Want your art creations to sparkle? You may find yourself reaching for an AI digital art tool to create content. But which should you reach for? AI art tools are at a premium. For educators on a tight budget, paying $10-$30 a month for access is too much. Even for those who want to “freshen up” their digital newsletters, the cost may be too high. Let’s take a quick look at a few solutions that are free to start out using. But first, let’s take a look at how to create a prompt.
Update: This blog entry now includes how to generate amazing art with Canva’s Magic Studio and AI Apps. Scroll down to see more. If you have Canva for Education or a Pro account, you may NOT need some of the other AI Creator tools listed, except for variety.
Crafting an AI Art Prompt
When generating art with AI, having a good prompt is a must. Working to perfect your prompt and including details will ensure that your generated AI art matches what you’re looking for. Some suggestions for prompt writing:
Describe the content of the image
Describe the subject
Add relevant details
Describe the form and style
Define the composition
Additionally, using adjectives and involving other AI tools, like Claude.ai, can aid you in prompt-making. With that in mind, I decided to use a standard prompt to test out several AI art generators. I consulted Claude to help me. Since I like owls, here’s my prompt and the prompt generated by Claude in response:
Screenshot by author, Claude.ai
Test Prompt Text: “An oil painting portrait of a large wise grey hooded owl with intelligent yellow eyes emerging from darkness, covered in an intricate arcane robe embroidered with ancient Norse runes and symbols glowing with power. The owl’s feathers and robe flow abstractly in dramatic volumetric lighting and misty atmosphere, rendered in an abstract expressionist style with thick gestural brushstrokes and paint textures.”
Although still under wraps, you can request Leonardo.ai access. My experience involved a short three-minute wait. Then, I logged in with my Google Workspace for Education account.
Screenshot by author, Leonardo.ai
This beautifully designed website features inspiring images. Some points shared during the welcome guide:
The featured models highlight various image generation styles. Select one and begin creating images with it yourself.
Use text, image prompts, or image-to-image to create new 2D images.
Explore features like Leonardo Alchemy and Prompt Magic v2.
Post-process your images with features that include upscaling, unzooming, and background removal.
Struggling to come up with prompt ideas? Toggle from Image Generation to Prompt Generation.
You can see that Leonardo.ai’s interface is quite rich:
Screenshot by author, Leonardo.ai
From start to finish, the text prompt appeared within two minutes. I turned the images generated into an animated GIF:
Animated GIF of images created by Leonardo AI with a prompt by the author
I loved Leonardo’s AI art creations. You might see these gracing the cover of a class anthology on fantasy writing.
Microsoft Bing’s Image Creator has been my go-to for AI art based on text prompts. It relies on DALL-E to do the heavy lifting. It’s also easy to use, and it’s fast. While previous AI art creators took up to two to three minutes, Bing Image Creator generates in seconds.
This lightning-fast AI art generator offers one image in response to the prompt. You can see they have a simple interface that lets you get started quick:
Screenshot by the author: NightCafe Home Page
Here’s their stunning creation:
But Wait, There are TWO More!
#6 – Canva Magic Studio
If you’ve read about Canva Magic Studio, you know that it can’t be left out of the pack. It offers so much more capabilities for AI-powered art generation that rival all the tools shown above. Let’s take a quick tour of what’s possible.
Canva’s Magic Media, a tool in the Magic Studio and also known as “text to image,” offers the best image generation. You can choose from multiple styles. What’s more, Canva’s Magic Media generates FOUR images to the standard one or two that other apps render. Take a look:
You get over 400 credits that renew monthly, so you can generate a lot of images with Canva’s Magic Media. But it isn’t the only AI-art generator you get access to. Here are a few more creations from DALL*E, Google’s Imagen, and Mojo AI. Of these, Mojo AI provides 75 credits when you register for free, but expends 4 credits to generate two images. Of course, I found Mojo AI’s creations to be the best of the second bunch, but unable to match Canva’s Magic Media.
Here’s a video of the process I went through to generate these (about 8 minutes):
If you haven’t explored LEAP, you definitely need to give a hard look. While it only allows 10 free uses, the images appear realistic, like this one below:
Of course, you can also get an output like this one:
Assessing AI Art
Want to assess AI-generated art? Consider the points these authors make:
Assessing the artness of AI-generated images continues to be a challenge within the realm of image generation. Most existing metrics cannot be used to perform instance-level and reference-free artness evaluation.
Source: Chen, An, Lyu, Luo, Learning to Evaluate the Artness of AI-generated Images via ArXiv
Another important consideration? Copyright. Did you see the ruling from DC District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell? Judge Howell ruled:
United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Friday that AI-generated artwork can’t be copyrighted, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. She was presiding over a lawsuit against the US Copyright Office
Copyright law has “never stretched so far” to “protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found.
How do you propose to address the use of AI art in your classroom or workplace?
These AI art generators are terrific, and there are even more out there. As you might imagine, these are a boon to any student author looking for a quick cover for a book or publication. You can easily combine images like this with others to get incredible results. These tools are especially attractive to writers who can’t draw well. Which one do you plan to try first?
