE curriculum around authentic, project-based learning experiences that require students to apply skills in real-world contexts.
  • Track application data: Utilize shared Trello boards (as Scott Le Duc does) or collaborative Google Docs to monitor each student’s progress on applying skills within their projects.
  • Focus on the process, not just output (Deming): Emphasize how students are doing the work, not just the final product. Provide feedback on the learning process itself.
  • Use “capacity matrices” (Deming/Tribus): Empower students to self-assess their know-how and wisdom in applying skills, shifting focus from extrinsic grades to intrinsic understanding.

4. Drill: Conquering Your Weaknesses

Every skill has foundational components. Drill involves identifying your weakest links or “bottlenecks” and intensely practicing those specific areas until they no longer hold you back….

For Students: Target Your Skill Gaps

  • Identify your specific skill bottlenecks through self-assessment or feedback.
  • Break down complex skills into smaller, manageable components.
  • Devise targeted exercises for your weakest components and practice them relentlessly.
  • Monitor your improvement in these drilled areas.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “I am struggling with [specific skill, e.g., ‘precision cutting in woodworking’]. Break it down into 5-7 fundamental sub-skills and suggest targeted drilling exercises for each.”

• NotebookLM:

    ◦ Use: Upload your project notes, rubric feedback, or self-assessment reflections. “Analyze my learning artifacts and identify potential skill bottlenecks based on common challenges in [your CTE area].”

For Teachers: Systemic Bottleneck Identification and Support

  • Gather granular skill data: Use formative assessments, observation notes, or project rubrics to identify common skill bottlenecks across the class, not just for individual students.
  • Provide differentiated “drills”: Offer targeted workshops or resources to address frequently identified skill gaps, managing the “variation” in student needs.
  • Avoid “rank and yank” (Deming): Do not single out individuals for “remedial attention” in a way that is demotivating. Instead, improve the system to support all learners in overcoming common challenges.
  • Use Professionalism Rubric (Scott Le Duc): For advanced students, this can provide data on “soft skill” bottlenecks, encouraging self-improvement in areas like communication or collaboration.

5. Retrieval: Strengthening Your Memory Muscles

The act of recalling information from memory is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen learning. Instead of constantly reviewing notes, actively test yourself to embed knowledge deeper into your long-term memory.

For Students: Actively Recall What You’ve Learned

  • Practice active recall: Close your notes and try to remember key facts or procedures.
  • Explain concepts in your own words, as if teaching someone else (the Feynman Technique).
  • Attempt practice problems or simulate tasks without looking up answers immediately.
  • Collaborate with peers by quizzing each other and discussing concepts.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “You are a [CTE subject] professor. Create a 10-question short-answer practice test on [topic, e.g., ‘electrical circuitry basics’] to evaluate my understanding. Provide answers with detailed explanations and common pitfalls.”

• Claude:

    ◦ Prompt: “I am learning about [concept, e.g., ‘aerodynamics in drone design’]. Explain it in simple terms. Then, I will try to explain it back to you. Provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of my explanation and suggest other points to explore for a well-rounded perspective.” This encourages active explanation and receiving feedback on it31.

For Teachers: Designing for Deep Understanding

  • Integrate retrieval practice: Implement regular, low-stakes quizzes, concept mapping exercises, or “teach-back” activities throughout units.
  • Support productive struggle: Encourage students to attempt answers or problems before consulting resources, reinforcing the value of effort and process over immediate correctness32.
  • Gather data on understanding: Observe student responses during retrieval activities. Are they just recalling facts, or demonstrating deeper “inside-out” understanding and ability to transfer principles?
  • Provide “relentless help” (Deming): When students struggle during retrieval, offer support and guidance rather than punitive grades. Shift deadlines to “target dates” to allow for iterative learning and improvement.

6. Feedback: The Compass for Improvement

Feedback is essential for identifying what’s working, what’s not, and how to course-correct. Seek out constructive and corrective criticism, not just praise, and be ready to implement it.

