Welcome back, TECHxas Toast readers!

It’s clear that educators are eager to embrace the power of AI to transform their classrooms and lighten their workload. And the good news is, there are so many fantastic tools out there, I just had to write a part two!

If you missed it, check out my first post where I highlighted Brisk Teaching, NotebookLM, Suno, and MagicSchool AI. Today, I’m diving into four more AI gems that I’ve found incredibly useful and, best of all, they’re completely free!

1. Canva’s Magic Studio

Canva has been a beloved tool for educators for years, making graphic design accessible to everyone. With the introduction of Magic Studio, Canva has integrated AI directly into its design platform, making content creation even faster and more imaginative.

• What it is: A suite of AI-powered tools within Canva that helps generate images, text, and designs from simple prompts.
• Why it’s useful: Beyond just making posters and presentations, Magic Studio can help you quickly generate unique images for lesson plans, create engaging social media graphics for school events, or even brainstorm ideas for classroom activities. Need an image of a historical figure riding a unicorn? Canva can whip that up! It saves a ton of time finding relevant visuals and unleashes new creative possibilities for both teachers and students.

2. ChatGPT / Gemini (General Purpose AI Chatbots)

While not specifically “ed-tech” tools, general-purpose AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are incredibly versatile and can be adapted for countless educational uses.

• What they are: Large language models that can understand and generate human-like text based on prompts.
• Why they’re useful: Think of them as your brainstorming partner, content generator, and even a personalized tutor. You can use them to generate lesson plan ideas, create writing prompts, simplify complex texts for different reading levels, generate discussion questions, or even role-play conversations for language learners. They can help you draft emails, outline presentations, or even come up with creative solutions to classroom challenges. The key is learning how to “prompt” them effectively to get the best results!

3. Curipod

Curipod is an interactive presentation and lesson delivery tool that brings engagement to the forefront, and its AI features elevate it even further. It’s designed to make learning active and collaborative.

• What it is: A platform for creating and delivering interactive lessons with built-in features for polls, word clouds, Q&A, and drawings, enhanced by AI to generate content and questions.
• Why it’s useful: Curipod’s AI can help you generate entire lesson outlines, create compelling questions for student discussion, or even suggest interactive activities based on your topic. This means less time spent on lesson preparation and more time engaging students with dynamic content. It’s fantastic for formative assessment and ensures all students have a voice in the classroom.

4. QuillBot

QuillBot is a powerful AI writing tool that goes beyond basic grammar checking, offering a suite of features to help refine and improve written communication.

• What it is: An AI-powered writing assistant that offers paraphrasing, grammar checking, summarizing, and citation generation tools.
• Why it’s useful: For both teachers and students, QuillBot can be a game-changer. Teachers can use it to rephrase instructions for clarity, summarize lengthy articles for student handouts, or quickly check for grammatical errors in their own materials. Students can use the paraphraser to avoid accidental plagiarism by learning to rephrase ideas in their own words, improve their writing style, or get quick summaries of research articles. It’s an excellent tool for developing academic writing skills and ensuring clear communication.

The world of AI in education is just beginning, and these free tools are making it accessible to everyone. By experimenting with these technologies, we can not only enhance our teaching practices but also prepare our students for a future where AI will play an increasingly significant role.

What AI tools are you using in your classroom? Share your discoveries in the comments below!

Note: This blog post was written with the assistance of Gemini, an AI language model.