Featured Image: Owl generated from author’s prompt using Microsoft Bing Image creator
The weeks before school gets out for any break are probably not the best time for deep learning or introducing new content. Students (and the teachers) are already thinking about being out and dreaming of what they will do during the break. But what can we do to ensure learning is still happening? Well, it’s a great time to create a variety of quizzes for reviewing content introduced throughout the year and to practice discussion skills while working in teams. To make these tasks easier, let’s explore a variety of AI tools for making quizzes.
This is by far my favorite AI tool for making quizzes, especially if I want to quiz students using a particular platform. QuestionWell will create the questions and export them to the following platforms: Quizizz, Kahoot, Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Gimkit, Blooket, Quizlet,Google Forms, Google Slides, Blackboard, Microsoft Forms, Socrative, and Microsoft Word. You currently can’t do this with Google Bard, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Bing. Start by identifying the topic, content, and grade level. If you have text you want questions based on, you can provide it, but it isn’t necessary. In the free version of QuestionWell, you can create a multiple-choice quiz with 20 questions. Once the questions are generated, select which ones you want to include in the quiz. Then, choose the export destination. Voila!
MagicSchool
Screenshot by Emily Horn: MagicSchool.AI Home Page
MagicSchool is an excellent interface that gives you the benefit of identifying the grade level target for your audience. It’s a solid AI tool for making quizzes. Granted, you could easily put it in your prompt, but no need to do that with MagicSchool. MagicSchool offers a lot of tools, which is great for folks who aren’t interested in learning how to create effective prompts. I chose the Multiple Choice Assessment Generator tool. For my quiz, I selected 5th grade, identified 10 questions, and shared the prompt in the description area. The quiz questions were neatly generated to the right of the prompt with an answer key following. I was impressed with the questions and layout on the first try.
Using Major AI Assistants
ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, and Perplexity Logos
Not all AI assistants are created equal. While one may be phenomenal on a particular task, it might falter and really miss the mark on a completely different type of task. So, when creating a quiz, try your prompt on several different AI assistants. I wanted to try out the top AI tools to see how they fair for making quizzes. Here is an example prompt that I used and the first results generated by four different AI assistants. I reviewed the first response to the prompt below; I did not ask it to regenerate a response. My goal was to find a tool that creates the best product on the first try.
The Results
Prompt: Create a 10-question multiple choice quiz on [SUBJECT]. For each question, there should be four answer choices. Create an answer key that identifies the correct answer but also gives a sentence for each wrong answer as to why it is wrong. SUBJECT = Christmas traditions
Claude: Overall, Anthropic’s Claude did an excellent job as an AI tool for making quizzes. Instead of giving me a sentence for each wrong answer explaining why it was wrong, it gave me a sentence that shared why all three wrong answers were wrong. It wasn’t necessarily poorly done, but it didn’t exactly follow my explicit prompt as written.
ChatGPT: I ran the prompt in 3.5 and 4. With GPT4, it didn’t surprise me that it produced the format exactly as I asked in my prompt. The quiz questions were given first with an answer key following the quiz, which is convenient if I want to copy/paste into another program and keep questions and answers separate. When I ran the prompt in GPT3.5, it intermingled the answer key with the quiz. Out of the two, I would opt for ChatGPT Plus (4) as an AI tool for making quizzes if I have a choice.
Bard: I like Bard, but I was disappointed with the results. It stopped in mid-sentence on question 9. And, of the nine questions produced before stopping, answer choice “A” was the correct answer for seven of them. If I were giving this to my students, I would need to do additional work to randomize the answers and produce additional questions.
Perplexity: Perplexity did the nicest job out of these four AI tools when it comes to making quizzes. It generated the quiz first with the answer key at the end. If I were using this with my students, it would make it easier to copy/paste to a Google Doc or other medium for sharing without needing to pull out the correct/wrong answer information with each question.
Which Should You Use?
If you want to write your prompt and use an AI assistant to create your product, I recommend ChatGPT4 or Perplexity. These two would require the least amount of edits and work on your part. I was surprised to notice that there were a lot of questions common across the tools, though some were unique. However, if you want an excellent interface where you don’t have to create or tweak prompts, you will find QuestionWell and MagicSchool to be great options. Which AI tool will you try for making quizzes? Tell us and share your prompt in the comments below!
One of the most tedious tasks a teacher endures is lesson plan creation. Some draconian school districts make teachers turn in lesson plans. It’s such a contentious issue that school unions make it a plank in their platform. What if you could turn this tedious task into a fun exploration of the possible? Now, with AI-powered lesson plan generators, that’s easy to do. Let’s explore my top five lesson plan generators.
Did You Know?
Have you read the blog entry, Prompts for Lesson Planning with ChatGPT?Get access to an editable prompt template and a variety of prompts for several content areas.
A Quick Checklist
Wish you had a checklist to assess these AI lesson plan generators? Here’s a checklist I came up with that outlines what I’m looking for in these tools. You may be looking for something different, so feel free to customize the checklist for your own use.
No account creation necessary. Who wants to create yet another account?
Single sign-on (SSO). If login is required, will it allow me to sync up to Google or Microsoft?
