It seems that every time you open your inbox, another artificial intelligence (AI) tool promises to revolutionize education. Does this sound familiar? While the AI revolution has created a wave of educational tools, some have already proven their worth in classrooms nationwide.
As educators, we’ve watched artificial intelligence transform everything from crafting the perfect lesson plan to creating learning objects to grading and providing feedback on assignments. But in this whirlwind of innovation, missing a tool that could elevate your teaching practice is easy. Sometimes, it is obvious how they support educators; other times, they are just fun! Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or just getting started, one of these 10 tools might be the one you need to try in the new year to increase learning and engage your students.
Here are 10 of my favorite powerful AI tools that could spark new possibilities in your classroom, listed in no particular order:
- Napkin AI (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Napkin adds visual icons such as infographics and diagrams to your text or from an AI-generated prompt to provide impact to any document. Edit the icons to change the color, add information, or change the text. Napkin also includes tools for sketching and uploading your images.
- Why it is fantastic: The visuals always sync perfectly with the text, adding interest to documents and inviting viewers to examine information more closely.
- How to use it in the classroom: Create timelines for student projects. This example uses the AI-prompt feature to create a timeline for students to use when completing a month-long research project about scientists, including icons for the first week. Other ideas include using Napkins for steps when problem-solving, adding interest to classroom newsletters, or creating visually interesting social media posts.
- Animate from Audio (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Animate from Audio makes short, animated videos using your voice. Choose from an assortment of characters and backgrounds to use in your video, then create a recording of up to two minutes. Download the video to your device to share with others or upload to YouTube to make sharing easy.
- Why it is fantastic: This resource uniquely personalizes recordings and is easy for students of all ages to use.
- How to use it in the classroom: Send a video newsletter home to parents and guardians, such as this example. As an alternative to written book reports, ask students to make a video and choose backgrounds and characters to tell their story. Use an animated video as a schema activator to introduce a new lesson or unit.
- Say What You See (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Say What You See helps users explore how to write effective prompts to generate AI images. Start with Level 1 to write a caption describing AI-generated artwork and continue working through increasing difficulty levels.
- Why it is fantastic: Understanding how to write effective prompts is essential when working with AI-generative tools. This activity provides excellent practice in this area and gives immediate feedback.
- How to use it in the classroom: Include Say What You See as part of descriptive writing lessons to support students as they learn to visualize their writing. Before you or your students use other AI image-generative tools, use this resource to learn and practice writing effective prompts.
- Suno (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Suno uses your prompt or lyrics, then adds the magic of AI to create songs in a style of your choice. Add your prompt, click Create, and within seconds, Suno generates two versions for you to use. Suno also offers simple editing tools to crop a song and replace a section. Share songs by downloading them to your device or copy the link to share as desired.
- Why it is fantastic: Only some people know how to write music, but Suno lets everyone become a songwriter. Music brings people together through emotion and sharing a common pleasurable experience.
- How to use it in the classroom: Generate songs from students’ poetry or short stories. Ask Suno to generate a catchy tune to help students remember vocabulary words, state capitals, or scientific processes, such as this one about the stages of growth from seed to plant.
- inVideo AI (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: InVideo creates videos using prompts or text. Simply add a topic and provide detailed instructions using up to 25,000 characters. You can choose from options for the type of audience, look and feel, and platform, such as YouTube, for sharing the video. However, you need to upload videos from your device to YouTube. Videos are typically available within two to three minutes.
- Why it is fantastic: Even when providing short prompts, inVideo AI quickly generates engaging videos.
- How to use it in the classroom: Paste students’ stories into inVideo and share them on your classroom website. Use another AI tool, such as ChatGPT (reviewed here), to generate a story about a subject, such as fractions, mystery stories, or the water cycle, then copy that story into inVideo to create a video to introduce the topic to students. Using the prompt “Electoral College,” inVideo created this video about the Electoral College.
- Snorkl (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Snorkl provides instant and authentic feedback to students’ written and recorded explanations.
- Why it is fantastic: Instant feedback allows students to revise their work without pressure while encouraging deeper thinking. Teachers can monitor student learning and adjust for individual learning needs.
- How to use it in the classroom: Join this class to try a sample activity using a Google or Microsoft account. Begin by visiting Snorkl’s library to find activities and sample assignments that help students engage with classroom content while developing literacy skills. Then, use these ideas to build your content.
- Mootion (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Mootion creates video slides and storyboard presentations from your prompts or scripts. This resource includes several options for editing the final version, including several video styles, such as clay art and photorealistic. You can also choose several languages and the video’s tone. When finished, you can download the storyboard and video using the options available. You can also upload your video to YouTube to make it easier to share with students.
- Why it is fantastic: Mootion makes creating and sharing short, engaging video stories accessible for everyone, including those with no movie-making experience.
- How to use it in the classroom: Create a short video that introduces new content through storytelling. This example tells the story of Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil, including some animated slides generated during editing. Students will enjoy seeing their stories brought to life using Mootion, creating excitement for the next writing project. Use the storyboards to teach students how to plan the progression of stories and writing projects.
- Gamma (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: Gamma uses AI to generate documents, websites, and slide presentations using your imported materials or create by beginning with an AI prompt. Edit and personalize content by including forms, embedding webpages, and more.
- Why it is fantastic: Gamma increases productivity by generating presentations for in-class use and sharing for students to view at home.
- How to use it in the classroom: Create flipped learning lessons using your current teaching materials and insert activities for students to complete as part of the lesson. Share Gamma with students to create study guides, such as this one, generated from a PDF document containing information about Pearl Harbor.
- MyLens (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: MyLens began as an AI-generated timeline creator and has grown into a tool for creating timelines, mind maps, quadrants, tables, and flow charts. You can start with a prompt or import from sources, including YouTube, images, PDFs, URLs, or web links.
- Why it is fantastic: MyLens makes it simple to quickly create learning objects such as mind maps and timelines to share with students. These objects allow students to visualize and sequence information or find connecting information to scaffold their learning. Students can also use MyLens to create materials to support them as they research information for projects such as biographies and explorations of historical events.
- How to use it in the classroom: Create a timeline to support student understanding of the chronology of events in a novel, historical event, or a famous person’s life during lessons. Use the share option to create a link or download the content as an image to share with students when reviewing materials after class. Visit this example that uses the prompt “George Washington” to create a timeline and a chart comparing policy between Washington’s time and modern times.
- NotebookLM (reviewed here)
- What this tool does: NotebookLM from Google is “Your Personalized Research Assistant.” First, upload one or more sources, including videos, websites, and documents. Then, choose from options to generate a timeline, study guide, or briefing document. Another option is to create a short audio podcast with announcers discussing the content.
- Why it is fantastic: NotebookLM is an exciting way to create study materials for students using some or all of the resources shared with them. The audio podcast features are an engaging way for students to hear an overview of the topics and help them focus on the critical information.
- How to use it in the classroom: Share the generated content with the provided link or choose individual materials, such as the podcast, with the students as desired to integrate with your lessons. This example podcast about Romeo and Juliet uses the transcript of the play found at Shakespeare.mit.edu to generate an introductory discussion about important events in the play. Other notes answer FAQs and create a timeline of events, a cast of characters, and a vocabulary list.
Incorporating new resources and ideas into your classroom can significantly impact student learning and engagement. Consider trying one or more of these cool tools with your students to see if you can discover a new favorite cool tool.
Have you tried any of these cool tools, or do you have an addition to the list? Let us know in the comments below as we learn together.