Wonder Tools

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I recently talked with Jason Chatfield a New Yorker cartoonist and creator of the lively New York Cartoons Substack. He sketched while we talked, as part of his video series Draw Me Anything. We traded ideas about writing, editing, tools, and where to draw the line with AI. 📺 Watch the conversation above, or read highlights below.
Takeaways from Our Conversation 🛠️
* Teach your AI assistant to offer personalized editing suggestions. I’ve trained a Claude Project to learn from my past writing and editing. It catches typos like double commas, cliches, redundant language, weak verbs, and sloppy copy. Instead of having it make changes, I ask it for a punch list of suggestions.
* Talk before you type. I turn on my AI dictation app, Letterly, and just start talking. The AI-enabled transcription and summary I get helps me make sense of ideas rolling around in my mind. Then the next part of the writing process becomes more about shaping and editing those ideas, rather than staring down a blank screen.
* Ask AI to interview you. After a conference or a day of meetings, get your AI assistant to ask you follow-up questions. That conversation forces you to articulate ideas you haven’t fully formed.
* Teach your AI assistant to be a critic, not a ghostwriter. Ask it to challenge your structure, suggest sections to cut and to explain why, and to point out your blind spots. Your friend might be too polite to tell you a section of your piece you’ve worked on for hours is redundant or dull. Your AI assistant will, if you train it to.
* Let’s read books collectively. We’re reading 10 AI books in 2026 through the Wonder Tools Book Group. (For WT paid subscribers). We started with AI Snake Oil, whose co-author was a surprise guest at our first gathering. Reading together allows us to benefit from dialogue. And we can learn more deeply from books than we can from a random diet of posts and videos.
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Tips Jason shared during our conversation
* Work from a calendar, not a to-do list. Sometimes what’s most valuable is a workflow, not a specific tool. Like timeboxing. Jason predicts how long a task will take, blocks time in his calendar (iCal), then learns from the difference between his estimate and how long the task actually took. His timeboxing Medium post about the process went viral.
* Build a grumpy editor. Jason created a J. Jonah Jameson–style editor persona in Gemini. If you’re not familiar with the Spider-Man character, he’s a cantankerous, chain-smoking newspaper editor who tears apart a writer’s drafts. Jason says he takes about half of the suggestions.
* Choose your tools based on who built them. Jason uses Grammarly and Gemini, but refuses to use Meta AI or Grok. If he doesn’t trust those building a platform, he opts out.
* Learn the analog way before you go digital. Jason suggests students draw by hand first, not on an iPad. If you draw a bad line with a dip pen, you can’t hit undo. You learn through that process.
* Use AI to brainstorm, but know when to stop. Cartoonist Alex Hallatt of Cartooning in the Age of AI used an AI assistant to riff on cartoon premises from messy notes. Jason said she was intrigued by the results, until the bot offered to draw the cartoon for her. 👇
Tools & Apps We Discussed 👇

After my 7am wake-up alarm, I lean on about 20 morning apps, sites and gadgets for reading, writing, listening, and getting stuff done. I revisit this toolkit every year. Here's what's stayed, what's changed, and what's new.
🌤️ 7:00 am Wake up and prepare for the day
⏰ Peakeep “Invisible” Alarm Clock
This $14 bedside clock wakes me up. I set its brightness at zero to keep the bedroom dark at night. I tap the top to check the time if I need to. I bought the clock when I decided to store my phone in another room so it doesn’t suck me in before bed.
⭕️ Oura Ring
For the past five years I’ve worn an Oura ring to keep track of my exercise, sleep, and heart rate volatility. I like that, unlike an Apple or Google Watch, it has no distracting screen or notifications.
I ran a two-week experiment pairing the Oura with a Stelo glucose biosensor to see how my diet impacts my sleep, fitness, and energy levels. I can export my data and query it with AI assistants. Or I use Oura’s own AI chat to ask things like “How is my evening snacking affecting the quality of my sleep?”
In the morning I check my sleep quality and resilience scores to calibrate my expectations for the day. Having an objective measure of how well I’ve slept helps me decide whether to push my meager exercise regimen a bit or take it easy. It also helps motivate me on dreary days, and signals when I’m getting sick before I notice.
(Read my original Oura 2020 post. Note: I’ve bought my own Oura rings — no affiliation).
