Meet June Hunter
Technical Enablement Lead at DISCO
Educator, mother, and human.
Q: How has AI affected your role as an educator?
June Hunter: AI is revolutionizing the way that we’re doing our jobs every day. We have to think harder. We have to think smarter. We have to be more analytical in our approach to how we analyze data. And we haven’t even scratched the surface for how we’re going to reach a larger community of learners.
AI will affect how we help people who learn differently or are neurodiverse, which we’ve already seen with automated tools that help people read and interpret information differently.
Currently, people often think about the big picture – how AI is going to “take over the world” and drive our cars? AI’s biggest potential is in the simple enhancements that improve how we teach our students. People overlook that a lot.
Related: Meet Sofia Guzowski, Gen Z AI thought leader.
Q: What’s your favorite part about teaching?
Hunter: When I started assisting with trainings at our law firm in 1997, I thought I would be a terrible teacher. At the time, I didn't realize how empowering it was to empower others.
I get students in my course at UC San Diego that are going back to school, so they can get into the workforce, or moms that want to get back out there, or individuals who have had a tragedy occur but have the funds to go back to school. They have said things to me like ‘June, the first two weeks, I cried silently in your course. You didn't just teach me computers. You gave me the self-confidence I needed to do a job.’
When you empower another human on that level, nothing compares to that.
It’s so rewarding to know that you had such a positive impact. As a human, if you impact one person you’ve made a difference in the world. So for me, even if I only impact one person every semester in my course, I affect this world because I gave a person something they didn’t have before.
Related: Meet James Park, AI consultant and former lawyer.
Q: What is your biggest hope for AI?
Hunter: I hope it keeps making a difference in how people learn. I have a 22-year-old son who’s neurodiverse, and AI has impacted him in so many ways. He doesn’t learn like others, but now he is an online learner and is able to use tools to create things like video components and 3D modeling with AI. Technology-assisted devices have been amazing for him and made the class experience seamless.
AI levels the playing field. My son now gets to learn like you or I would learn. It wasn’t possible when he was younger, but now technology has helped him get there. Now, all students get to learn. That, to me, is enough to make me “all-in” on AI.
For further reading on the future of legal technology and how AI is shaping the landscape, click here.
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