Four A.I. Tools For Schools That Are Better Than ChatGPT

In a recent workshop I was leading, a teacher asked a simple but important question: “What should I do if I want to help my students use and navigate ChatGPT, but I can’t because of the age restrictions?”

My answer: “There are way better (and safer) ways to get your started with artificial intelligence then ChatGPT.”

For starters, OpenAI's Terms of Use state that users must be 13 or older. If you're under 18, you need your parent or guardian's permission to create an account. Keep in mind that kids could come across content that's not age-appropriate. In addition, ChatGPT collects personal information and user data. This info is used to improve the system and can be shared with third parties for things like advertising. Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 is illegal without parental consent.

Even if your students are older then 13, there are a few other tools I like to get started with before jumping in to ChatGPT.

For teachers, same thing applies. ChatGPT (especially Plus) is extremely powerful and helpful for many aspects of teaching, creating, etc. Yet, there are a few other tools I would use first, as an easy way to use these tools with purpose.

#1: SchoolAI

SchoolAI is quickly becoming my favorite artificial intelligence tool for teachers and students to use.

Imagine the power of ChatGPT, but with real guardrails you can set as a teacher, a focus for the AI powered chat and feedback that you’ve crafted, and the ability to see the entire conversation between students and SchoolAI bot!

That’s what it is like to run a SchoolAI “space”, in which students interact with a AI powered chat that you’ve built from scratch, or you can use one of the free pre-made “Spaces” from SchoolAI.

The fastest way to get started is to create an account and log in. Then navigate to the “Sidekick” option. There are more detailed ways to create your own Space, but Sidekick is the easiest way to go about it.

After setting up some specific guidelines for Sidekick, you can make the bot work in ways that you want for that class at that time:

Favorite Way To Use This Tool for ENGAGEMENT:

The best aspect of SchoolAI is how it can be used alongside Project-Based Learning as a Guide.

Create your Sidekick or Space to be an “AI Assistant” to help students navigate the project-based experience, help with research, collaborate on ideas, give feedback on each step, and serve as a mentor.

As a teacher, you are able to pop in and out of conversations, go talk with students based on the feedback they are getting, and manage it in ways you never could if they were using ChatGPT or another LLM tool.

Check it out and let me know how it goes!

#2: MagicSchool

MagicSchool is the swiss-army knife of AI for teachers. It can do almost anything you need it to do.

Lesson plan? Check.

Modifications and accommodations for IEPs? Check.

Make it relevant suggestions and ideas? Check.

Rubrics? Check.

Quiz, teacher joke generator, differentiation, science lab, 5E lessons, word problems, student feedback, math spiral, text leveling, translation? Check, check, check!

It is much like ChatGPT (or Claude or Bard) but the way it compartmentalizes what you can do, seems to help folks like me focus on a specific task before moving on to the next task.

I put this as #1 for a reason. It’s free, easy to use, and they keep making it a better product.

Favorite Way To Use This Tool for ENGAGEMENT:

Ya’ll know that I’m a big believer in making lessons, activities, and units both meaningful and relevant (that is what my upcoming book is all about). Sometimes, we are not sure where to start. That’s where MagicSchool comes in.

Take a lesson like teaching Prime and Composite numbers to 4th grade students. It’s not the most engaging thing to teach, and like one teacher in a recent workshop I led, it can be difficult to make it “relevant”.

Went to MagicSchool, clicked on the “Make it Relevant!” tab and entered in the following information:

Grade: 4th Grade

Topic: Prime and Composite Numbers

Student Interests: Soccer and Youtube

Here is what it kicked (get it) out:

As a master teacher in a school who knows the background of a community well, I understand that making the subject relevant to students' interests can greatly enhance their learning experience. Considering the background of 4th-grade students who love soccer and YouTube, here are three unique ideas to make teaching prime and composite numbers more engaging and relatable:
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1. Soccer Jersey Factoring: Create a hands-on activity where students are given soccer jerseys with numbers on them. Each number represents a different player. Students need to identify whether the number on the jersey is a prime or composite number by factoring it. For example, if a student receives a jersey with the number 15, they would need to factor it into 3 and 5, realizing it is a composite number.
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2. Soccer Team Primality Challenge: Divide the class into teams and assign each team a soccer-related name. Provide a list of numbers and ask them to determine whether each number is prime or composite. For every correct answer, the team earns a point. Encourage students to discuss and justify their answers. This activity can be done in a quiz format or as a friendly competition between teams.
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3. YouTube Views and Prime Numbers: Utilize students' familiarity with YouTube by introducing the concept of prime numbers through video views. Show them a popular video with a high number of views and explain that prime numbers can only be divided evenly by 1 and themselves. Discuss how prime numbers can be compared to a video with an extraordinary number of views, as they cannot be evenly divided by any other number. Encourage students to find examples of popular videos with prime or composite view counts and share their discoveries with the class.
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These ideas incorporate the students' interests in soccer and YouTube while teaching the concept of prime and composite numbers. By linking the subject matter to their background and grade level, the students are more likely to feel engaged and motivated to learn.