🧠 Brain Games and 🎶 Music
A breakfast ritual: playing the NYTimes’ Spelling Bee, Wordle, and Connections with my wife and daughters while listening to our favorite classical music host, Jeff Spurgeon, on WQXR. We talk about the music and what’s ahead at school or work, avoiding stressful headlines.
Quick tip: We listen on our old Google Home Mini kitchen smart speaker. A quick voice command pulls up just about any radio station in the world. (I saw the newer Google Nest Mini on sale this week for $19).
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While a lot of summary apps I’ve tried have 5-min, AI-generated, surface-level book overviews, Shortform’s writers and editors produce in-depth coverage of nonfiction titles.
I also like the business section, which has detailed guides for classic titles and new books I’m curious about like Two Awesome Hours by Josh Davis. In addition to an expert-written overview of key points, with examples, excerpts, and references to related books, you get a one-page summary and contrasting ideas from other authors. Now Shortform has podcast and article guides as well. Wonder Tools readers get a discount. Try it free to explore.
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🚶🏼8:00 Walk My Daughter to School 🏫
No tools or tech.
🚊 8:25 Commute
I use Snipd to listen to podcasts on the way to work. Here’s my full take. I also rely on Readwise Reader to catch up on articles I’ve saved. It works offline on the subway. Here’s why it’s worth trying. I use Superhuman to check work email.
📆 8:50 Plan the Day
When I get to work, I map out what's ahead with a mix of paper and apps.
📅 Google Calendar I check GCal for meetings. I‘ve tried other calendars, including Vimcal, Akiflow, Fantastical, and Notion Calendar. They each have useful features, but I tend to return to the free GCal out of habit. It’s reliable, simple, and lets me easily see shared calendars.
✅ Apple Reminders I keep three priority tasks at the top of my list. I add to that tier only when I’ve completed one. I have a menu of other tasks and reminders in a “Soon” list. I adopted that tactic from Oliver Burkeman’s great book, Four Thousand Weeks.
📄 Remarkable Paper Pro Move I use this paper tablet — or a notebook — to timebox my day. I map the hours based on priorities, energy level, and scheduled meetings. Having a detailed plan helps me avoid decision fatigue later. When I inevitably lose focus, the plan pulls me back on track.
✍️ 9:00 Writing
I start creative work early, when my focus is freshest.
Letterly I dictate my thoughts into this app. That helps me get ideas flowing, and I get a bulleted summary or outline to build on. When I want an AI assistant to challenge my ideas, I use ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode or Gemini Live.
Letterly and other apps like it (AudioPen) are great for what I call bionic dictation— using AI to structure raw speech into a clean outline or summary.
Free alternatives: You can use Apple Notes for dictation on iOS or Mac, or a variety of Google apps if you’re on Android or a Chromebook.
Google Docs / iA Writer I like both of these reliable blank canvases with minimal friction. (Read my take on what’s new in GDocs and why I like iA Writer). I’m also exploring new writing apps like Versey, a minimalist editor with thoughtful AI features.
Raycast Without switching apps, I type [control-space] to open a floating Raycast window. I can then quickly add something to my reminder list or calendar, check a thesaurus, calculate something, or do other tasks. That helps maintain my writing flow. (Why Raycast is a hidden gem).
Headspace Focus music without lyrics helps me block out noise around my Times Square office.
📨 10:00 Email Sprint
Superhuman I use keyboard shortcuts to move quickly through 80 morning messages. To help me keep track of replies I’m waiting for, Superhuman lets me attach automated reminders to resurface messages weeks later. Boomerang is a good alternative for follow-ups if you use Outlook or Gmail.
Flow Dictating messages saves my hands from typing fatigue. It’s remarkably accurate and plugs text directly into whatever app I’m using.
⏸️ 10:55 Break
Wakeout This app features short video loops of real people doing stretching and cardio moves. I can imitate their movements for one-minute exercises. These body breaks improve my focus.
🔬 11:00 Research
* Perplexity provides thorough, citation-backed search results powered by AI models that understand my detailed queries. The summary saves me from digging through hundreds of raw links. (My Perplexity update).
* Claude Projects & NotebookLM These AI tools help me find common themes, key ideas, and examples in prior materials I’ve created, so I can build on my own past work. (More on Claude Projects & my guide to NotebookLM).
