In this final part of the series, Dr. Renée Jordan outlines a detailed, step-by-step plan to transition into a career as an AI and Machine Learning Enthusiast. Drawing from her own experiences and insights, she explores how to leverage existing skills, such as operations, program management, and a passion for educational tools, to break into the field of AI. Topics covered include identifying a niche in AI, building foundational knowledge through low-cost resources, using current work to demonstrate AI applications, expanding professional networks, and pursuing relevant credentials. Dr. Jordan emphasizes the importance of persistence, curiosity, and using tools like ChatGPT to create personalized plans for career transitions. Whether you're an educator, tech enthusiast, or aspiring AI professional, this episode offers a roadmap for making your AI aspirations a reality. Tune in to discover how you can accelerate your career path and achieve your goals. Also, be sure to check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it for yourself.

Takeaways:

1. Leverage Existing Skills for Transition: Dr. Renée Jordan emphasizes the importance of utilizing transferable skills—such as operations, program management, and educational expertise—when transitioning to an AI and machine learning career. These skills can help shape a niche within the AI field, particularly in education and productivity tools.
2. Start Small and Build Gradually: The step-by-step plan encourages starting with small, manageable projects like building prototypes or using no-code AI platforms. By focusing on hands-on experimentation and gradual learning, individuals can make significant progress without feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of AI.
3. Network and Stay Persistent: Dr. Jordan highlights the value of expanding your network within AI communities and collaborating with experts in the field. Staying persistent, reflecting on progress, and seeking opportunities to learn through informal channels, like YouTube and free courses, can maintain momentum and foster continued growth in your AI journey.

In this third installment of our series, Dr. Renée Jordan dives into actionable steps for breaking down big tech goals into manageable tasks without getting overwhelmed. Drawing from personal experiences like pursuing a PhD and creating an Open Educational Resource, Dr. Jordan shares how to leverage past successes to persist through challenges in the tech world. She demonstrates how to turn reflections into personalized ChatGPT prompts, providing practical advice on learning new skills while balancing a full-time job. Whether you’re interested in building a no-code chatbot, learning Python, or transitioning careers, this episode guides you on creating a step-by-step plan tailored to your goals. Tune in for a blend of personal anecdotes, strategic planning, and tips for staying motivated on your tech journey. Be sure to check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it for yourself.

Takeaways:

1. Breaking Big Goals Into Manageable Steps: Dr. Jordan emphasizes the importance of breaking down large, overwhelming tech goals into smaller, actionable tasks. This method not only makes the process more achievable but also helps reduce stress and maintain momentum.
2. Leveraging Transferable Skills: By reflecting on past experiences, like completing a PhD or preparing for a choir competition, Dr. Jordan highlights how transferable skills—such as persistence, time management, and community engagement—can be applied to learning new tech skills or achieving goals in tech.
3. Using ChatGPT for Personalized Guidance: Dr. Jordan demonstrates how reflecting on your experiences can help you create detailed, context-rich prompts for ChatGPT, enabling AI to provide tailored advice and strategies, making the learning process more efficient and personalized.

In this second part of this series, Dr. Renée Jordan discusses the importance of persistence and pacing yourself, drawing from personal experiences of staying committed to her PhD journey and integrating new tech tools into her work. She shares strategies that helped her persist during challenging times, such as continuous learning, attending conferences, and seeking feedback. Dr. Jordan also reflects on the parallels between preparing for a national choir competition and mastering new tech skills, emphasizing how breaking down big goals into manageable steps can help avoid feeling overwhelmed. She encourages listeners to explore their curiosity, stay resilient, and embrace the learning process as they work toward their tech goals. Tune in to this episode for insights on how to stay grounded and motivated while navigating your tech career journey! Be sure to check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it for yourself.

Three Takeaways:

1. Persistence Through Continuous Learning: Dr. Jordan emphasizes the importance of staying committed to learning and adapting, using personal examples from her PhD journey to illustrate how consistent engagement, feedback, and adapting tools helped her persist through challenges. This approach can be applied to tech careers by embracing learning opportunities as they arise.
2. Breaking Down Goals to Manage Overwhelm: Just like preparing for a national competition, breaking big goals into smaller, manageable steps is key to staying focused and avoiding overwhelm. Dr. Jordan shares how pacing yourself and focusing on smaller tasks can lead to big achievements in both personal and professional growth.
3. Embracing Failure as Part of the Process: Dr. Jordan reflects on a setback during a choir performance and how resilience and the mindset of "just keep showing up" helped her move forward. This resilience is essential in the tech field, where not everything goes according to plan, and setbacks are often part of the learning process.