Copy and paste. Is it easy to copy the lesson plan format to another doc or platform (e.g. Google Docs, MS Word, etc.)?
TEKS alignment. Does this lesson plan document sync with state or national standards?
Lesson plan format. Is the generated lesson plan organized into elements included in traditional lesson formats?
Many lesson plan formats follow Madeline Hunter’s lesson elements. You might expect to see some of these elements in the lesson plans AI tools can generate.
AI Prompt
When possible, I used a prompt similar to the one that appears below to test each of these AI lesson plan generators:
Write a lesson plan for Texas sixth grade classroom that addresses the following TEKS:
The student understands the factors that influence the locations and characteristics of locations of various contemporary societies on maps and/or globes. The student is expected to:
(A) identify and explain the geographic factors responsible for patterns of population in places and regions;
(B) explain ways in which human migration influences the character of places and regions;
(C) identify and locate major physical and human geographic features such as landforms, water bodies, and urban centers of various places and regions; and
(D) identify the location of major world countries for each of the world regions.
The website makes it easy to copy your lesson plan into your device’s clipboard. At that point, you can paste it into a word processor for further editing/revision. The history, civics, and geography subjects are limited to India, so you won’t get US-relevant lessons for those. Science, math, and English are other topics available.
A little bit more robust than the option above, you can see examples for all grade levels (K-12). In order to see the full lesson plan, you must create an account, but you can create an account using a Google login or sign up via email.
As you might expect, ChatGPT does a nice job generating lesson plans. One of the best features of ChatGPT, aside from ease of use, is how it groups activities and offers a time range for each.
For example, a “locating Major Historical and Contemporary Societies” activity takes about 15 minutes. You can see some of the key expectations below:
Locating Major Historical and Contemporary Societies (15 minutes)
Distribute world maps and globes to the students.
Review latitude and longitude and how they are used to determine absolute location.
Teach the students how to locate various major historical and contemporary societies on the maps and globes.
Have the students practice locating and labeling these societies on their own.
This AI works quite well. You can attach up to five files of 100 mb each, including PDF and TXT. When asked to generate a lesson plan, what it came up with actually referenced specific TEKS. Claude divided the lesson plan in these ways:
Lesson Title
TEKS Addressed
Objectives
Materials
Procedures
Assessment
Accommodations
While it could have provided a little more information on assessments, it’s an easy item to follow-up on. I prompted Claude.ai with this:
Come up with two exit ticket sets of questions that address these TEKS:
6.2A – Locate various major historical and contemporary societies on maps and globes using latitude and longitude to determine absolute location
6.2B – Identify and explain geographic factors responsible for patterns of population in places and regions
6.2C – Explain ways human migration influences the character of places and regions
6.2D – Identify and explain factors responsible for the location of economic activities in places and regions
6.2E – Draw sketch maps that illustrate various places and regions
And, it generated the following:
Exit Ticket Set 1
Using latitude and longitude, locate two major societies on a world map. (6.2A)
Explain two geographic factors that lead to population patterns in Asia. (6.2B)
How has migration from rural to urban areas influenced the character of cities? Explain. (6.2C)
What are two factors that determine where manufacturing facilities are located? (6.2D)
Exit Ticket Set 2
Label the following items on a world map: The Sahara Desert, Mount Everest, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo. (6.2A)
How does access to fresh water impact population patterns? Explain. (6.2B)
Give one example of how immigration has shaped the culture of a place or region. (6.2C)
Why are major seaports often located where they are? What geographic factors determine their location? (6.2D)
Draw a simple sketch map of Europe, labeling at least 5 countries. (6.2E)
Again, what I like about this is how Claude labeled the items. It tied each exit ticket question to a specific TEKS.
The AutoClassmate website offers some great AI-powered tools. They describe their service in this way:
The Auto Classmate AI-Powered Lesson Plan Generator will enable you to create a highly-customizable, editable, and unique Lesson Plan to implement in your classroom.
The Lesson Plan Generator allows you to easily align your lesson plan with state standards with the click of a button. Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, this lesson planning tool will revolutionize the way you create content for your classroom.
After using our AI Lesson Planning tool, you will also be able to have conversations about your lesson plan with our AI-Powered Instructional Coach Chatbot.
Screenshot by the author: Auto Classmate, Home Page
As you can see, it offers the ability to align lessons to state standards. You can see what the GPT-3.5 version comes up with. The GPT-4 version requires an account, and pricing is $10 a month.
Other Lesson Plan Generators
More lesson plan generators are appearing every single day. Here are a few more teacher-recommended AI lesson plan generators for your consideration.
Please be aware that they may have free trials but could cost money for extended usage.
Fall has officially arrived, and so has a new batch of AI tools to try. Let’s explore this month’s eclectic mix of AI innovations! Some are meant to enhance productivity, helping with presentation and assessment creation, while others may be for both work and play, like Bored Human’s clickable list of 100+ tools. Let’s take a look!
1. Canva’s Magic Media App
Canva is an irreplaceable design tool that I use daily. And they are really beefing up their AI tools and apps these days! One of my new favorites is an app called Magic Media. To add it to your Canva menu, click Apps in the menu on the left, search Magic Media, and it will be the first tile that appears.
