Embracing AI in the Classroom (Part Two)

by Imran Syed

Part One of this blog post discussed the impact of AI on students and its benefits for instructors. In Part Two, Imran will address common misconceptions about AI in education, and the role of educators in an AI-driven educational system as well as offer best practices and resources.

This blog is part of a series arguing for an adaptive approach to artificial intelligence and assessment design. Should you be interested to get into the conversation, please consider contributing a blog post (email us at teaching@yorku.ca) and/or joining Teaching Commons' new community of practice on Generative AI Pedagogies. The first virtual gathering will take place on October 3, but you are welcome to join at any time.

In an AI-driven educational system, the role of educators becomes even more critical. Teachers are no longer just providers of information but facilitators of learning. They guide students in their learning journey, help them navigate the vast sea of information, and inspire them to think critically and creatively.

Moreover, teachers play a crucial role in ensuring that AI is used ethically and responsibly in the classroom. They guide students in understanding the implications of AI, fostering a sense of digital citizenship and responsibility.

So, instead of fearing AI, educators should embrace it as a tool that can enhance their teaching and engage students in new and exciting ways. After all, education is not about fearing the future but preparing for it.

Here are some of the Best Practices to consider for Using AI in Education:

• Use AI to Enhance, Not Replace, Human Interaction: AI should be seen as a tool that can enhance the learning experience, not as a replacement for teachers. It can provide personalized learning experiences, identify gaps in learning, and provide instant feedback. However, the human element in teaching is irreplaceable. Teachers provide emotional support, understand the nuances of student behaviour, and can adapt teaching methods in real time based on classroom dynamics.
• Prioritize Privacy and Security: When using AI tools, it's crucial to ensure that they comply with privacy and security regulations. Student data should be protected at all costs. Always use trusted AI platforms that follow stringent data protection laws. Also, educate your students about the importance of online safety.
• Continuous Learning and Adaptation: AI is a rapidly evolving field. As such, educators should stay updated on the latest AI trends and tools in education. Attend webinars, workshops, and conferences on AI in education. This will help you understand how you can use new AI tools to enhance your teaching methods.
• Encourage Student Interaction with AI: Allow students to interact with AI tools. This could be in the form of AI-based educational games, learning apps, or interactive AI experiments. Such interactions can make learning more engaging and fun for students.
• Evaluate AI Tools Before Implementation: Before implementing any AI tool in the classroom, it's important to evaluate its effectiveness. You can do this by testing the tool in a controlled environment, getting feedback from other educators who have used the tool, or reading reviews and case studies.
• Integrate AI in the Curriculum: AI can be integrated into the curriculum in various ways. For instance, AI can be used to teach complex concepts in a simplified and interactive manner. It can also be used to provide personalized learning paths for students based on their learning pace and style.

Some resources:

ClassPoint AI is an AI-powered tool designed to simplify the process of generating quiz questions from PowerPoint slides. With just one click, it uses advanced AI technology to analyze the content of slides and generate thought-provoking questions. Users have the flexibility to choose from multiple question formats, such as multiple choice, short answer, and fill in the blanks, to cater to diverse audiences. The tool also supports Bloom's Taxonomy Levels, allowing users to tailor the cognitive complexity of the quiz questions.

Link: https://www.classpoint.io/

Prepai is an AI-powered test generator that creates question papers instantly. It offers various question types, including MCQs, descriptive questions, fill-in-the-blank, true/false quizzes, and statement-based questions. Prepai removes human bias and error judgments, making the process of creating papers less hassled. It is affordable and capable of improving dramatically through cutting-edge algorithms. With its intuitive menu options, it saves time and effort by allowing easy upload of content, making it the go-to platform to streamline and maximize test preparation.

Link: https://www.prepai.io/

Yippity is an AI tool that converts notes and websites into quizzes and generates flashcards automatically. The tool allows users to copy and paste the generated flashcards into an application or study directly from the website. Learn faster and study smarter with Yippity.

Link: https://yippity.io/

Curipod is a free tool for educators that allows them to spark discussions and capture student voices. It offers a variety of features such as polls, word clouds, open questions, drawings, and Q&A to encourage student participation. The tool also provides ready-made templates that can be adapted to fit the teacher's needs. Curipod's aim is to ensure that every student is heard and that they reflect more when exposed to other's ideas and opinions.

Link: https://curipod.com/

QuizWhiz is an AI tool that generates multiple-choice questions and answers quizzes based on provided text. It is available for free with a starter plan of up to 1000 runs per month and supports only the English language. It can handle input text of up to 3000 words.

Link: https://www.quizwhiz.ai/

Quizgecko is an AI-powered quiz platform that generates quiz questions, flashcards, and notes instantly from any text. The tool is designed for businesses, educators, and students to save time on content creation and enhance student engagement with unique content. It allows users to generate multiple-choice, true or false, short answer essays, and fill-in-the-blank style questions and upload files like PDFs, DOCs, and PPTs to create quizzes.

Link: https://quizgecko.com/

This AI tool helps users create, share, and embed webpages and mini courses. It offers AI assistance in creating accurate and comprehensive course outlines and suggesting titles. Users can add unique content, such as questions, images, and videos, and create interactive quizzes and surveys.

