In this year of learning about AI, I am still trying to decide what is worth exploring and what isn’t. The answer is that I need to explore it all and I can’t really minimize that for fear of missing out (FOMO). Since checking everything out there is impossible, let’s take a breath and look at three of my favorites. (Note: This blog post is in response to Week 1 of #8weeksofsummer challenge with the question “Specific tool(s) review(s): What have you been introduced to this past school year in AI that you are excited about? Feel free to review ANY AI tool(s) that excite you.”)

First up is Canva with its ability to create AI images. I started with this specific program because my district has an account and all my teachers and students can use Canva and share it with their classes.  Students are designing weird and wonderful stuff. And it is an easy way to play with their AI system. But, even if you have some idea of an image in your head, telling the AI what you want is not as easy as you might think. Again, this makes it a great practice tool. Students put in a search term and get a set of results. Then they modify the search term and try again. And again. And again. I have actually suggested to students that they put a timer on before they begin because they can get sucked down the rabbit hole very quickly. 

I did a presentation recently, in the style of an old newspaper. I wanted to include a picture of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow that supposedly kicked over a lantern and started The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. I started with a prompt like “cow in barn in 1870s”.  I then tried “a cow in the barn in vintage-style”. Whoops! I forgot the lantern. In the end (like Bruno, we don’t talk about the time spent), I used the phrase
“Ms. O’Leary’s cow in the barn with a lantern near his feet in vintage style” to get this image. Whew!

Another program I shared with my teachers is MagicSchool.AI. When I held my playground day for teachers to try it out, I got a lot of headshaking and dismissal. So I took an Interrelated teacher and showed her the IEP (Individualized Education Program) form. She didn’t think much of it, but we created an issue (using the phone too much and not turning in homework) and put it in. It took less than 5 minutes to type in a generic description. It took MagicSchool.AI about 30 seconds to type out an IEP form.  We copied and pasted it into a Google doc. The teacher decided the program had produced one two-line section on phone use that was the best she had ever seen. The rest of it was tossed.

Here is the important thing. You do not have to use anything AI creates. Or all of it. You can take the two lines (credit it!) and keep going. The real use of AI is being like a secretary, taking notes and summarizing. You keep what you like and toss the rest. The ideas are yours.

Last, but hardly least on this list, is Perplexity.AI. Perplexity.AI does the one thing that no one else has – it provides the sources! Working with a different teacher, we tried out a question and then clicked through each of the sources. We had no idea that there was a National Parks Service source on the specific topic he was interested in. In the end, he ignored what Perplexity.AI created and used the source. That’s fine too.

AI is not here to make me do it their way. I can use all sorts of programs, sources, and ideas to create something new and unique. Try it out yourself.

Note: Every program you use will have a privacy policy. You need to take responsibility and understand what they are tracking. For example, Perplexity.AI’s privacy policy clearly states that every input, output, and response is tracked and kept. It also lists other things it will track, and what it may get from different sources. You cannot let yourself do this blindly. Never put personal information in the prompts.