Screenshot by author: Canva Apps Search for “Magic Media”
Once you add and open it, you’ll see:
the option to generate images or videos
a text box for you to describe what you want to generate
a few styles to choose from (watercolor, filmic, photo, etc.)
Once you’ve made your selections and added your prompt, enjoy the results! If there is an option you like, but it’s not quite right, you can click the three dots in the top right corner to “Generate more like this,” or you can click “Generate again” to produce additional results from the same prompt. It’s pretty incredible! Tweak your prompt to yield different results, but, take note that the results can be biased as in the example below.
Screenshot by author: Canva’s “Magic Media” App in Action
Remember, verified educators qualify for a FREE Canva for Education (Pro) account! If you’re interested, go ahead and take advantage of this amazing tool at no cost.
Formative AI has accounts for various roles in education! Pick your role and sign in with an email address or a Google, Clever, or Microsoft account. Once you’re in, you can generate lessons, assignments, and assessments. Plus, with this AI tool, you can track students and create classes – for free! Now you can also generate standards-based questions and include hints for learners. There are Bronze (free), Silver ($15/month), and Gold (quotes by request) accounts to choose from. Check out Formative’s Resources for webinars, a training center, and an inspiration library!
SlidesAI is an AI tool that can be downloaded from Google Workspace Marketplace. Install the extension, open Google Slides, and find it under Extensions in the Slides toolbar. Click on Generate Slides, and a box will open for you to add your own text and customize your theme. You can also choose the presentation type, number of slides, and whether or not you’d like a title and thank you slide. Once all that’s set, click Create Slides and be amazed!
Microsoft’s Speaker Coach (previously Presenter Coach) can help you or your students enhance your presentation skills! This AI tool gives a report on pacing, pitch, filler words, speech, and more after you rehearse it. It’s available for PowerPoint on the web, Android, Windows, iOS, and MacOS. To use Speaker Coach, you will need a Microsoft account, but you don’t have to have a paid version of PowerPoint. It’s “available to everyone in free preview.” In order to be most successful, have a good microphone, a solid internet connection, and a quiet place to rehearse, and get presenting!
5. Bored Humans
Bored Humans is a treasure trove of 100+ AI tools. Choose a tool from their list and it appears at the top of the page with instructions. There is a pop-up ad bar at the bottom of the screen to be aware of and several of the items on the list may not be appropriate for students. But there are options that are definitely worth trying for fun or even for lesson planning! For example, if you want to generate a fun song for teaching, I’d recommend trying their lyrics generator. Type in a subject and an artist for the lyrics to be modeled after, and watch them appear.
A few other options that may be useful for planning and teaching are:
AI Article Writer
ChatGPT Prompts
Quote Generator
AI-Generated Podcasts
Haiku
Poetry Generator
Anagram Generator
Writing Prompts
Text Summarization Tool
Text Paraphrasing Tool
AI Transcription
and many more
Which tools will you try? Are there any we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments. We’d love to know what AI your using!
Bonus: AI in the News
AI Designs Little Robots in 30 Seconds and They Keep Sprouting Legs
A recent breakthrough reveals that AI can design simple autonomous robots within 30 seconds, potentially democratizing robot design. This AI employs a method called gradient descent, swiftly refining robot designs through iterations, resulting in functional forms with legs for forward locomotion. This development has the potential to transform various fields, from climate change solutions to medicine. Read more >>
AI Forces a Rethink on Executive MBA Teaching
Business schools are adapting their executive MBA (EMBA) programs to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), recognizing its transformative impact on the business world. EMBA students, generally older and in senior roles, are keen to understand the implications of AI for leadership techniques. The shift includes more hands-on learning and practical application of AI tools, preparing students for a rapidly changing job market affected by AI’s increasing influence. Read more >>
Google Promises to Take the Legal Heat in Users’ AI Copyright Lawsuits
Google will protect customers from copyright infringement lawsuits when using select generative AI products. The coverage extends to seven products, including Duet AI in Workspace and Vertex AI Search. Google will take legal responsibility for challenges related to training data and results generated from foundation models, ensuring customers are safeguarded against copyright-related risks. Other tech companies like Microsoft and Adobe have also made similar commitments in response to the growing legal challenges in the generative AI space. Read more >>
We’re back with five more AI tools for you to try this month! There are so many available now it’s becoming more and more difficult to choose which ones to feature. But we’re having a great time exploring, and we hope you are, too. September’s batch won’t disappoint, so grab your phone or laptop, and get ready to try out some AI tools that might just become your new favorites.
