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A Traveling Teacher

AI Essentials: Thinking in an AI World

AI Essentials: Thinking in an AI World

$200
$350 $200
Sale Sold out
Reserve your seat
Per student $200
Led by working AI professionals
Max 6 students per section
Live via Zoom, never pre-recorded
Build a real AI project, not screenshots
7-day refund guarantee
Built for high school and college students

Most parents see their student using AI and assume they're ahead. Usually, they're just typing into a chat box the same way they'd type into Google. This course teaches them to use it the way professionals do: with precision, intention, and the judgment to know when it's wrong.

Where this fits in your student's AI skill journey

From typing prompts to thinking with AI

Most students are already using AI, but treating it like a search engine. They type a vague question, get a vague answer, and move on. This course moves your student from casual user to skilled operator: someone who understands how AI actually works, knows how to direct it precisely, and can recognize when it's wrong. By week 4, your student will have built their own AI Project around a real idea of their own. Something they keep using long after the course ends.

Casual user
→
✓ This course
→
Skilled operator
→
Ready for the real world
Is this right for my student?

Who this course is designed for

This course is built for any student who wants to actually understand how to work with AI, not just type into a chat box and hope for the best. No prior AI experience is required. Whether your student is brand new to AI or already uses it day to day, this course gives them the framework professionals use, taught by someone who works in the field.

✓ Students new to AI

No experience required. The course starts from first principles (what an AI actually is and how it works) before building real skills on top.

✓ Students with a project or idea they want to build

Every student brings a real idea to the course and uses AI to develop it, turning an early concept into something they can actually act on.

✓ Students who want a real skill, not a shortcut

This course teaches students to reason with AI and direct it like a professional. It's a durable skill that compounds over time, not a one-off trick.

✓ Students preparing for what's next

Colleges and employers are screening for AI fluency now, and that bar will only rise. This course gives your student a real head start before AI literacy becomes the baseline expectation rather than the exception.

Everything you get

What's included in the course

🧠

Taught by a practitioner

Every session is led by someone who builds with AI professionally every day, not from a textbook or a curriculum someone else wrote

👥

Small group

Never more than 6 students. Your student gets real attention every session

🛠

A real AI Project

Your student leaves with their own custom AI Project they keep using after the course

💻

Live via Zoom

Interactive live sessions, not pre-recorded videos your student ignores

🔗

Unique join link

Each student receives their own secure Zoom link, registered access only

📅

Flexible scheduling

Choose the section day and time that works best for your family

What your student will learn

Course curriculum

Four weeks. Each week builds directly on the last. Your student picks a real project idea on day one and works that same idea through every week, walking out with a working AI Project they keep using.

1

What an LLM actually is Foundations

The mental model professionals use. AI as a prediction engine, not a magic answer box. Students run hands-on prompt experiments to see why precise inputs produce dramatically better results, and start shifting their focus from "what should I ask" to "what do I actually want back."

2

Prime, Prompt, Proof Framework

Three steps for getting real work out of AI. Prime with context, Prompt with a clear objective, Proof by forcing the AI to surface what it needs. Applied directly to your student's own project idea.

3

Build your AI Project In Practice

Students build their own Claude Project: a workspace pre-loaded with instructions, attachments, and conversation history. By week's end, they have a Project they keep using long after the course ends.

4

When AI is wrong Critical thinking

Three ways AI fails: agreement bias (it sides with whatever you suggest, even when you're wrong), hallucination (confident specifics that aren't real), over-reach (tidy answers to messy questions). Students learn to set guardrails directly into their prompts so they catch each one before being misled.

