AI tools can make teachers' lives easier and help them teach more efficiently, says Lance Key.
Key is an award-winning educator and support specialist at the Putnam County School System in Cookeville, Tennessee. He focuses on helping teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms and has delivered more than 400 professional development presentations across the country.
He sees educators using more and more AI (artificial intelligence) tools for teaching, and recommends a few to consider. He excludes the hyper-popular ChatGPT from the conversation because we’ve got a feeling you may have already heard about that one.
Bard (opens in new tab)
Google’s answer to ChatGPT hasn’t yet caught on in the same manner as the GPT-powered chatbot, but Bard has similar functionality and has been generating interest from many teachers Key knows. It can do much of what ChatGPT can, and that includes generating lesson plans and quizzes, and doing a decent, though far-from-perfect, job at writing anything you ask it to. My take from using this tool is Bard may be a little better than the free version of ChatGPT, yet it can’t quite match (opens in new tab) ChatGPT Plus, which is powered by GPT-4.
Canva.com (opens in new tab)
“Canva now has AI built into it,” Key says. “I can go to Canva and I can tell it to build me a presentation about digital citizenship, and it will build me a slideshow presentation.” The Canva AI tool won’t do all the work. “I'm gonna have to go edit and fix a few things on it,” Key says, however, it can provide a solid foundation to build on for many presentations. It also has a tool called Magic Write, which will write first drafts of emails, captions, or other posts for teachers.
Curiopod.com (opens in new tab)
Another good platform for creating first drafts of presentations is Curiopod, Key says. “It is like a Nearpod or like a Pear Deck, and it's got a feature in it that you give it your topic and it will build out that presentation,” Key says. The tool is geared toward education and lets you choose the grade levels for your presentation. However, it is limited to five presentations per starter account at one time.
SlidesGPT.com (opens in new tab)
A third tool Key recommends for creating presentations is SlidesGPT. Though he noted it is not quite as fast as some of the other options, it is very thorough in its slideshow creation skills. In our recent review, we found that it was impressive overall, except the platform suffered from some of the inaccuracies and mistakes we’ve come to expect from AI-generated content at this stage.
Conker.ai (opens in new tab)
This is an AI test and quiz builder that can integrate with some learning management systems, allowing teachers to create quizzes on command. “You can say, ‘I want a five-question quiz about the harmful use of tobacco' and it will build you out a five-question quiz that you can import straight into Google Classroom.”
Otter.ai (opens in new tab)
Key recommends this AI transcription service and virtual meeting assistant for the administrative side of teaching. It can record and transcribe virtual meetings, whether you attend or not. I have used the tool extensively (opens in new tab) and recommend it to the college journalism students I teach.
myViewBoard.com (opens in new tab)
This is a visual whiteboard that works with ViewSonic and is one that Key regularly uses. “A teacher can draw a picture on her board, and then it gives her images to select from,” he says. ESL teachers who Key works with have been particularly drawn to it. “It's been really neat because they've been working with our students on image and word recognition," he says. "So they could draw a picture in there and have the kids try to guess what it is. We have a lot of fun with that.”
Runwayml.com (opens in new tab)
Runway is an image and movie generator that can quickly be used to create engaging videos with impressive green screen and other special effects. It’s designed for teachers looking to make more engaging content for their students, and one that Key’ and his colleagues frequently use.
Adobe Firefly (opens in new tab)
Adobe Firefly is an AI image generator that also allows users to edit the image. “Adobe can make fliers and things for you just by typing in what you're looking for,” he says. This can cut down on presentation or other types of teacher prep, but it can also be a fun tool to explore with students.
Teachmateai.com (opens in new tab)
Another tool Key recommends is TeachMateAi, which provides educators with a suite of AI-powered tools that generate various teaching resources. It is designed to make teaching prep and other administrative tasks associated with the job easier, so teachers can focus on time with students.
- ChatGPT Plus vs. Google’s Bard (opens in new tab)
- What is Google Bard? The ChatGPT Competitor Explained for Educators (opens in new tab)
- 4 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Prepare for Class (opens in new tab)
To share your feedback and ideas on this article, consider joining our Tech & Learning online community here (opens in new tab)