For Students: Embrace Constructive Criticism

  • Actively seek feedback from teachers, peers, and industry professionals.
  • Analyze feedback to pinpoint specific areas for improvement in your skills or projects.
  • Implement changes based on the feedback you receive, testing their impact.
  • Distinguish between ego-boosting praise and actionable, corrective criticism.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “I have drafted [specific work, e.g., ‘a safety protocol for the workshop’]. Please provide specific, constructive feedback on its [aspects, e.g., clarity, completeness, adherence to industry standards]. Focus on areas for improvement.”

• Google Docs (integrated with Gemini):

    ◦ Use: Upload project drafts. Use Gemini’s side panel to summarize feedback from multiple sources or to draft professional responses to feedback, streamlining the process.

For Teachers: Cultivating a Feedback-Rich System

  • Establish a feedback culture: Promote feedback as a tool for continuous improvement, not a punitive measure. Encourage students to view feedback as a gift.
  • Utilize diverse feedback mechanisms: Implement peer reviews, self-assessments using rubrics, and direct teacher-student feedback loops.
  • Track feedback implementation: Monitor how students are acting on feedback. This could be done through revision logs in shared documents or brief check-ins.
  • Promote “cooperation” (Deming): Design activities that require students to give and receive feedback from peers, fostering a community of learners where mutual support is key to success.

7. Retention: Making Learning Stick

It’s not enough to learn something quickly; you need to retain it. This principle focuses on strategies to prevent forgetting and ensure your skills stay sharp over time, often by applying them in new contexts.

For Students: Consolidate Your Knowledge

  • Schedule regular review sessions for previously learned material.
  • Repackage your skills: Find new projects or scenarios where you can apply existing knowledge in novel ways.
  • Teach complex topics to others to solidify your understanding and memory.
  • Revisit foundational concepts periodically.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• NotebookLM:

    ◦ Use: Upload all your project documents, notes, and previous assignments. “Summarize the core concepts and skills I gained from [previous project, e.g., ‘the robotics challenge’]. Now, propose three new scenarios or advanced projects where I could apply these same skills.” This helps connect past learning to future application540.

• Claude/ChatGPT/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “I want to create a short tutorial video explaining [skill/concept, e.g., ‘safe operation of a drill press’]. Outline the key steps and essential safety tips.” (Helps in teaching others).

For Teachers: Designing for Long-Term Mastery

  • Implement spiraled curriculum: Design CTE programs where key skills and concepts are revisited and integrated into increasingly complex projects throughout the year or across multiple years.
  • Encourage varied application: Promote projects that require students to apply skills across different disciplines (e.g., a robotics project that integrates engineering, math, and technical writing).
  • Track long-term skill development: Use portfolios or capstone projects as a method to assess and showcase retained learning and skill mastery over extended periods.
  • Emphasize value creation (Deming): Discuss how consistent skill retention allows students to “create value in society” long after graduation, promoting a long-term purpose for learning.

8. Intuition: Developing Your “Sixth Sense”

As you gain experience, you’ll develop a deep, almost subconscious understanding of your craft – an intuition that allows you to solve problems and adapt without conscious effort. This goes beyond mere recall to true, integrated understanding.

For Students: Build Your Expert Instincts

  • Immerse yourself deeply in your chosen CTE field through extensive practice and exposure.
  • Reflect on your problem-solving processes to recognize recurring patterns.
  • Question assumptions and conventional wisdom; seek deeper, underlying principles.
  • Engage with concrete, real-world examples to build an intuitive grasp of complex ideas.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “I am learning about [complex CTE topic, e.g., ‘advanced manufacturing processes’]. Generate 3-5 complex, real-world problems or case studies that require deep, intuitive understanding beyond surface-level facts.”

