I consider myself a life-long-learner, and proudly self-taught in fields such as blogging. But now, in the age of AI, I have a teacher. Claude, the virtual Jedi Master, is instructing me in the evolving ways of the blogging force. I think that means I am Claude’s Padawan.

Claude, being a very diplomatic communicator, has never referred to me as ‘Young Padawan’. However, increasingly, our relationship resembles that between a supremely knowledgeable teacher and an eager but inexperienced pupil.

I recently described receiving Claude’s instruction on how best to tackle a new technique in Photoshop. Claude patiently read and considered my request for help, supplied in the form of a prompt, then explained what I should do. It worked perfectly, the first time.

MailerLite course

I next asked Claude to teach me how to produce an email newsletter, via a widely used platform called ‘MailerLite’. I specifically requested a crash course on the topic, which took into account my familiarity with WordPress, an industry-standard blogging platform.

Here is the prompt I used.

Please create a crash course to teach me how to create a newsletter using the free version of  the MailerLite application. I have never used this application before, but am skilled at creating WordPress articles, where I am familiar with the use of text blocks, subheadings, image blocks, table blocks, gallery blocks and the insertion of links. The Mailer Lite newsletter would be issued quarterly, and include five or six separate topics, each of which would be illustrated with one or more images. I have a list of email addresses, to whom the newsletter would be sent. 

Consumate diplomat

Claude did not respond with any snarky comments, such as ‘Impatient are you, Young Padawan’, but got right down to it. The blogging force is strong with him/it/them…

Is there nothing Claude, the virtual Jedi Master cannot handle? Fair enough, Raising an X-wing fighter from a Dagobah swamp through sheer willpower is probably beyond Claude at the moment. But give it time…

My crash course in MailerLite is a four page document. It guides me, stepwise from opening an account, creating a draft newsletter, embedding images and links, importing an email list of recipients, and posting the finished document.

Translation table

Very helpfully, it also includes a side-by-side table of MailerLite and corresponding WordPress terminology. 

For example, a WordPress Block corresponds to a MailerLite Element. And a MailerLite Image Element corresponds to a WordPress Image Block.  I have pasted in part of the table at the end of this article. Dead handy.

So, the course is customized specifically for me, taking into account my first-hand experience in blogging and my assumed ability to ingest a streamlined instruction manual. It’s an example of the personalized learning now possible with the aid of large language models.

Not so young Padawan

Claude did not write the newsletter for me, although I suspect that would have been an option. No, Claude, the virtual Jedi Master assumed the role of teacher. And I assumed the role of pupil, or not so Young Padawan. Isn’t that how AI-enabled learning should go?

Or, as a particular Jedi Master might say: Go, should AI-enabled learning, not so?

Here’s a section of the table comparing WordPress and MailerLite options:

In WordPress you…	In MailerLite you…
Add a Paragraph (text) block	Drag in a Text element block from the “Elements” panel
Add a Heading/Subheading block	Drag in a Title or Subtitle element — these are MailerLite’s heading blocks
Add an Image block	Drag in an Image element, then click it to upload/choose a photo
Select text and click the link icon	Double-click the text to open the inline toolbar, then click the link icon