Link: https://minicoursegenerator.com/

Questgen is an AI-powered tool that generates various assessments such as multiple-choice questions, true/false questions, higher-order questions, Bloom's taxonomy quizzes, etc. It allows the user to edit and modify the generated worksheet and export it in plain text or JSON format.

Link: https://www.questgen.ai/

SchoolAI is an AI-powered tool for teachers that can save time in tasks such as email writing, marking, lesson planning, resource creation, and brainstorming. The tool offers personalized results based on the user's preferences and a time-saving counter to track efficiency.

Link: https://www.schoolai.co/

Vid2Txt is an offline transcript app that allows users to transcribe video and audio files quickly, accurately, and affordably without any monthly fees or subscription limits. It supports various file formats and generates .txt, .srt, or .vtt files, making content searchable and editable. It is ideal for content creators, journalists, students, business professionals, researchers, and hearing-impaired individuals who need accurate and readable transcripts.

Link: https://vid2txt.com/#hero

The AI tool generates high-quality lesson plans in seconds, complete with step-by-step guidance and engaging activities to help students learn and retain the material. It streamlines the planning process and allows for easily customizable, detailed, and personalized lesson plans in minutes for every grade level.

Link: https://www.lessonplans.ai/

MagicForm is an AI tool that can automatically generate quiz questions in seconds based on provided text. It can be installed for free as a Google Forms add-on and requires no credit card. Users can input text from sources such as Wikipedia or PDF books, enter the number of questions and select the question type, and MagicForm will generate the questions

Link: https://www.magicform.app/

AI Lesson Planner is an educational AI tool that streamlines lesson plan preparation. It generates templates for lesson plans, prompts, educational handouts, student reports, and project outlines. The tool currently offers 10+ tools to save time outside the classroom and is available in both English and Spanish. It aims to provide high-quality, structured lesson plans and resources to save educational time and effort, focusing on students. Users can try it for free.

Link: https://educationcopilot.com/

Comprehensive AI tools -  Fobizz is a digital tool for teaching and learning designed to make teaching easy and secure. It offers a variety of versatile tools relevant to everyday school life, from ready-made teaching materials to lesson planning and multimedia content creation. Fobizz includes AI-assisted text creation and image and speech conversion features and allows for the secure sharing of student work and collaboration with peers.

Link: https://tools.fobizz.com/

Wisdolia is an AI tool that generates flashcards from articles, PDFs, YouTube videos, webpages, and more to help with studying. The extension can create question-and-answer flashcards in any language and also has a feature to boost test performance by 50% on average.

Link: https://www.wisdolia.com/

Jenni.ai is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you create high-quality content quickly and efficiently. It can help you with generating ideas, organizing your thoughts, researching topics, and more. It also features a built-in essay writing assistant and generator that can help you create better essays in less time

Link: https://app.jenni.ai/

The AI tool provides teachers with personalized teaching materials and exercises tailored to their students' needs and interests. Free and paid plans are available, with varying amounts of exercise, worksheets, and lesson plan creation. The AI system works alongside and enhances human teaching abilities, following a human-centred approach.

Link: https://www.to-teach.ai/

Topworksheets is an AI-powered tool that helps teachers create digital interactive worksheets and exercises for their students, saving time and enabling progress tracking. It allows for the conversion of existing worksheets and offers a library of pre-made exercises and questions to use or draw inspiration from. The software also provides auto-grading and progress tracking features, eliminating the need for manual grade sheets.

Link: https://www.topworksheets.com/en/home

"History Timelines" allows users to create timelines of historical events. Users can create their own custom timeline or view pre-verified timelines.

Link: https://historytimelines.co/

Quiz Wizard is an AI tool that helps in creating multiple-choice questions, flashcards and quality theory sheets on various topics. The tool generates unique questions and answers in a matter of seconds, taking care of the rest. It aims to save time and provide personalized training content for students.

Link: https://www.getquizwizard.com/en/

Create colorful Presentation Slides with AI in Seconds! Say goodbye to tedious, manual slides creation. Let the AI write the outline and presentation content for you.

Link: https://www.slidesai.io/

EducationGenius is an AI-driven platform designed to revolutionize content creation for educators, researchers, and institutions. It provides a user-friendly platform and advanced AI technology to help users craft exceptional educational content tailored to their needs.

Link: https://educationgenius.io/

Cephadex is a free learning tool that allows users to create custom decks, worksheets, and tests from a variety of inputs such as pdfs, ppts, docs, mp3s, wikipedia pages, or youtube videos. It also features a spaced repetition system and other study tools to help users master their subjects and achieve academic success.

Link: https://www.cephadex.com/

Additional resources:

• Century Tech - https://www.century.tech/
• Content Technologies, Inc. - http://www.cram101.com/
• NetSupport DNA - https://www.netsupportdna.com/education/
• EducatorKit - http://www.educatorkit.net/
• BrightBytes - https://www.brightbytes.net/
• GoGuardian - https://www.goguardian.com/
• AI for Education - https://www.coursera.org/learn/ai-for-education
• Microsoft AI School - https://aischool.microsoft.com/en-us/home

About the author