In this first part of the "Taking One Step at a Time" series, Dr. Renée Jordan dives into practical strategies for avoid feeling overwhelmed when entering the tech field. Drawing from her own experiences and the lesson "C4.2: Taking One Step at a Time and Staying Persistent" from the Black-Liberation.Tech website, Dr. Jordan shares insights on breaking down large goals into manageable steps. Whether you're starting a tech career or building a project, this episode emphasizes the importance of persistence and not being overwhelmed by the many possibilities and opportunities within tech. Listen in as Dr. Jordan walks through her own goals, including creating an Open Educational Resource (OER) that includes a podcast, website, and social media platforms, while offering tips to keep yourself organized and focused. Be sure to check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it for yourself.

Three Takeaways from this Episode:

1. Break Down Large Goals: Dr. Jordan emphasizes the importance of breaking big projects or career goals into smaller, manageable steps to avoid feeling overwhelmed, making it easier to stay focused and motivated.
2. Stay Persistent and Curious: Persistence is key to success in tech. Even when facing challenges, staying curious and committed to learning will help you move forward and grow in the field.
3. Leverage Your Community: Surround yourself with a supportive community. Whether through meetups, online forums, or mentorship, connecting with others can provide invaluable support and guidance as you navigate your career or personal projects.

In Part 2 of this special series, Dr. Renée Jordan dives deeper into how AI tools can help streamline the dissertation process, specifically when it comes to curating literature and creating focused research. Dr. Jordan demonstrates the use of platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gamma to gather literature on digital literacies, technology skills, and marginalized groups, focusing on Black and Latina women and girls in tech. She walks listeners through the steps of refining their research queries, finding articles from refereed journals, and curating their dissertation reading lists. Throughout the episode, Dr. Jordan emphasizes the importance of using AI as a helpful resource, not as a replacement for the critical thinking and intellectual work that are essential to conducting high-quality research. She also shares how to turn research into impactful presentations with AI-powered visuals, demonstrating the power of these tools in both research and communication.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in leveraging AI to enhance their research and presentation workflows while maintaining academic integrity. Check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it all for yourself.

Key Takeaways:

1. Using AI for Curated Research: AI can help narrow down focused literature searches and generate a more relevant list of articles by refining search parameters.
2. AI for Dissertation Research: Learn how to create a personalized reading list using AI platforms, making your dissertation research more focused and accessible.
3. AI-Generated Visuals for Research Presentations: Discover how tools like Gamma and Napkin AI can help transform your research into engaging, visually appealing presentations.

In this special episode, Dr. Renée Jordan takes a deep dive into how AI tools, specifically ChatGPT, can assist researchers—especially doctoral students—by enhancing their research process without doing the work for them. Dr. Jordan shares a module created for a professor, highlighting four AI products she’s used to help with research tasks like crafting guiding questions for a literature review and refining research contributions. She emphasizes that AI is a valuable tool for organizing and shaping ideas but cannot replace the essential work of the researcher. Through a hands-on demonstration, Dr. Jordan shows how to use AI to outline literature reviews, identify research gaps, and refine study focus areas, offering practical tips for integrating AI into academic research workflows. This episode is ideal for anyone looking to enhance their research process with AI while maintaining academic integrity. Check out the YouTube version of this episode to see it all for yourself.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in this series, where we’ll continue to explore how to use AI for refining your literature review and crafting your research approach.

Three Key Takeaways:

1. AI as a Tool, Not the Answer: AI tools like ChatGPT can help researchers by generating prompts, organizing thoughts, and refining literature reviews, but they cannot replace the essential intellectual work that researchers must do to contribute to the field. It’s crucial to use AI as a resource, not as a substitute for original research.
2. Crafting Guiding Questions for Literature Reviews: Dr. Jordan demonstrates how AI can be used to generate guiding questions that help shape and refine a literature review, ensuring that researchers focus on gaps in existing literature and position their study to contribute new insights to the field.
3. Customizing AI to Your Research Focus: The importance of tailoring AI-generated content to fit your specific research questions, keywords, and framework is emphasized. AI tools can be adapted to suit individual research interests, ensuring that the final output aligns with the researcher’s unique academic journey.

In this episode of Black Liberation.Tech, Dr. Renée Jordan delves into how to use AI as an assistant to navigate career paths by cultivating curiosity and challenging assumptions. Dr. Jordan explores how personal experiences, passions, and unconventional paths can guide tech career exploration. Through a detailed dialogue between two characters, Jasmine and Ebony, the episode highlights their journeys of breaking into tech, challenging traditional career paths, and using curiosity to bridge the digital divide.

Listeners are introduced to the process of using AI tools like ChatGPT to create rich prompts that connect personal interests with potential tech careers, ranging from product management to AI and machine learning. Dr. Jordan also discusses how unconventional career paths, such as becoming an instructional technologist without a degree in computer science, can be just as impactful as traditional routes.

By reflecting on what excites you about technology, what you’re passionate about, and how you’ve navigated challenges, you’ll be empowered to take control of your career journey. The episode is filled with valuable prompts, strategies, and real-world applications for utilizing AI in career exploration, all while fostering curiosity and embracing non-traditional paths.

