In the ever-evolving landscape of education, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful ally for teachers worldwide. It empowers us to personalize learning, automate tasks, and provide insights with greater efficiency than ever before. Tasks that were technologically impossible, or that were SO time consuming that they were chalked up to being impossibilities, are suddenly right at our fingertips.
It’s insane.
So let’s take a moment to explore five AI tools that are revolutionizing the classroom and empowering educators to create more engaging, effective, and efficient learning experiences. (The future is now!)
1. ChatGPT: The Chatbot That Started It All
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released the chatbot that changed everything: ChatGPT-3.5. While AI technology had already been around (and growing), ChatGPT-3.5 was profound because it made AI easily accessible to anyone through a chat interface. (Sort of like what Google did with “search” … Ever notice how Google’s front page is extremely simple? The entire interface is comprised of a single search bar. Simplicity worked for Google, and clearly, it also worked for ChatGPT!)
If you’ve spent any time prodding ChatGPT for meaningful output, you’ve probably also learned a few important lessons. Here are two that come to mind:
- ChatGPT can produce some really impressive information… but it can be a challenge to get it to output exactly what you’re after. It’s no surprise that there has been a surge of emphasis in “prompt engineering” — a brand new GPT-fueled endeavor.
- Some of the most impressive qualities of ChatGPT have emerged behind new, faster, and smarter models. ChatGPT-3.5 was quickly outdone by ChatGPT-4 (…to put it in perspective, ChatGPT 3.5 struggles to pass most AP exams, whereas ChatGPT-4 scores mostly 5s…). That bump in AI-power translates to a better user experience: it’s easier to convey what you want to ChatGPT-4, and you can expect a higher quality output. But the caveat is that it sits behind a $20/month paywall, and is limited in how much you can use it each day.
There are other chatbots emerging and gaining on ChatGPT, from Bard to Claude, but they haven’t quite caught up just yet.
2. DALL-E: Farewell, Clipart
Where ChatGPT has transformed conversational AI and text-based interactions, DALL-E has completely revolutionized image generation and digital art. You simply tell it what you want, and it instantly produces mind-blowing images. You pretty much have to see it to believe it, so take a look for yourself — the featured image for this post was created by DALL-E in seconds!
This is a game-changer when it comes to finding (or, in this case, creating) the perfect images for your slide decks, handouts, and instructional materials. You can visualize your metaphors! You can place literary characters in new contexts! You can illustrate a script! Your imagination truly is the limit.
It’s important to note, though, that DALL-E is owned by OpenAI, which is the same company that owns ChatGPT… and, likewise, it’s also behind a $20/month paywall.
It’s also noteworthy that other AI art tools are also emerging, such as Adobe Firefly (which is free to use), but the results aren’t nearly as impressive.
3. TeachersAi.de: AI for Teachers
TeachersAi.de is a revolutionary set of AI tools for educators, developed by teachers (impressive!), for teachers. The beauty of TeachersAi.de is that it simplifies and speeds up the process of getting exactly what you need from generative AI. There are too many tools to mention (you can check them all out here), but a few favorites include:
- Choice Board and Assignment Menu Maker
- Custom Rubric Generator
- Line-By-Line Analytical Question Generator
- Parent Email Composer
- IEP Goal and PLAAFP Composer
And many more. There are a few fun ones, too, like a “literary libation” tool that will pair the perfect mocktail (or cocktail) with the stack of papers you’ve got to grade… and, the option to “live chat” with a literary character, author, or historical figure.
Perhaps most impressive is that you can access both GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 (described above) through TeachersAi.de, too! You can check it all out here.
4. Gradescope: Streamlining Assessment and Feedback
Before the generative AI revolution (i.e. before ChatGPT entered the scene), we had a number of powerful AI-fueled tools at our disposal… many of which are still flying under the radar. Gradescope is one of my favorites. And, notably, it was acquired by TurnItIn (…which is probably a testament to how cool this tool is…).
It basically works like this:
- You scan in all of your exams (even if you have hundreds of them), primarily in math and science courses.
- Gradescope is smart enough to decode what you scanned in, and is able to discern the questions AND answers.
- It shows you a few of the answers to question 1… you click on the ones that are correct… and it automatically scores ALL of the remaining question 1s, on ALL of the remaining tests. (Yes, even if there are hundreds of them.)
The process of grading a hundred of Calculus exams just scaled down from five hours to five minutes. Truly a testament to how AI is already helping educators to save time, streamline their processes, and in this case, produce faster feedback for students.
5. Eleven Labs: Speech Synthesis and Voice Cloning
If you’re looking to be both awed and terrified, head over to ElevenLabs. This is a remarkable tool that uses AI to synthesize human speech in very realistic ways. (Say goodbye to those robotic text-to-speech voices that are built into all of our devices…)
Even more impressively, you can upload a sample of YOUR OWN voice, and ElevenLabs will produce spoken audio that sounds exactly like you.
Once you get over the initial fear factor (because, let’s be honest, it’s a little irksome having your voice reproduced by AI), there are a world of interesting new possibilities. In just a matter of minutes, and without ever recording a word of it, you can:
- Produce a podcast
- Create a lecture
- Generate a voiceover for a video or a screencast
- Produce an entire audiobook
- …all in your voice. Wow.
There are more AI tools emerging every day, but these tools offer wonderful starting points that will invariably transform and enhance some facet of your professional practice!