That's a glimpse into my morning toolkit. In a follow-up I’ll share tools I use from late morning through bedtime. 🛌
What tools are YOU using today?
Some links are referral links. In some cases they provide you with a free month of access. If you make a purchase, Wonder Tools may earn a small commission, at no cost to you.


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I recently talked with Lance Eaton, Senior Associate Director of AI and Teaching & Learning at Northeastern University and writer of AI + Education = Simplified. We traded ideas about what’s actually working. We came up with 10 specific, practical ways anyone who teaches, coaches, or leads can put AI to work.
📺 Watch the full conversation above, or read highlights below.
10 Ways to Use AI 🛠️
Note: Lance and I alternated tips below 👇
1. Spark Richer Student Reflection 🪞
Lance: Ask students to reflect through a conversation with AI rather than staring at a blank page. A well-prompted AI will keep asking follow-up questions, pushing students past “I didn’t like it” toward real analysis.
2. Strengthen Your Syllabus 📋
Jeremy: Give an AI assistant your syllabus and ask for a critique — for clarity, inclusivity, student-friendliness, and completeness. You’ll get specific, honest feedback. The AI won’t write the syllabus for you, but it will challenge you to make yours better.
We don’t always have colleagues at our side who can offer input on our work. So this is an objective, independent, instant, constructive way to get a useful critique.
3. Make Materials More Visual 🎨
Lance: Turn your syllabus into a graphic version students actually want to read. AI assistants can help you create visual layouts and simple comics-style explanations without any design experience.
4. Improve Lesson Plans 📐
Jeremy: Describe your learning goals, your class size, your constraints — then ask AI to generate 10 warm-up or closing activities. You won’t use most of them, and you might remix a couple. But having options means you’ll often figure out something better than what you’d have designed alone.
5. Try It Until Something Clicks ⚡
Lance: Play with AI until it does something that genuinely surprises or excites you. That moment of “Wait, I could actually use this,” is what shifts the conversation from theoretical to real.
“For some students, this is really powerful, including students navigating English as a second language or ADHD or dyslexia — these tools can unlock things.”
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6. Build Engaging Class Activities 🧩
Jeremy: When you need a compelling analogy for a hard concept, or a historical anecdote, or a mini case study for a short role-play exercise, AI assistants can be helpful in expanding what we consider. If you’re teaching a subject you know well, you can set the direction and take responsibility for verification.
NotebookLM and Claude can generate examples quickly, and can search your own notes to surface examples you’ve created yourself but lost track of. The goal of using AI in this context is strengthening engagement and improving the learning experience. It’s not for whiz-bang special effects.
7. Generate “Bad Examples” Safely 🚫
Lance: Examples can be useful to illustrate what not to do, but you’d never embarrass a student by presenting their work as an example of a mistake.
“We’re never, ever going to — nor should we — ask a student, ‘This was a really horrible thing, can I use it as a bad example going forward?’”
AI tools can generate intentionally flawed examples: a weak argument, a poorly structured paragraph, or circular reasoning. Students learn what to avoid.
8. Catch What You’re Missing 🔍
Jeremy: Ask an AI assistant to review your materials for accessibility gaps, unclear instructions or areas where your material could be more inclusive. Think of it as a thoughtful colleague who reviews your work and catches what familiarity made you miss.
9. Analyze Student Feedback 📊
Lance: Strip names and any identifying information from end-of-semester feedback, then ask AI to identify themes, patterns, and gaps. As Lance put it, “What are some things that I’m not seeing? What are some assumptions I’m making or missing? What are some ways I might redirect the course?” Instead of spending hours manually categorizing open-ended comments, you get a usable overview in minutes — leaving more time to actually act on what students told you.
10. Remember What Was Said 🗒️
Jeremy: Use an AI note-taker like Granola to capture transcripts of student meetings, advising sessions, and office hours. Request permission first. You’ll have searchable records of what was discussed, questions that came up, and what you suggested. That’s particularly useful as time passes and it gets harder to remember the nuances of what you talked about.
Lance’s Free Resources for Educators 🎁
Lance is unusually generous in sharing what he’s learned. A few to bookmark:
* AI Syllabi Policies Collection — 200+ real AI policies from faculty across disciplines. See Lance’s post for more context and ideas for applying this.
