While teachers are one of society’s greatest resources, they tend to be overworked and underpaid. This leads to many talented and gifted teachers to opt for the exits. Between lesson planning, grading assignments, staff meetings, offering differentiated support for individual students and maintaining contact with home, teachers have to juggle a lot. Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence can help them craft better instructional resources and practices while clawing back some of their precious time and saving them from dreaded burnout.
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1. Perplexity
Price: Free, Pro tier (with upgraded AI models) $20/month
While ChatGPT is the most famous AI chatbot, it’s far from the only game in town. Granted, virtually any and every AI chatbot can be useful to a teacher, however the one that sets itself apart is Perplexity. If you’ve used ChatGPT or any of its ilk before, then there is noting perplexing about Perplexity. Type in a prompt, and Perplexity will generate an answer.
That said, what sets Perplexity apart is the fact that it will provide citations along with its responses. This has a number of advantages in the classroom. From an educator’s perspective, they can ask Perplexity to generate lesson content and can see in real-time where Perplexity is pulling the information. This saves the teacher time as they no longer have to independently verify if the AI generated content is valid. In addition, students can be coached on how to use Perplexity to help them find sources for independent research. Simply pop in a general question on a topic, and refer to the citations Perplexity generates to go straight to the source for more information.
2. ChatTube
Price: Free with plans starting at $4.99/month
Teachers often use a variety of materials when creating engaging lessons for their students. YouTube is an excellent resource as there are a ton of educational videos that can be useful in a classroom setting. However, it can be very time-consuming to watch every video, take notes and identify time stamps for relevant sections of videos to view in class. Thankfully, ChatTube allows teachers to ask questions about a specific YouTube videos.
ChatTube can save a ton of time by generating summaries of videos, pinpointing key points and even creating question sets based on the video’s content. ChatTube’s AI utilizes the same technology that powers ChatGPT to analyze the video and generate answers to user questions based on the video’s subject and themes. Furthermore, ChatTube is capable of analyzing videos without transcripts. For those that use YouTube in the classroom, ChatTube is a lifesaver.
ChatTube’s free plan limits you to three videos per day. There are a variety of subscription tiers available that cater to different needs.
3. Worksheets.ai
Price: Free, with paid plans available
Worksheets are a bit of a dirty word in education. They are mostly associated with less intellectually stimulating “busy” work. That said, a well-designed worksheet can enrich student engagement and understanding. However, designing one that achieves these goals can take a ton of time and effort. This is where Worksheets.ai steps in.
Worksheets.ai can create differentiated worksheets and graphic organizers for any subject at any grade level. Teachers input the learning objectives and the desired format and kick back while Worksheets.ai does the rest. Furthermore, teachers can customize and tweak the results to better accommodate their students and learning goals. Additionally, Worksheets.ai is compatible with a wide variety of platforms, making exporting and printing super easy. Currently, Worksheets.ai can be integrated in Google Classroom, Kahoot!, Moodle, Blackboard, Quizlet and many more.
4. Quizzizz
Price: Free with organization-wide plans quoted
In case you haven’t caught on to the trend, teachers spend hours of their time creating resources for their classes. This means that they need to know the content like the back of their hand and create engaging lessons that capture student attention. They also need to develop accurate assessment tools to gauge student performance. Coming up with questions to measure student achievement can be a slog, but thanks to Quizzizz, teachers no longer have to agonize over creating meaningful assessment tools.
What’s great about Quizzizz is that you can upload a Word doc or a PDF and simply ask it to generate a certain number of questions. The Quizzizz AI will analyze the document and generate relevant questions. In addition, Quizzizz has a Chrome extension that will enable you to generate questions from a website. In case that wasn’t enough, Quizzizz also generates data reports that can help teachers identify where their students are struggling. It can also generate quizzes that focus on the problem areas to ensure your students truly grasp the concepts before moving on to the next unit.
5. Curipod
Price: Free with plans for individuals starting at $7.50/month
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to education. Every student is a unique individual with different learning needs. With multiple students in a classroom and often only one teacher to deliver content, it can be incredibly hard to make sure every student is engaged and learning. Curipod AI aims to rectify this problem by appealing to students with a wide range of abilities and interests.
The Curipod AI platform is geared toward creating dynamic lesson plans. The main goal of Curipod is to get students to actively engage with the learning material. It achieves this through a generative AI that creates varied lesson activities. This includes things like polls, questions, drawing activities, writing prompts, small group work, and more. The idea is to keep students moving and thinking. The rationale being that if lessons include a wide variety of skill sets, then students won’t get bored.
6. MagicSchool
Price: Free with plans starting at $12.99/month
MagicSchool is an unbelievable resource for time strapped teachers. The MagicSchool suite features over 60 AI tools, all aimed to support teachers in delivering the best educational experience possible. There are simply too many tools to talk about here, but some of the highlights include a grading tool. Teachers can upload student work and tell the generative AI the marking criteria. AI will then analyze the work and provide feedback geared toward the teacher specified criteria. This can help teachers determine whether the student work is hitting the marking standards outlined by their state or district.
One of the AI tools that I have personally found useful is MagicSchool’s report generator. Simply pop in some descriptors of the student in question including things like class participation, quality of work and attendance and MagicSchool will whip up a personalized report comment. As a teacher who would spend hours writing end of term reports, this was a godsend. MagicSchool also features a number of AI tools to help with everything from lesson planning to differentiation.
Wrapping Up
Teachers are committed public servants that help mold the next generation into independent, critical thinkers. It is important to remember that these AI tools can never take the place of a skilled and dedicated teacher. Instead, they are best used for developing creative and engaging lesson plans that cater to specific student need. The added bonus is that it helps teachers save time which helps prevent teacher burnout. Teachers are expected to innovate and work towards making their lesson more inclusive – AI is the assistant that can help them do just that.
While AI can hep make teacher’s jobs a little less hectic, don’t forget to show students how to conduct research properly. Don’t work in education? Don’t worry, AI can still help you get your job with more efficiency.
Image credit: Fauxels via Pexels All screenshots by Ryan Lynch
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Ryan Lynch –
Staff Writer
Ryan is an English & Film Studies teacher. He splits his time between Australia and the United States. He passes the time on long haul flights by playing retro video games from his youth.
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