QuestionWell is an awesome AI tool that will help you quickly and easily generate questions and objectives that can be exported and used with a variety of other tools. So, if you use any of the following online tools, you will definitely want to check out QuestionWell:
Access QuestionWell by logging in through your Google account. Once logged in, you’ll be prompted to type in the topic, subject, and grade level and select a language for your questions. For the subject matter of your questions, you will need to write text or copy and paste text related to the content, or you can leave the text box blank. Right now, there are three account types: Free Plan ($0/month), Paid Plan ($7/month), and Team Plan ($6/month per user). I would highly recommend giving this one a try!
iScanner for Educators is an AI tool that’s available through the App Store, Google Play, or through a web browser. It boasts that it can scan any document and make it look professional. You can get started with iScanner for free and unlock additional storage space and features with the paid pro version, but with the free version, you get:
Unlimited Scanning
Full PDF-Editor and e-Signature
Export to PDF, JPG, PPT (5 documents per day)
200 MB cloud storage
No advertisements, no iScanner watermark on the documents
BUT, as an educator, you can access iScanner Pro for free if you meet the requirements and complete the educator form at the bottom of the iScanner for Educators page!
3. Typpo
I was a bit skeptical about this tool, but after trying it out, I think it’s pretty amazing! Using Typpo is simple:
Download the app.
Talk into the app.
Edit any words it may have gotten wrong.
Watch the video it generates.
Typpo essentially uses voice-to-text to create a video for you. I can see this being a useful accommodation tool for students who need to see written language as they are hearing it, for students learning English, for chunking assignments, etc. Here is the video it created for me, and it took me about 10 seconds longer than the length of the video to make. So when I say it’s easy to use, I really mean it!
4. Research Rabbit
ResearchRabbit is an AI tool I was introduced to by my dear TCEA colleague, Dr. Bruce Ellis. This tool allows you to start collections of research much like you would create playlists in Spotify or collections in Wakelet. You begin a search with keywords (like you would in Google), a title, or an author, and ResearchRabbit will put up papers for you to add to collections. Once you add a paper, you can see its abstract, references, citations, similar papers that relate, and other information. This tool also generates graphs that show timelines and relationships between research content, authors, and more. Here is a great introduction video to this free tool:
We’ve all been there. You finished your book and need a new recommendation. Or it’s Friday night, and you can’t decide on what movie to watch. Fear not. There’s an AI for that! This AI tool is very simple. Movie/Book Recommender requires you to type in a favorite book or movie. Next, you indicate whether you’d like it to generate a book or movie recommendation for you. Then, choose how many recommendations you’d like to get (from two to 10). It’s pretty great.
Well, I hope you enjoy September’s AI tools to try! Which one is your favorite? Do you have any we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments!
The world of artificial intelligence is changing so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up. Every day, another new tool or chatbot is unveiled that has the potential to save users time and make life easier. And this is also true for those of us in the education field, where staying current is important and saving time is critical. With that in mind, I would like to introduce you to Claude, a new AI tool that is definitely worth a look.
What is Claude?
Released in April 2022 by Anthropic, Claude 2 is another of the many new chatbots available (like ChatGPT, Bard, Bing, Perplexity, and Jasper). It assists with content summarization, general research, creative and collaborative writing, Q&A, and coding. A user enters a question (called a prompt) and the tool answers. Claude 2 is currently free.
How is Claude 2 different from ChatGPT 3.5?
Most of you are probably more familiar with the chatbot ChatGPT, especially its free form, version 3.5. But there are some significant differences between ChatGPT and Claude 2 in their underlying architecture. These differences are worth noting, as you can see in the table below.
Claude 2
ChatGPT 3.5
Trickery and deception avoided through its modular architecture
Better at creative writing tasks and generating imaginative content
Can handle and recall larger amounts of information
More of a personality
Only available in the United States and the United Kingdom at this time; supports only English
Available in 163 countries and with support for multiple languages
Does not accept image inputs
Can recognize what is displayed in an image, although not always accurately
Includes current data
Trained on data up to September 2021 only
Can accept up to five files, up to 10MB each, including PDFs, TXT, and CSV files that can be added using the paperclip icon before a prompt is entered.
Better at text summarization
Faster processor time
Comparing Chatbots: Claude 2 and ChatGPT
Since I find that it’s best to use the same prompts when comparing different chatbots, I tested Claude with my standard prompt: “What is the most effective instructional strategy to use with fifth grade ESL students?”
Here’s how ChatGPT 3.5 replied:
And here’s the response I got from Claude:
When I asked ChatGPT 3.5 for a Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards-aligned lesson plan for fifth grade ESL students on the life cycle, I got this response. It did pull from the TEKS but gave me the ELAR standards and not the science ones. Several of the activities also seemed weaker to me and not as engaging or on level, especially the enrichment. And it did not really include anything related to ESL students.
Objective:
Students will be able to describe and understand the life cycle of a butterfly using appropriate vocabulary and language structures.
TEKS Standards:English Language Arts and Reading
5.2.A: Identify the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes.
5.4.B: Describe the plot’s sequence of events.
5.14.A: Listen actively to interpret a message.
Duration:
Approximately 60 minutes
Materials:
Chart paper or whiteboard
Markers
Visuals of a butterfly’s life cycle (pictures or diagrams)
Butterfly life cycle worksheets
Colored pencils or crayons
Butterfly life cycle video (optional)
Hook (10 minutes):
Begin the lesson by activating students’ prior knowledge. Show pictures or diagrams of different animal life cycles, such as a frog, chicken, or butterfly. Ask students to discuss in pairs or small groups what they know about life cycles and what similarities and differences they notice between the different animals’ life cycles. Encourage them to use vocabulary related to life cycles and discuss their ideas as a class.