Now, the teacher took the first idea (that they liked best) and headed over to Curipod to come up with their kickoff (I did it again) lesson.

#3: Curipod

​Curipod is easily one of my favorite AI tools for educators.

If you have ever used Nearpod, Peardeck, or even Kahoot - then Curipod is something you’ll really enjoy (and it will save you a ton of time).

Curipod is free for educators and has a ton of functionality.

It helps you plan and deliver interactive (key word) lessons on any topic. Whether you want to make a full interactive slide presentation (like a Nearpod or Peardeck), or create an Exit Ticket - Curipod has you covered.

All you need to do is enter your grade, the objectives and standards you are focusing on, and a topic (as much detail as you can) of the lesson or activity you are preparing for.

Then Curipod will kick out a fully-developed slide deck that includes open-ended questions, polls, drawing, word clouds, and more.

Favorite Way To Use This Tool For ENGAGEMENT:

A few features I like are the Drawing Prompt and the Personalized Feedback.

Drawing prompt is great because I can see on the teacher's side of the tool what the students are entering in. It can be a math question, a sketch, or just anything you want to ask. Drawing allows for unlimited parameters, especially with younger students using a tablet or touchscreen.

Personalized Feedback is where things get crazy cool. Here I can ask a question and students will answer it on their devices.

Then, based on the information I gave Curipod on my assignment, objectives, and standards — the tool will give students personalized feedback on their answers. You can see this as a teacher and always adjust, but it’s worth trying out just for this feature!

#4: Snorkl

Snorkl may be the “new AI Tool” on the block, but it is one I’m quickly loving as a teacher.

Snorkl has two basic functions. First, it helps develop thinking and reasoning skills by giving students the tools to record their voice and visually represent their thinking on a simple whiteboard.

Secondl, after sharing their thinking, students receive on-the-spot feedback on their explanations from generative AI - celebrating their unique approach and prompting them to think deeper.

On the back-end, Snorly provides teachers with AI analytics to effortlessly monitor class progress, understand each student's thinking, and determine instructional next steps.

Favorite Way To Use This Tool For ENGAGEMENT:

Let's say students are doing science or math homework. They have questions to answer and should explain or show their work.

Maybe it's a Lab Report or a few Word Problems. In either case, we typically would hand these to the teacher, who would grade the final product, turn it back to the students, and move on to the next assignment or activity.

This isn't just how my classroom works. It's how most classrooms work, and many curricula and scope/sequences are built on this premise.

Now that artificial intelligence tools exist to help students master these types of assignments in no time, it can become difficult for a teacher to really understand whether or not the students have a solid understanding, or if they are using AI tools to assist.

Here's where we can use "Defend Your Learning" with Snorkl.

During the in-class assignment or homework, students will use Snorkl to record their work and explain/defend their steps, answers, and thinking.

The benefit of this strategy is that we get to see and hear what the students are thinking and their process.

It is also AI-Compatible because the explanation and defense are done by the actual students in their voice.

Better yet, when students share their defense they can get comments, emoji responses, and feedback right inside the Snorkl video.

Teachers can comment as well, or respond with a video of their own as a follow-up!

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned in a previous post about my worries about an A.I. future, when I work with schools, districts, and organizations I try to make it very clear that we are dealing with many unknowns right now.

We cannot live in a make-believe world where we act like A.I. does not exist, but we also need to be cautious about bringing this technology into our schools the right way.

These tools provide an alternative to ChatGPT, and in the work I’ve been doing using these tools and leading professional learning, I’ve seen hundreds of teachers finding success in starting down this path with tools that are trusted by other educators, growing with the right focus, and putting the needs of our learners first.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!