* Prompts for Educators — a curated tab of tested prompts on his Substack
* Faculty Cohort AI Survey — Lance is gathering data about AI training
* AI + Education = Simplified — his newsletter, worth following for insight
4 More Ideas Worth Noting 💬
1. Nostalgia for the Pre-AI Era 🏺
AI is making polished, professional-looking output trivially easy to produce. That may make what’s authentically human and imperfect more valuable.
“There’s this moment of longing,” Lance said, “for the days when papers students submitted had grammatical errors.” Professors are already nostalgic for flawed student papers.
We may look back on writing of the early 2020s the way we now look at 1900s-era hand-drawn maps or handmade clothing: reminders of a period when you could look at something and know a person made it.
I’ve been thinking about this in terms of pottery and homemade cookies. 🏺🍪Our imperfect things often have more appeal precisely because they’re made with human hands.
“There’s a growing thread about the irrelevance of higher education,” Lance said, “and AI feeds that.” Institutions and creators who figure out how to signal genuine human authorship will have an edge.
Tools are already emerging to signal human authorship. I recently began testing a tool called OKhuman, which verifies that you actually typed something yourself, using your mic to listen to your keystrokes for evidence. This tool’s existence tells you something about where we’re headed.
2. Why Higher Ed is Struggling 🏛️
It’s easy to be impatient with schools that still haven’t developed a coherent AI approach three years in. Lance pushed back on that frustration with useful context. “This happened right on the heels of the pandemic,” he said.
“Every semester it was just like, ‘We have a new format for you.’” Faculty had restructured entire courses repeatedly, switching to remote teaching mid-semester, then hybrid, then back.
Then AI arrived and disrupted assessment design all over again. “If you do that well,” Lance said, of traditional course alignment, “then your course is a deeply intricate web in which everything is related. AI comes in and, in some ways, obliterates the way we do assessments, which means everything else also has to be changed.”
Add funding cuts, political pressure, and leadership distracted by institutional fires, and the picture is complicated.
3. You Can Build Your Own Tools Now 🔧
Lance mentioned that he’s been building custom software, including an MP3 player designed exactly the way he wants it, an RSS reader, and a podcast organizer, even though he doesn’t have a coding background. “This is the first time I’ve really felt like, ‘Oh! I can actually build stuff.”
If you’ve assumed that building custom tools requires a developer, revisit that assumption. AI-powered “vibe coding” tools have lowered the barriers to creating software, making it easier for educators to build what they need.
4. AI May Lead to a New Equity Gap ⚖️
When schools don’t provide AI tools and leave students to their own devices, they inadvertently create a two-tiered system.
As Lance put it: “You have the inequity of the person who’s using the frontier, high-paid model, and the student who gets a limited amount on the free version.” This isn’t an abstract concern. It affects the quality of work students can produce and the skills they develop. For educators and administrators, it’s a reason to push for institutional access, rather than assuming students will figure it out on their own.
Thank you Tom Daccord, Shittu Isaac, Heather Dawn, Robert Hammond, Uyghur Monitor, and many others for tuning into this live video with Lance Eaton, Ph.D.!


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Escape AI slop by reading more books. 📚 That’s my plan for making the most of leisure time this year. One book a week. Some short. Others mostly visual — I love graphic novels. Plus a new AI & tech book group I’m starting.
Books get my eyes off screens, and my brain welcomes that break from news, vitriol, and ads. Read on for my updated guide to finding great read this year.
📖 Find your next read
* Most Recommended Books Pick the name of an expert to see what books they recommend and why.
* Goodbooks.io and Read This Twice Explore interesting expert picks.
* En.app Describe the kind of book you’re looking for and get suggestions.
* Whichbook’s World Map 🗺️ Find books set anywhere in the world. Select a country to see a collection of books that take place there. See how it works👇
* Where to find book recs is a nice evergreen list from Writing About Reading. I also like the eclectic recs in the NYTimes’s Read Like the Wind newsletter and its intriguing list: Top 100 books of the 21st century.
* The most mentioned books in podcasts is a neat list from Snipd. In Snipd’s podcast app you can see which books any podcast has mentioned most.
* BookClubs lets you find a book group near you or organize your own.
* Fable hosts book clubs & communities for nearly any genre.