Activities:
Vocabulary Introduction (10 minutes):
Introduce key vocabulary related to the butterfly’s life cycle, such as egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Write these words on the chart paper or whiteboard and provide simple definitions or visual representations for each term. Discuss the pronunciation and ask students to repeat the words.
Butterfly Life Cycle Presentation (15 minutes):
Show visuals or a short video depicting the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle. Narrate or explain the process step-by-step, using simple language and reinforcing the vocabulary introduced earlier. Pause at each stage to check for understanding and encourage students to ask questions or share observations.
Group Activity: Life Cycle Diagram (15 minutes):
Divide the class into small groups and provide each group with a large sheet of paper and colored pencils or crayons. Instruct them to draw and label a diagram of the butterfly’s life cycle, using the vocabulary they learned earlier. Encourage collaboration and discussion within each group. After they finish, have each group present their diagram to the class.
Formative Assessment (5 minutes):
As a formative assessment, ask individual students to explain one stage of the butterfly’s life cycle using the appropriate vocabulary. Observe their responses and provide feedback accordingly.
Enrichment (10 minutes):
For students who show a deeper understanding, provide additional information about the importance of butterflies in the ecosystem and their role in pollination. Show pictures or videos of different butterfly species and discuss their diversity.
Individual Practice (5 minutes):
Distribute butterfly life cycle worksheets to each student. The worksheet should have labeled spaces for them to draw and describe each stage of the life cycle using the vocabulary words they learned. Collect the worksheets for assessment and to provide feedback on their understanding.
Closure (5 minutes):
Summarize the main points of the lesson, emphasizing the key vocabulary and the stages of the butterfly’s life cycle. Encourage students to share what they enjoyed or found interesting during the lesson.
Claude 2 gave me the following response. It did pull from the science TEKS and included an activity to activate prior knowledge. In addition, this lesson plan includes the use of graphic organizers and anchor charts, both useful for ESL student learning.
Topic: Life Cycles
TEKS Addressed:
5.2C: Students will identify stages and sequence in the life cycles of different plants and animals.
5.8F: Students will organize and present data in a variety of ways including detailed illustrations, flow charts, posters, and graphs.
Hook: Show images of life cycles (butterfly, frog, plant). Have students discuss what they see and what they already know about life cycles.
Activating Prior Knowledge: In partners, students complete a graphic organizer listing the stages of a familiar life cycle (human, pumpkin, butterfly) and draw quick sketches. Share out.
New Material: Teacher explains stages of life cycles using an anchor chart. Show video clip on general life cycle patterns. Have students take notes on stages.
Guided Practice: In groups, students are given cards depicting the life cycle of a specific organism out of sequence. They work to put the cards in order and identify the stages. Share out.
Formative Assessment: Have students draw the life cycle of an assigned organism on paper, labeling the stages. Teacher evaluates sketches and labels for accuracy.
Differentiated Instruction:
– Advanced students add details on duration and key processes in each stage.
– Struggling students are given cards with stage names to sequence.
Individual Practice: Students choose an organism and create an illustrated life cycle poster labeling the sequence of stages.
Enrichment: Students research an unusual life cycle (frog, butterfly, etc.) and present key learnings to the class.
Closure: Students share out key learnings about life cycles. Teacher reviews structure and purpose of life cycle stages.
Claude’s Chatbot Brother: ClaudeScholar
ClaudeScholar is a research assistant for science that can synthesize data, extract insights, and automate scientific workflows. Users can search through any document with natural language, uncover insights across multiple research papers, and even task the AI assistant with complicated workflows like generating new compounds and modeling protein interactions using state-of-the-art research. While this is not likely to be a tool most of us will use, it is interesting to see the direction that chatbots are going.
Trying Out Claude 2
If you’d like to sign up for free to try Claude2, visit Anthropic’s website and click “Talk to Claude.” You’ll then be prompted to sign up with your email address or enter an existing address to access the bot.
In the near future, it is likely that we will regularly use a variety of chatbot tools, depending on what we need to accomplish, just as we may choose to use Canva for one type of design project and Adobe Photoshop for another. So now’s a good time to begin to learn what each tool is especially good at. I encourage you to try Claude 2 and let me know what you think!
Our very own writer, Emily Horn, is currently out on vacation, so I’ve happily taken the reins to introduce you to some of my favorite AI tools. Get ready to dive into a world of technological wonders that will leave you amazed and inspired!
AI Arena
AI Arena is on a mission to make AI intuitive and accessible to everyone, all while having a blast! Join the excitement of this fun and competitive gaming experience that will boost your AI knowledge and literacy. Get ready to dive into the world of artificial intelligence and unleash your gaming skills in a whole new dimension! It’s definitely an AI tool to try.
Schrodi.co
My amazing co-worker, Miguel, shared this beauty with me. Schrodi.co is an online app for parents to make children’s stories using AI. Choose your main character and share a tidbit or two about them, and this app will create a kid-friendly story. You can check out this story that Miguel created about a grey cat.
