Are you ready to transform your teaching materials? Canva’s Magic AI can help you create, transform, and edit documents, images, and presentations that magically save you time and engage your students.
Many of Canva’s AI Magic tools are only available in pro accounts, but you can access them for free by creating an educator account. Signing up requires simple verification of your teaching credentials. Canva also provides several additional resources that include guidance and support for using Canva in the classroom.
One of these valuable resources available to educators is the Magic AI Guides. These guides walk you through each magical feature, helping you animate presentations, transform images, generate custom visuals, and edit content easily. Let’s explore how these tools can magically transform your classroom materials and ideas into stunning creations!
Tools to Engage Students
AI is a powerful tool for encouraging engagement. These three tools will help you create presentations, images, videos, and more to take your lessons to the next level.
Magic Animate brings designs to life. Add animations to your presentations to create interest or show movement along a trajectory, such as a bee buzzing from flower to flower or an item passing through the digestive system. Getting started is easy:
- After creating a document or presentation, select the background to bring up the Animate link, which allows you to animate elements of your page or the entire design.
- Magic Animate is available for the whole page and lets you select the recommended animation style or choose from several options.
- Advanced users can try creating motion paths using these instructions.
Magic Grab lets you select an item in an image, “grab” it, and then move it around or resize it. Use this tool to grab shapes from images and enlarge them to highlight details and information. If you created a presentation about habitats, you could include images of different habitats on each page of the presentation and grab items to enlarge them for discussion. When analyzing art, you can grab portions of an image that feature specific techniques to show relevant examples. To grab an element:
- Click on your photo, then click Edit to find Magic Grab.
- Use the brush or click on an object and use the handles to resize your selection or move it to a different area of the image.
Magic Media is Canva’s AI media generation tool. Use it to create images, videos, and graphics. Images are great for creative writing prompts or to generate “what if” pictures to develop critical thinking skills. For example—ask Magic Media to generate an image of an eighteenth-century politician using a computer or a medieval town with solar panels and wind turbines. To use Text to Image:
- Scroll the icon bar on the left until you find Magic Media (usually near the bottom of the ribbon).
- Select whether you want to create an image, graphic, or a video, then type your prompt using concise language to generate images for flyers, presentations, worksheets, and more.
- Customize your image by selecting different styles and filters to match your needs.
Tools to Save Time
As educators, time is our most precious resource. Let technology do the hard work for you by using Canva’s AI tools to create lesson plans, differentiate instruction, repurpose content, and more.
Magic Write is similar to AI chat tools like ChatGPT (reviewed here) and Claude (reviewed here). Magic Write can create text from your prompt or revise and update any highlighted text. Use this tool to generate a lesson plan that adheres to your teaching standards and grade level or to differentiate the reading level of a highlighted text based on student abilities. To use Magic Write:
- Click the icon in the bottom left of the page to open the Quick Actions menu.
- Click Magic Write, then describe what you want the AI to do. Free accounts have 50 lifetime uses of this tool.
Magic Design can create slide presentations from your short prompt. Use it to create a presentation for students to serve as a template for book reports or to create an introductory lesson for a new unit. Edit your presentation to include links to resources such as videos and articles, then share it with students to reference throughout the unit. To use Magic Design:
- Click Canva AI in the main ribbon on the left side of the screen, then click the Design for Me button under the chat box and select Presentation.
- Enter your prompt. For the best results, Magic Design recommends using only five to ten words.
- After generating the presentation, you can use the design as-is or pick a different slide template by visiting the design library.
- If your students lack access to Canva, use the share link to export your slides to PowerPoint or your Google Drive as a PowerPoint file. When you open the slides in Google Drive, they will display as Google Slides; however, some editing may be required to fit the Google Slides format.
Magic Switch allows users to change the format of a design. For instance, you can convert a presentation into a document and vice versa. Magic Switch also includes a translation option that will convert all the text into another language. To use Magic Switch:
- Click Resize in the ribbon at the top of a presentation and scroll through the options to find Magic Switch. If you’re working on a document, you’ll find the Magic Switch option in the top ribbon.
- Upload or create a lesson plan as a document, then use the Transform option in Magic Switch to enter the following prompt: “Create a worksheet using UDL frameworks.” Your new worksheet will probably require minor edits, but the bulk of the work will be done for you!
Tools to Easily Edit
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to quickly and easily edit images! These Canva AI Magic tools will save you time as you build lessons, presentations, prompts, and more.
Magic Edit is a powerful image editing tool. Use it to create historical “what if” images by changing an item in an image generated with Magic Media, an uploaded image, or an image from Canva’s library. Click on an item in the picture (such as a book or a document), then change it to a modern item like a computer or a cell phone. You could also use this tool to change items in an image and challenge students to identify what doesn’t belong. To use Magic Edit:
- Open an image in Canva, then click the Edit link just above your design.
- Find Magic Edit under the Magic Studio options and select it.
- Use the brush to choose an area of the image to edit or click on any available area.
- After highlighting the area to edit, add a short description in the text box to describe the change and click Generate, and Magic Edit will create four images using your prompt.
Magic Morph is a Canva app that transforms words and shapes using your prompt. Use it to provide visual cues when introducing new vocabulary for English Language Learners (ELLs) by including stars in your font for content about the planets or fire in the text for information about volcanoes. You can also use Magic Morph to enhance newsletters, presentations, flyers, and more by turning elements into shapes. Consider adding seasonal features to your title or fill in students’ names with balloons to celebrate birthdays. To use Magic Morph:
- Find the link to apps on the left side of your design page, then search for Magic Morph.
- After it opens, follow the steps to select an element of your design, then click the Magic Morph button to make your change.
- Magic Morph works best with bold, thicker fonts and simple shapes, and simple prompts work better than lengthy descriptions.
Magic Expand automatically adjusts the size of images using your selection from options such as freeform, full page, or 1:1 square. Use this tool to create interesting backgrounds for your presentations from pictures of different sizes or to convert horizontal images to vertical ones to create better visual appeal in presentations and documents. To use Magic Expand:
- Select an image in your document, then click Edit and find Magic Expand in the options.
- After the new images generate, you can either replace the existing image in your document or regenerate to create new choices. Some photos may appear distorted when expanded to full size, so it helps to experiment to find what works best for your needs.
If you’re ready to enhance and develop your classroom materials creatively while saving valuable time, Canva’s Magic Tools might be the perfect solution. You can learn more about how to use Canva’s Magic Tools in any classroom by viewing our on-demand OK2Ask workshop “Interactive Lessons with Canva’s AI Magic Tools.”
Exciting updates are coming to Canva Educator accounts at the end of May! Get ready for even more seamless ways to use Magic Tools in your classroom—making designing and creating activities easier than ever.
Share your tips and ideas for using Canva in the comments as we learn together!