Find free and cheap books 🔦
* Project Gutenberg offers more than 75,000 free ebooks and audiobooks. No registration required. The Top 100 list is a nice source for free reading.
* The Internet Archive has searchable e-books and a free library collection.
* Bookbub spotlights discounted ebooks on its site and email newsletter.
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📚 Announcing the NEW Wonder Tools Book Group 🌟
I’m excited to launch a new Wonder Tools book group 📚 exploring the most fascinating recent AI and tech books. Each month we’ll have a live online session with a lively discussion, and you’ll also get a book guide with quotes, highlights and insights. Occasional surprise guests will join. 💫
This new series, starting in March, is sponsored by Shortform, which publishes high-quality, in-depth guides to non-fiction books. All paid subscribers are invited! Join now for this, and free AI tool access, live monthly online workshops introducing new tools, + other inner circle benefits.
Libby has free ebooks and audiobooks from libraries in 78 countries. It works for 90% of U.S. libraries. Check out nearly anything instantly, for free, on any device. You can read your free ebooks in the app or on a Kindle.
* Audio or text Check out and listen to free audiobooks or ebooks.
* Multiple cards Libby lets you add cards for multiple libraries. That’s useful if a book you want has a waiting list. You can check which library has the shortest waiting list. See where you can get non-resident library cards.
Limitation: Libby is digital-only — you can’t use it for physical books. That requires a separate app or site, like the NYPL app in New York.
Kanopy provides free access to top-notch feature films and documentaries. I log in with my library card. Watch on the web, iOS or Android, or on a smart TV app like Google TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire TV. Libraries cap the number of videos you can watch monthly.
Hoopla is a free app for accessing 3 million audiobooks, ebooks, comics, magazines, and music from 11,500 libraries in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Read, watch or listen in 120 languages from the web or on a mobile device. Bingepasses let you access movies, TV shows, & video courses.
World Cat tells you which library near you has a book you want. It works in multiple languages and covers 10,000 global libraries. Search for books in print, ebook, braille, or audio.
📕 Support Independent booksellers
* Find the cheapest places online to buy any book: Bookfinder
* Find a nearby independent bookstore: Indiebound
* Get cheap used books: Abebooks. Check its bargain books + collections.
* Support your local bookstore with an online purchase. Bookshop.org has raised more than $40 million for indie bookstores.
* Buy audiobooks from local bookstores: Libro.fm
* Shop at an online co-op bookshop owned by readers: Tertulia
Bonus Tip: Prompt AI for personalized reading recommendations 📚
Create your own taste atlas. Make a list of books you’ve liked or learned from. Add movies and music you love too, or other interests. Share the list with Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT. Ask for recommendations based on your tastes.
🧒 Find great children’s books
* Sora, the library app, not the AI video tool, is a digital library for kids. Schools make ebooks and audiobooks available on the app. It works well with graphic novels, picture books, as well as comic books and textbooks. (My family also uses Libby to check out kids books).
* Epic is another popular kids ebook app. It’s fun to use, but it leans into gamification and extrinsic motivation. It entices kids with points and streaks to keep them opening the app.
* Kanopy has a great kids section with video versions of books by Eric Carle, Mo Willems and other greats. It also has math and science lessons.
* How to Raise a Reader is a wonderful guide to children’s books.
* Common Sense Media has helpful info for parents about sensitive content in children’s books to help with finding age-appropriate books and movies.
Bonus tools: Check out a well-curated list of 55 apps for book lovers from Bookscouter, where you can buy and sell books.
📚 Your Comment? What’s an underrated way to find great books?


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The hardest part of teaching — or leading meetings — is sparking engagement. Getting people to engage enthusiastically with something new can be tough. It’s especially challenging if people are overwhelmed, super busy, or just tired.
As we aim to stretch people’s thinking in a new direction, tools are just one part of the overall picture. But they can help. Last week I shared five tools for creating learning paths, interactive lessons, and new kinds of digital notebooks. Today’s follow-up recommendations focus on creative engagement.
You don’t have to be a teacher to find these resources for opening up participation useful. If you lead a team, run meetings, or collaborate with colleagues, you can benefit from these tools.
I’ve baked into this post multiple ways to engage.