• Claude:

    ◦ Prompt: “Explain the nuances and subtle decisions a [professional, e.g., ‘master electrician’] would make in scenario [X] that a beginner might miss.” Claude can help illuminate expert thinking.

For Teachers: Fostering Intuitive Understanding

  • Cultivate a culture of inquiry: Encourage students to ask “why” and “how” questions, challenging them to seek root causes and deeper understanding, a core aspect of Deming’s philosophy….
  • Prioritize “discovery” over “covering”: Shift from rushing through content to allowing students to explore and discover ideas at their own pace, enabling profound learning and intuition to develop.
  • Observe evidence of generalization: Look for instances where students apply principles to novel problems or demonstrate flexible thinking “from the inside out”.
  • Emphasize “meaning” (Deming/Wilson): Connect every learning activity to a student’s personal “meaning network,” fostering the deep engagement required for intuition to flourish….

9. Experimentation: Innovating and Evolving Your Craft

At the peak of performance, experts don’t just replicate; they experiment. This involves trying new approaches, refining your process, and developing your unique style. It keeps learning fun and pushes the boundaries of your craft…

For Students: Innovate and Refine

  • Actively try new tools, techniques, or methods within your projects.
  • Analyze the outcomes of your experiments, noting what works and what doesn’t.
  • Develop your own unique style or process, rather than just copying others.
  • Share your experimental findings and learn from your peers’ attempts.

Recommended AI Learning Techniques & Tools:

• ChatGPT/Gemini/Magic School:

    ◦ Prompt: “Given my current project [description] and my goal to [objective], propose 3-5 experimental approaches or alternative methods I could try to optimize my process.”

• Claude/NotebookLM/Magic School (for data analysis/visualization):

    ◦ Use: Upload data from your experiments (e.g., performance metrics, material usage). “Visualize the results of my experiment [data/description]. Help me analyze patterns, identify unexpected outcomes, and suggest next steps for optimization.”

For Teachers: Driving Systemic Innovation (Kaizen)

  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement: Encourage a mindset where students and staff consistently seek ways to improve processes, aligning with the core of Kaizen.
  • Support productive failure: Create an environment where “failure” in experiments is seen as valuable data for learning and improvement, not a reason for punishment. This is critical for driving out fear.
  • Implement PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) Cycle (Deming): Guide students in systematically planning experiments, executing them, studying the results, and acting on their findings to refine their learning processes.
  • Gather data on experimental learning: Encourage students to maintain learning logs or project journals detailing their experiments, hypotheses, results, and lessons learned. This provides rich qualitative data for class progress.
  • Promote collaboration and sharing: Create platforms for students to present their experimental findings and insights to their peers, fostering a collective learning environment and cross-pollination of ideas, breaking down organizational “silos”.

Important Note on AI

AI tools are powerful, but they are extensions of your thinking, not replacements for it. Always critically evaluate AI-generated information, as it can sometimes be inaccurate or lack the “street smarts” that come from real-world experience. Your human critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity remain paramount…

Recommended Resources

Scott Le Duc’s Resources from Conference Presentations

Jeff Su’s Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula (in just 8 minutes)!

Jeff Su’s Learn 80% of NotebookLM in Under 13 Minutes!

Post-session Survey

This will help improve these workshops – THANKS!

Please fill in the anonymous What Works and What Doesn’t Google Form

Here is another version with names: More of, Less of Feedback Form

Play Like Stevie Ray Vaughan Ultralearning Project

Prompt: Create a learning plan over 5 days with multiple sessions a day to learn the techniques in the videos from Your Guitar Academy’s How To Play Like Stevie Ray Vaughan series

To create a comprehensive 5-day learning plan based on the techniques presented in the provided video series, we will structure the plan to incorporate multiple sessions each day, focusing on gradual skill acquisition and practice. The learning plan will align with instructional design principles such as retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and scaffolding.

