Exploring AI tools and strategies to support teachers and enhance student engagement.
This is the final post in a series about AI and education. Here’s a quick recap of the topics we have covered so far in the series:
- In The Transformative Power of AI, we began by looking at the transformative nature of AI and exploring its potential impact on education.
- In Navigating the Ethical Research of AI, we explored complex topics like the nature of cheating and plagiarism in an AI world and other privacy concerns.
- In Assessments in the Age of AI, we explored ways to design assessments that leverage the power of AI and the power of human thinking.
As promised, in the final post of this series, we will explore how AI can help teachers get more of what they need most — time!
Teacher Tools to Enhance Small Group Instruction
If you have been following my blog, you know that I am a huge fan of the station rotation model. The station rotation model of instruction is a blended learning strategy where students rotate between different learning stations. If you are new to this blog, the following post should help you better understand what this model looks like in practice: New Twist on an Old Lesson: Theories of Emotion.
Balance is essential to a well-designed station-rotation lesson. I always include an online, offline, and teacher-led station for each lesson. I have found that AI can help me make my stations more meaningful and more engaging. Here are two of my favorite free (at least for now) tools.
Parlay: My favorite part of the station rotation model is the teacher-led station. I love sitting down with small groups of students and having an in-depth discussion with them. However, I usually need help developing good open-ended questions. Enter Parly Genie.
Parlay Genie generates higher-order thinking questions based on a topic, YouTube video, or an age-appropriate article. For example, I like to thread ethics throughout my psychology course. I asked Parlay to write three questions about the following topic: “Ethical issues in psychology today.” Here’s what is produced:
- What do you think are the ethical implications of psychological treatments that use virtual reality or other technology-based approaches?
- In what ways can personal bias affect psychologists’ decision-making when diagnosing patients and developing treatment plans?
- How do we ensure that people from all backgrounds receive equal access to psychological resources and services?
Not too bad, right? I use this as my starting point, then drill down until I have the perfect question. This tool also creates questions for multimedia resources: YouTube videos, news article links, and more! You provide the link, and it provides grade-appropriate questions!
Diffit: If you have ever struggled with differentiating lessons for your students, this website is for you! Diffit can adapt most readings by reading level, generate short readings on any topic by reading level, and create questions and a vocabulary list to accompany the lesson. For example, next week, I am teaching about the Gestalt laws of perceptual organization. I typed “Gestalt principles of perception” in the search box and selected the targeted grade level (11th). Diffit gave me a level-appropriate reading with questions in less than one minute. You can see what it produced here. Much like resources that I beg, borrow, and steal from other teachers, I use this as a STARTING point. It gives me something to build from.
Note: Diffit is currently free. However, they will roll out a premium version on January 31, 2024. The free version is still very robust. Currently, they will only offer the premium features to schools, not individual teachers.
Other Time-Saving Tools (for all the other jobs you do!)
As a classroom teacher, one thing that I always need more of is time! My day is full of lesson planning, grading, emails, writing letters of recommendation — oh, and yes, actually teaching! I love designing lessons and putting them into practice. There are other aspects of my job that I would prefer to avoid. AI allows me to focus on the areas of my job that I excel at and off-load some of those tasks that are not necessarily my strengths. Here are some of my favorite time-saving AI tools:
Curipod: Curipod is a slide show presentation tool. It uses AI to create interactive slide presentations and lessons that align with your daily learning targets. It offers a wide variety of options, including:
- Full Lesson Plans: Curipod provides a great starting point for lesson plans. I wish I had this tool as a new teacher! You enter the learning target(s) and the grade level, and it will generate lessons from start to finish. For example, I asked it to create a lesson plan “describing the essential characteristics of classical and operant conditioning.” Here is the slide deck it produced: Classical and Operant Conditioning. It could be better, but it is much better than starting from scratch!
- Curify Your Slides: Upload a PowerPoint, and it will add graphics, word clouds, questions, and more. For example, when I “curified” my presentation about classical conditioning, it added the following slides: a word cloud for brainstorming, open-ended questions, a slide for the students to create a visual representation of the process, and a self-evaluation slide. Some of its suggestions were really good; I will incorporate them in my upcoming unit!
- Would You Rather: Curipod will design “Would You Rather?” questions and slides based on your topic and grade level. For example, I asked Curipod to write 4 questions based on sensation and perception that would be appropriate for high school students. Here’s what it came up with: Sensation and Perception Would You Rather. Pretty cool, right?
Curipod has many other generators, including brain breaks, poll questions, lesson hooks, did you know, and exit tickets. This tool is definitely worth checking out!
Chat GPT or Google Bard: If you are looking for an “old-fashioned” paper lesson plan, consider asking Chat GPT or Bard to design a lesson plan. The more information that you provide, the better. Provide the following information when describing your lesson parameters: total lesson time, grade level, and objectives. Then, tell it what you want. Do you want a pre-assessment? Content lecture? Activities? A Post-Assessment?
I asked Bard to write me a lesson plan distinguishing between classical, operant, and observational learning. Here’s what it designed: Classical and Operant Conditioning Lesson Plan (Bard-Generated). I really liked the “case study” activity but didn’t know what case studies to use. So, I asked Bard to “provide case studies of a real-world example of classical, operant, or observational learning.” And it did! Here are the case studies it suggested: Classical and Operant Case Studies (Bard-generated).
I like to use these tools as a starting point. I always verify the information for accuracy and add little tweaks that fit my personality.
Conker.ai: Perhaps writing assessment questions is not your jam. Check out Conker.ai. Conker.ai is an AI-generated online quiz creator. First, you enter the learning topic. For example, I entered “Understanding conditioning and social learning” as my topic. It generated 9 multiple-choice questions and 2 drag and drop questions that I could use to assess my students. I could then embed it directly into my LMS from Conker.ai, print it out, or turn it into a Google Form!
I hope you have enjoyed this series! I want to leave you with this final thought. AI cannot replace you. Teaching is about so much more than just content instruction. It’s about building relationships. It’s about helping students grow. It’s about celebrating successes and overcoming challenges. AI cannot provide a shoulder to cry on, motivate the unmotivated, or inspire the uninspired to unimaginable heights. But AI can be a helpful companion on your teaching journey, giving you the time to do what you do best — teach.
Be Well,
Cori
Previous Articles:
101. The Transformative Power of AI
103. Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI in Education
104. Assessments in the Age of AI
This article was originally posted on Medium. If you are a member of Medium, please give me a follow @https://medium.com/@corischwarzrock
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