CollovGPT
Here’s a fun one: CollovGPT. Engage in a conversation with AI as it partners with you on a creative journey to design your dream room. With this tool, you’ll upload your room photo first and then start chatting and sharing your ideas. Watch as it generates stunning renderings of your room with an updated layout and furniture. Keep refining and exploring until you achieve the perfect design, bringing your vision to life. Let the power of this AI tool transform your space into a personalized haven you’ll love!
MusicGen
Meta has recently made a contribution to the world of music with the release of their open-source, AI-powered music generator: MusicGen. This remarkable tool is trained on an extensive dataset of over 20,000 hours of music and has the ability to transform text descriptions into captivating audio clips. What’s more, it can also take inspiration from reference audio, allowing for even greater creative possibilities.
TypeAce
Say goodbye to switching between apps and hello to effortless multitasking. Introducing TypeAce, your ultimate co-pilot! Powered by OpenAI’s advanced GPT models, TypeAce integrates into your keyboard, unleashing a world of productivity and convenience. Whether you’re composing emails or jotting down notes, TypeAce has got you covered. With its intelligent keyboard extension, you’ll experience a whole new level of efficiency as it anticipates your needs and provides smart suggestions. Customize your co-pilot by saving your frequently-used prompts and creating personalized commands. TypeAce is available for iOS users only.
Bonus Tool:
Hello History
History Buffs, you can now take your students on an epic learning adventure with Hello History. This AI tool allows you to chat with anyone from the past. Yep, that’s right! You can have life-like conversations with historical figures. It even gives educators the power to control content and facts.
Double Bonus: AI in the News
The First AI DJ Has Arrived
Portland locals can now tune in to Live 95.5 and experience the incredible AI-powered radio host, Ashley. Powered by RadioGPT, she’s there to bring you top-notch programming, deliver the latest news, and even engage with callers. It’s like having a futuristic radio companion right in your ears! Read More >>>
A Church Service Powered Completely by AI
A chatbot guided a group of over 300 individuals through a 40-minute service that included prayer, music, sermons, and more. Read More >>>
Scientists Rebuild Spinal Cord with AI
In a groundbreaking achievement, a paralyzed individual has achieved the extraordinary feat of walking again solely through the power of their thoughts. This remarkable breakthrough was made possible by the integration of two implants that successfully restored communication between the brain and spinal cord. Read More >>>
Okay friends, thanks for letting me step in this month and explore AI tools with all of you. If you gave any of these tools a try, please drop me a line in the comments. Happy summer!
We’ve all heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. And when we are communicating with each other, pictures do help add depth and meaning to our words. They help our audience better grasp the message and retain it longer. Granted, in order for images to be effective, we need to be sure to pick images that are relevant and support the message. Also, representation matters, and using images that reflect your audience’s demographics and characteristics helps your audience better relate to your message. Before we explore a few tools to help you generate images that are tailored to your message, let’s review a few pitfalls that we want to avoid.
Common Mistakes When Using Images
If we aren’t intentional or thoughtful, we can actually undermine our message and lessen the impact that it has on our audience. This is also true for students who haven’t been taught how to carefully choose images and how to avoid common mistakes in the process. Here are a few common mistakes to be aware of when you are selecting (or generating) images to use.
Using irrelevant images: Using images that are not relevant to your message can be confusing and distract from your message.
Using low-quality images: Using low-quality, blurry, or pixelated images can make your communication look unprofessional and may detract from your message.
Using images that are too large or too small: Using images that are not appropriately sized for the medium you are using can make them difficult to see and may not have the desired impact.
Overusing images: While images can be a powerful tool in communication, it’s important not to overuse them. Too many images can be overwhelming and may distract from your message.
Relying too heavily on images: Images should be used to support and enhance your message, not to replace it. Make sure you are still conveying your message clearly through text or other means, and not relying solely on images to communicate.
How to Find Images
Before we begin generating images, let’s see if those images already exist and are available. If they are, then we can save time, energy and effort. Here are a few blog posts that you may find useful as you search for images to use.
If you still weren’t able to find the perfect image, then let’s consider having AI generate the images for us.
While it seems that there is a growing list of AI tools that generate images, let’s narrow it down to ones that are good for us to use and good (appropriate) for students to use. Remember that the quality of your image is going to be heavily influenced by the words you use to describe the image in your prompt. Identifying a style for your image can also help create images that are better suited for your audience.
AI Tools for Generating Images for Teachers
These tools may be free or freemium and require a login. For these two reasons, they are not suited for students to use but may be a perfect fit for teachers who are looking to AI to generate images.
If you have a Canva for Education account, you are able to use the Text to Image app. Write a description of the image you want, choose the style, then let Canva do the rest. Canva will create four images to choose from. If you do not like any of the images, consider tweaking the prompt you used and trying again. Be sure to add the images to a project (even if you don’t plan to use them right now) so that you can access them in the future. Once you regenerate images or close out the tool, any unused images are no longer available.
Create an account with this freemium generative art tool and begin producing amazing images. To stay within the free portion of the tool, you will want to redeem the five daily credits made available to you. Choose the style, give a brief description, and begin generating. Each set of four images will cost you one credit. You can view previous creations in the My Creations section.