Results from Claude

I’ll create a 5-day learning plan that incorporates Scott Young’s ultralearning principles to help you learn Stevie Ray Vaughan’s playing style. This plan divides each day into three 1-hour sessions (morning, noon, and evening) for a structured approach to mastering SRV’s techniques.

5-Day Ultralearning Plan: How To Play Like Stevie Ray Vaughan

Overview

This plan combines Scott Young’s ultralearning principles with focused study of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s playing techniques. Each day consists of three 1-hour sessions designed to maximize learning efficiency.

Day 1: Foundation Building

Morning: Metalearning

  • 15 min: Research SRV’s background, influences, and key techniques
  • Excellent exposé on SRV tone secrets
  • 15 min: Set specific learning goals for each day of your plan
    • I will place the videos I watch for each time slot in the schedule below and use this post as my journal
    • I will also use my paper-based Practice Log to record what I did, when I did it, and how it went
  • 30 min: Watch the first videos in the series to understand the core elements of SRV’s style

Noon: Focus & Directness

  • 10 min: Practice basic blues scale positions SRV commonly used
  • 20 min: Work on SRV’s right-hand technique (pick grip, attack, dynamics)
  • 30 min: Slow practice of basic SRV licks from the video

Evening: Drill & Retrieval

  • 20 min: Practice string bending and vibrato techniques
  • 20 min: Work on shuffle rhythm patterns in Texas blues style
  • 20 min: Record yourself playing basic licks and critically review

Day 2: Technical Development

Morning: Focus on Fundamentals

  • 15 min: Warm-up with SRV-style blues scale runs
  • 30 min: Deep dive into SRV’s tone (amp settings, guitar setup)
  • 15 min: Watch next video in series, taking detailed notes

Noon: Deliberate Practice

  • 30 min: Break down one signature SRV lick and practice at 50% speed
  • 15 min: Study SRV’s chord voicings and transitions
  • 15 min: Practice integrating chords and single-note lines

Evening: Feedback & Analysis

  • 20 min: Record yourself playing the day’s material
  • 20 min: Compare your playing to SRV’s, identify gaps
  • 20 min: Create specific drills to address technical weaknesses

Day 3: Style Integration

Morning: Active Learning

  • 10 min: Review previous days’ material
  • 20 min: Watch next video in series with active note-taking
  • 30 min: Practice SRV’s double-stop techniques and position shifts

Noon: Directness

  • 15 min: Learn one complete SRV intro or solo section at slow speed
  • 30 min: Practice SRV’s rhythmic feel and timing
  • 15 min: Work on dynamic control (loud/soft playing)

Evening: Retrieval Practice

  • 20 min: Play previously learned licks without referring to videos
  • 20 min: Improvise using SRV vocabulary in different keys
  • 20 min: Record and analyze your improvisation

Day 4: Expanding Vocabulary

Morning: Intuition Building

  • 15 min: Transcribe a short SRV phrase by ear
  • 30 min: Watch next video in series focusing on phrasing techniques
  • 15 min: Practice SRV’s vibrato techniques at different speeds

Noon: Skill Integration

  • 20 min: Combine rhythm and lead techniques in a 12-bar blues
  • 20 min: Practice SRV’s approach to standard blues turnarounds
  • 20 min: Work on seamlessly transitioning between rhythm and lead playing

Evening: Experimentation

  • 30 min: Try applying SRV techniques to a song you already know
  • 15 min: Record your playing and identify improvement areas
  • 15 min: Create a list of specific techniques to refine tomorrow

Day 5: Performance Integration

Morning: Mastery Focus

  • 15 min: Review all key SRV techniques covered so far
  • 30 min: Watch final videos in the series for advanced concepts
  • 15 min: Create a short practice routine for maintaining these skills

Noon: Performance Practice

  • 15 min: Work on one complete SRV-style solo at performance tempo
  • 30 min: Practice playing along with SRV recordings
  • 15 min: Focus on maintaining technique while playing at full speed