* Chime in on the teaching tool chat thread
* Share your idea on the shared Padlet about teaching tactics
* Test out your trivia skills on my new open Kahoot quiz game
* Add a comment to the shared Craft doc about lesson planning
Padlet — Inspire Creative Collaboration
Padlets are digital bulletin boards where people can post comments, links, voice recordings, or short videos.
How it works: Set up a board with a topic or a template. Start with a blank grid, map, timeline, discussion thread, or an image gallery. Participants can use their own devices to add notes, documents, images or comments. Or they can use Padlet’s built-in recorder to add audio or video.
How you can use it: Build a board to accompany a live, collaborative lesson, event, or meeting. Or have people contribute to it asynchronously. You can also use it as a showcase for exceptional work, or as a space for peer collaboration.
How I use it: I find Padlet useful for group brainstorming, icebreakers, and for online learning activities. For remote classes, I’ve used Padlet to collect questions before class and for team-building collections, gathering people’s favorite songs, books, and snacks, to help us get to know one another. I’ve also used Padlet as a more visual, welcoming, version of an online discussion board.
Who it works for: It’s easy to use, so most people jump in without any training. Padlet works at all levels. I’ve used it with graduate students and for mid-career training., as well as with colleagues. It’s popular in elementary and high schools too. It’s one of the best tools for getting people to build on each other’s ideas, rather than passively consuming content.
Example — try it! Jump into my board on Engagement tactics for impactful teaching. Explore the ideas others have added and contribute one of your own!
Pricing: It’s free to create up to three boards, or $120/year for unlimited use.
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Kahoot — Add Fun to Learning
No other teaching tool generates as many smiles and laughs as Kahoot. It turns quizzes into playful learning games.
Why it’s so useful: What makes Kahoot especially engaging is the variety of question formats: In addition to standard multiple-choice and true-false queries, you can have students drop pins on images, fill in blanks, guess numbers, or order items in a list.
How to get started: Design your own quizzes or pick from a massive library of questions by teachers and organizations around the world, like National Geographic and NASA. People can play individually or in teams, live or asynchronously. You can share a link or show the game on screen. People play on their own phone or laptop by answering questions and earning points..
How I use Kahoot: Sometimes I start class with icebreaker questions, or conclude a session with a review game. Occasionally, if I sense students losing energy or focus, I’ll turn class-related questions into a playful Kahoot competition for a change of pace.
Example — try it! Play a new Kahoot I created about journalism AI. Email me afterwards with a screenshot of your completed game for a digital prize.
New tip: Kahoot has a new AI assistant built in, so you can quickly convert text from any document or handout into editable quiz questions.
Pricing ranges from $3/month (50 players at a time) to $19/month (200 players). Kahoot’s pricing has gotten more complicated: some quizzes & special features now require premium plans.
Alternatives: Gimkit, Wayground and Blooket are good alternative game-style quiz platforms that offer fuller free plans for those on a tight budget. Genially also works well for classroom games, or try the free JeopardyLabs. (Browse and try out existing Jeopardy boards like AI in Schools).
Craft — Organize your Materials
Craft is a surprisingly useful, underrated tool for creating and organizing notes and documents. Use it to develop attractive lesson plans, student handouts, syllabi, or collections of resources.
How to use it: Organize materials into neat visual cards students or colleagues can click to explore. Add text, images, links, or tables to your documents. They’ll be more visually appealing than Microsoft Word or Google docs, or Apple Notes.
Sharing Craft docs: It’s easy to share Craft docs publicly or privately with a link, or export them as PDFs or Word docs. You can even transfer content directly to Ulysses, Bear, iA Writer, Day One, or other tools. I find it easier to use than Notion, Coda, or other pro tools I like, and I prefer the look of the shared docs.
Example — see how it looks: Here’s a Lesson Planning Resource I made with Craft to illustrate how you can use it for handouts and guides. It has subpages that hold PDFs, notes, docs, lists, and various other content.
Other features: Craft has a remarkably good mobile app for designing and viewing full docs. And while docs are private by default, you can now enable collaborative or even public editing, so people can work together on a project.
Pricing: Craft is free with a content limit, or $6/month for unlimited use. (I include Craft as part of a bundle of pro tools paid Wonder Tools subscribers get access to for free).
Bottom line: Consider Craft as a new, flexible place to make, organize, and share docs, especially if you’re drowning in scattered teaching materials.


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