Who teaches this course

Meet your instructor

Daniel Ilioi

Daniel Ilioi

Course Instructor

Daniel is a software writer who builds AI solutions for enterprise clients at a major consulting firm. By day, he works in the AI division helping large organizations implement the same tools your student will learn. After hours, he teaches high schoolers and college students those same skills: how to write strong prompts, organize work in Projects, and spot when AI is quietly leading them wrong.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

No prior AI experience is required. The course starts from first principles (what an AI actually is and how it works) before building real skills on top. And even if a student already uses AI in their daily life and has some experience, they will still benefit greatly from this class, since it teaches the deeper framework that most people never learn on their own.
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Each session is one hour, held live via Zoom. With the small group size, that's enough time for your student to work through the framework, share their own project with the room, get real-time feedback from the instructor, and leave with something to apply before the next week.
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Plan on 30 to 60 minutes between sessions. This is short, focused work on your student's own AI Project, not assigned worksheets. Most of the actual building happens live with the instructor present, so the between-session time is for trying things on their own, refining their work, or experimenting with what they learned.
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This course is taught by Daniel Ilioi, a software writer who builds AI solutions for enterprise clients at a major consulting firm. By day he works in the AI division helping large organizations implement the same tools your student will learn. After hours he teaches high schoolers and college students those same skills, so your student is getting the real version of how this works from someone who uses these tools every day, not a textbook version.
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The course is taught using Claude, which is free to use at claude.ai. Students will create a free account before week 1, instructions are sent in the welcome email. The frameworks taught in the course apply to any modern AI tool, so what your student learns transfers directly to ChatGPT, Gemini, and others.
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Week 4 of the course is dedicated to this. Your student will learn the three main ways AI fails: agreement bias (it sides with whatever they suggest, even when they're wrong), hallucination (confident specifics that aren't real), and over-reach (tidy answers to messy questions). They'll learn to set guardrails directly into their prompts so they catch these before being misled. The whole point is to make your student a skeptical operator who reasons with AI, not someone who trusts whatever the chat box says.
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A laptop, tablet, or desktop computer with a working camera and microphone, and the free Zoom app installed. A stable internet connection is required. Mobile phones are not recommended as the screen size makes it difficult to follow along while working with AI side-by-side.
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Each enrolled student receives a unique, personal Zoom join link registered to them specifically. Sessions use a Waiting Room. No one enters without host approval. Sessions are limited to registered participants only so no uninvited guests can join.
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This course is designed for high school students (grades 9-12) as well as college students. Each student brings their own business or project idea to the course, so it works well across levels as long as the student is mature enough to engage with the framework. If you are unsure whether this course is the right fit, feel free to reach out before enrolling.
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Each section is capped at 6 students. This is a firm limit, we do not exceed it. Small group sizes are central to how we teach. When a section fills, enrollment closes and the section is listed as unavailable.
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Every week we share a PDF of the whiteboard work from that session. Your student can download it and review what was covered, and course materials for the week are available the same way. We don't offer makeup live sessions for group classes, which is how we keep the small-group dynamic and the instructor's attention intact for everyone who showed up.
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No, we don't distribute session recordings to families. The whiteboard work from every session is shared as a PDF so your student can review what was covered, and the framework taught each week is in the welcome materials. Live attendance is how the small-group format works. What your student gets out of each session is the real-time exchange with the instructor and the other students, not a video to watch later.
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Advanced courses are launching in the near future for students who finish this one and want to keep going deeper. We also offer Project office hours on request, dedicated time with the instructor to keep refining your student's AI Project after the four weeks are done. Enrolled families will get details before the cohort ends so your student has a clear next step.
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A full refund is available if your cancellation request is submitted at least 7 days before the first scheduled session. Cancellations submitted fewer than 7 days before the course start date are not eligible for a refund. Once a course has begun, refunds are not available for unused sessions. Please see our full Refund Policy for complete details.
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Sections are limited to 6 students

Ready for your student to understand AI the way professionals do?

Choose your section above and complete enrollment. Sections close when they fill and don't reopen on the same schedule.

A private tutor runs $80 to $150 per session. Four weeks with Daniel, in a group of never more than 6 students, is $200 total.

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