Evening: Reflection & Continuation Planning

  • 20 min: Record a full performance incorporating the week’s learning
  • 20 min: Compare with recordings from Day 1 to see progress
  • 20 min: Create a follow-up learning plan for continued development

Ultralearning Principles Application

  1. Metalearning: Research and planning approach before diving in
  2. Focus: Dedicated distraction-free practice sessions
  3. Directness: Playing actual songs and licks rather than just theory
  4. Drill: Breaking down difficult techniques for targeted practice
  5. Retrieval: Playing from memory, not just following along
  6. Feedback: Regular recording and critical listening
  7. Retention: Spaced repetition of techniques throughout the plan
  8. Intuition: Ear training and improvisation to internalize the style
  9. Experimentation: Applying techniques in different musical contexts

Daily Progress Tracking

Keep a practice journal with:

  • Techniques mastered
  • Areas needing improvement
  • Specific licks learned
  • Ideas for future practice
  • Questions for further research

This plan integrates Scott Young’s ultralearning principles with a focused study of SRV’s playing techniques. Each day builds progressively on the previous one, moving from foundational skills to more advanced applications.

Key features of this plan

  1. Structured progression – Moving from basic techniques to full performance
  2. Balanced approach – Combining theory, technical practice, and playing
  3. Deliberate practice – Breaking complex techniques into manageable components
  4. Regular feedback – Recording yourself daily to track progress
  5. Active learning – Engaging deeply with the video material rather than passive watching

To maximize results, I recommend

  • Using a metronome during practice sessions
  • Taking brief notes after each session
  • Keeping your guitar accessible for quick practice moments
  • Being patient with the physical techniques that make SRV’s style distinctive (especially his string bending and vibrato)

Would you like me to expand on any particular section of this learning plan?

Claude Voodoo Child Learning Plan

Prompt

Create a 4-week learning plan to learn the guitar part of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Voodoo Child with a daily schedule spread over the day for a total of 1 hour a day, list and link resources, check links to make sure they are active and not broken

Plan

I’ll create a 4-week learning plan to master Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” on guitar. Here’s a comprehensive daily practice schedule broken down into manageable segments.

4-Week Guitar Learning Plan: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Voodoo Child”

This plan is designed for intermediate guitarists with some experience in blues playing. You’ll practice 1 hour daily, divided into focused segments throughout the day.

Essential Resources

  1. Official Backing Tracks: Elevated Jam Tracks – Voodoo Child Style
  2. Guitar Tabs: Ultimate Guitar – Voodoo Child SRV Version
  3. Reference Videos:
  4. Technical Tutorials:

Equipment Needed

  • Electric guitar (preferably with single-coil pickups)
  • Overdrive/distortion pedal
  • Wah-wah pedal (optional but recommended)
  • A guitar amp with good dynamics
  • Metronome or metronome app
  • An audio recording device (smartphone is fine)

Week 1: Foundations & Intro

Daily Schedule:

Morning (15 minutes):

  • 5 min: Warm-up with E minor pentatonic scale (key of the song)
  • 10 min: Learn and practice the iconic intro/wah section

Afternoon (20 minutes):

  • 10 min: Work on the main riff that follows the intro
  • 10 min: Practice the first verse’s rhythm guitar part

Evening (25 minutes):

  • 15 min: Begin learning the first solo section
  • 5 min: Record your daily progress
  • 5 min: Listen back and identify areas for improvement

Weekly Focus: Master the intro and main riff with proper tone and feel.

Day-by-Day Breakdown:

  • Days 1-2: Focus on the intro wah section and getting the tone right
  • Days 3-5: Add the main riff, work on transitions
  • Days 6-7: Begin adding dynamics and expression, record a complete intro + main riff

Week 2: Verse Sections & First Solo

Daily Schedule:

Morning (15 minutes):

  • 5 min: Warm-up with chromatic exercises for finger strength
  • 10 min: Practice the verse sections with proper dynamics

Afternoon (20 minutes):

  • 15 min: Work on the first solo section
  • 5 min: Practice transitions between sections

Evening (25 minutes):

  • 15 min: Slow-tempo play-along with backing track
  • 10 min: Record and review progress

Weekly Focus: Develop the SRV touch and attack on strings, focus on bending accuracy.