In Part 2 of this episode of Black Liberation.Tech, Dr. Renée Jordan continues the journey of career exploration using AI, focusing on matching personal passions with potential job roles. Dr. Jordan demonstrates how to use AI prompts to generate career opportunities based on interests in both tech and non-tech fields, like artificial intelligence, educational technology, arts, and music. She shares practical steps for leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to explore diverse career paths, from music educator technologists to learning experience designers.

Listeners are guided through a personalized exploration process, with AI helping to identify potential roles in traditional and emerging fields. Dr. Jordan also discusses how to refine job search strategies by using multiple search engines, ensuring that the career opportunities AI suggests align with real-world job listings. This episode empowers individuals to harness AI as a resource for self-discovery and career growth.

Key topics include:

• Using AI for career exploration based on personal passions
• Matching career fields with personal interests
• Conducting effective job searches using multiple search engines
• AI's role in bridging technology and creativity

Dr. Jordan's mission with Black Liberation.Tech continues to support learners in navigating the intersection of passion and profession through accessible, AI-powered tools. View this episode on YouTube to see this lesson in action!

Hashtags: #CareerExploration #AIForCareer #TechAndPassion #JobOpportunities #ChatGPTCareers #BlackLiberationTech #MusicTech #AIinEducation #EmergingFields #LearningExperienceDesign

In this episode of Black Liberation.Tech, we dive into how AI can assist in exploring career interests and uncovering opportunities in tech and beyond. Hosted by Dr. Renée Jordan, this episode guides listeners through the development of step-by-step lessons on the Black Liberation.Tech website. Dr. Jordan highlights how the lessons help individuals identify their interests in both tech and non-tech fields, including areas like AI, public administration, and educational services.

From exploring emerging fields like AI and UX design to uncovering career paths in public administration, Dr. Jordan offers actionable tips for using AI as a resource to help reduce cognitive load and empower career discovery. With a focus on self-exploration, this episode encourages listeners to explore diverse career opportunities, whether through technology or hobbies outside of the tech world.

Join Dr. Jordan as she walks you through the lessons and provides insight into how AI can be your personal tutor on the path to discovering your career passions. View this episode on YouTube to see everything in action!

In the third episode of Black Liberation.Tech, Dr. Renée Jordan shares an inspiring story of resilience and determination. From facing unexpected challenges like a car accident to navigating the complexities of job searches and career advancements, Dr. Jordan highlights the importance of persistence, self-advocacy, and strategic planning in the face of adversity.

This episode also takes you through Dr. Jordan’s decision to relocate from Maryland to Georgia to pursue a new job and educational opportunities. Her story underscores the significance of knowing your worth, setting goals, and valuing your personal well-being. Dr. Jordan’s approach to work-life balance, including advocating for flexibility and self-care, offers a practical roadmap for listeners navigating similar challenges.

Episode Highlights:

1. Dealing with Unexpected Circumstances Dr. Jordan opens up about her experience with a car accident and the financial strain that followed, demonstrating how setbacks can be opportunities for growth. She discusses how resilience and resourcefulness can help navigate even the most difficult circumstances.
2. Job Search Persistence Dr. Jordan’s persistence paid off. She shares how she successfully secured a job by advocating for herself, including flying in for the job fair and making her presence known.
3. Advocating for Flexibility Balancing work and education can be challenging. Dr. Jordan discusses how she advocated for flexibility in her job, requesting early departures to attend classes, and why it’s essential to ask for what you need in order to succeed academically and professionally.
4. Relocation for Career and Education A major life decision: Dr. Jordan reflects on relocating from Maryland to Georgia to pursue both a job and a PhD opportunity at Georgia State University. Her story offers a glimpse into the courage and planning required to make such a significant move for career and personal growth.
5. Prioritizing Self-Care and Work-Life Balance Dr. Jordan highlights the importance of setting boundaries and not overworking. Despite the opportunity to make extra money through summer programs, she chose to prioritize rest and self-care, underscoring the value of maintaining balance for long-term success.

Key Takeaways:

• Persistence Pays Off: Even when opportunities seem limited, keep pushing forward—your determination can lead to success.
• Advocate for Flexibility: Don’t be afraid to ask for the accommodations you need at work to balance your personal and professional life.
• Know Your Worth: If you’re feeling undervalued or stagnant in your current role, it might be time to explore new opportunities.
• Strategic Planning for Life Changes: Relocating or making big decisions requires thoughtful planning—take the time to research and prepare for a smoother transition.
• Prioritize Self-Care: Avoid burnout by finding a balance between work and personal life that allows you to recharge and stay motivated.

Tune in to hear Dr. Jordan’s personal journey and learn how to overcome challenges, strategically advance your career, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Whether you’re facing unexpected setbacks or planning your next big career move, this episode will provide you with actionable insights to help you succeed.