This tool is very similar to Starry.ai though you have more options in regard to trained AI models and styles. Each set of four images will cost you one credit unless you use the SDXL Beta (which I’m very impressed with) which costs three credits. You can view previous creations in the My Creations section.
Another powerful but easy-to-learn generative art tool! Creating a free account will give you 100 credits each month to use when creating images. With more than 25 trained models you may find that there are too many choices that impact the style of your image. Generating four images at a time will cost you four credits.
AI Tools for Generating Images for Students
These generative tools are free and do not require a login, making them a more suitable choice for students to use. As students create amazing images, be sure to ask them to cite the tool used to generate the image as well as the prompt they use. This will help you and other students replicate the quality images though for different projects.
Craiyon (no, that is not misspelled) is a pretty impressive tool. Enter your description and choose one of four styles. You are able to identify negative words which is Craiyon’s way of avoiding certain items in your image (such as people, the sun, etc.). Give it about a minute and it will generate nine images for you!
Though you can create an account, it isn’t necessary to use this tool. You can click on the Examples button to generate one of the six presets, or you can enter your description, choose the model from the dropdown, and generate an image. Only one image is created each time.
Generate amazing cover images and wallpapers with this free tool. If you aren’t sure what to create, then click on one of the green sample prompts and then click the pink Generate Cover button. After generating the image a popup screen will appear with the option to download the image.
Using Images in Projects
If you are having students create projects in which they are allowed to use generative art tools, consider having students cite their work by:
identifying the name of the tool they used
including their prompt
noting the style they used to generate the image
This will allow you and your students to replicate similar images and learn from each other as you look to improve communication by providing relevant and impactful images.
So, how will you be using images to support your message? Do you have a repository site such as Pixabay that you use or are you already making use of generative art tools to provide custom images? Drop a note in the comments section and let us know.
Happy summer, everyone! I’m back with more AI tools to try out this month. New AI tools are coming out each and every day, and I’m constantly surprised with what’s out there! It’s clear that advancements are being made and people are gaining a better understanding of how AI can support us in work and life. Here are a few tools that I thought were noteworthy, either for professional use or just for fun. Let’s take a look!
1. Fireflies.AI
Fireflies AI is a tool that acts as a meeting assistant. It transcribes, summarizes, records, and more. With the free account, you get 800 minutes of storage (with limited transcription credits), plus the following features:
Record Zoom, GMeet, MS Teams
Transcription for 30+ languages
Automated meeting summaries
Search within meetings
Playback (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x)
Comments & reactions
Clip out moments as soundbites
Global search
Uploads
3 public channels
This is an AI tool that could be used by students for note-taking and marking important parts of lectures. Its language transcription feature can also help support language learners. For educators, I could see this providing language support to parents for important meetings, back-to-school presentations, 504 meetings or IEP planning, and more. The fact that it can transcribe means you can keep transcriptions for your records, and you can even share meeting recaps. Once you’re logged in, you’re prompted to select your meeting settings and invite your team to your workspace.
2. Teach Anything
I really enjoyed exploring this AI tool! Teach Anything can definitely be used by educators to help learn new topics, prepare to teach topics you’ve never taught before, or get a new take on teaching something you’ve done every year. When you go to the site, you’re immediately prompted to write a question, select your language, and select a difficulty level. In my example, I asked “How to explain centrifugal force?” in English with an easy difficulty setting.
Here is what Teach Anything generated for me. Pretty neat!
3. Recipes by AI
This AI tool is glorious, especially for someone like me who struggles with cooking! Recipes by AI will generate a recipe based on the ingredients you submit. Haven’t been to the store in a while? No problem. Check your cabinets, enter what you have, and let Recipes by AI work its magic. Here is an example of what it generated for me based on these ingredients:
Chicken thighs
Veggie pasta
Eggs
Balsamic vinegar
Broccoli
Tomato sauce
4. Supermeme.AI
This AI tool is so much fun, and its free account offers you:
20 credits
Watermarked memes
Meme Editor
AI Meme Search Engine
Saved Memes
Using text-to-meme, when you type in a prompt, it will use one credit and generate eight downloadable, editable memes for you!
You can also search hundreds of images/templates to edit and create your own meme caption or to use for generating a meme caption with AI. With themed memes, you can type in a topic, upload your own image, or pick from Supermeme’s images and generate your meme. It’s a pretty great time, and I defintely went down the meme rabbit hole with this one!
5. Fontjoy
Man, oh man. This is a lifesaver when it comes to finding good font pairings for pretty much anything you could be working on. Flyers, websites, presentations, social media posts, handouts… you name it! Fontjoy can help you find fonts to use together to create beautiful look for your needs. It’s very simple to use. You can simply click “Generate” to see new pairings and you can customize any of the three fonts by clicking the slider bar under the font name to see additional options. Not only that, but if you click the font name, it will open up in Google Fonts so you can easily download it!
I hope you enjoy this months five AI tools to try! Which one did you like most? Do you have a tool you think should be featured? Let me know in the comments, and, as always, thanks for reading.