Day-by-Day Breakdown:

  • Days 1-3: Master the verse sections and transitions
  • Days 4-5: Deep dive into the first solo section techniques
  • Days 6-7: Connect all learned sections at a moderate tempo

Week 3: Second Solo & Song Structure

Daily Schedule:

Morning (15 minutes):

  • 5 min: Warm-up focusing on string bending and vibrato
  • 10 min: Practice the second solo section

Afternoon (20 minutes):

  • 10 min: Work on the bridge/breakdown section
  • 10 min: Practice SRV’s vibrato and bending techniques

Evening (25 minutes):

  • 15 min: Play through all sections learned so far
  • 10 min: Record and analyze your tone and timing

Weekly Focus: Perfect the SRV vibrato technique and work on speed for solo sections.

Day-by-Day Breakdown:

  • Days 1-3: Learn and practice the second solo section
  • Days 4-5: Master the bridge/breakdown section
  • Days 6-7: Connect all sections with proper transitions

Week 4: Final Solo & Full Song Integration

Daily Schedule:

Morning (15 minutes):

  • 5 min: Warm-up with speed exercises
  • 10 min: Practice the final explosive solo section

Afternoon (20 minutes):

  • 15 min: Work on any challenging licks or transitions
  • 5 min: Focus on improvisation in SRV style

Evening (25 minutes):

  • 20 min: Full song play-through with backing track
  • 5 min: Record your complete performance

Weekly Focus: Full song integration, performance quality, and developing your own expression.

Day-by-Day Breakdown:

  • Days 1-3: Master the final solo section
  • Days 4-5: Polish any rough spots throughout the song
  • Days 6-7: Multiple full song play-throughs at performance tempo

Technical Focus Areas

  1. SRV’s Picking Technique:
    • Heavy attack with pick held firmly
    • A combination of alternate picking and occasional economy picking
  2. String Bending:
    • Full-step and half-step bends with precise pitch control
    • SRV’s signature wide vibrato on bent notes
  3. Dynamics:
    • Volume swells using guitar volume knob
    • Transition between clean and dirty tones
  4. Wah Pedal Technique:
    • Slow, expressive wah movements in the intro
    • Quick “cocked wah” positions during solos

Progress Tracking

Record yourself at the end of each week, playing as much of the song as you’ve learned. Compare these recordings to track your progress and identify areas that need more work.

Week 1: Intro and main riff Week 2: Intro, main riff, and verse sections Week 3: First half of the song, including solos Week 4: Complete song performance

Final Performance

On the last day of Week 4, record a complete performance of the song with the backing track. Compare this to SRV’s version and your Week 1 recording to see how far you’ve come!

This 4-week plan breaks down learning Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Voodoo Child” into manageable daily practice sessions. Here are the key highlights:

  • Daily Structure: Each day includes 1 hour of practice divided into morning (15 min), afternoon (20 min), and evening (25 min) sessions
  • Progressive Learning: The plan builds methodically from the intro and main riff in Week 1 to full song performance in Week 4
  • Technical Focus: Special attention to SRV’s signature techniques like his aggressive picking style, wide vibrato, and expressive wah pedal use
  • Resources: A collection of backing tracks, tabs, and video tutorials to support your learning
  • Progress Tracking: Weekly recording sessions to monitor improvement

The plan is designed for intermediate guitarists who have some experience with blues techniques. It focuses not just on playing the notes correctly but on capturing SRV’s distinctive tone and feel.

Is there any specific section of the song you’d like me to elaborate on further, or would you like more detail about any particular technique?