Starting Small with AI – Practical Tools for a Meaningful Impact
Welcome to AI-Powered Education Insights! In this weekly series, we’ll explore practical ways to bring AI into classrooms thoughtfully and effectively. The goal is simple: to provide you with realistic, grounded ways to leverage AI that save time, enrich learning, and support students in building critical, future-ready skills.
To start, I’m inspired by Tony Wagner's Creating Innovators, where he discusses “whimsy”—the idea of empowering students to explore, experiment, and play.
Wagner highlights whimsy as a foundation for creativity and innovation. In education, whimsy encourages students to take ownership of their learning, sparking curiosity and a desire to understand the world deeply. With AI tools, we can create a classroom environment that embraces this spirit of exploration while supporting students in developing critical skills.
For the first edition, we're starting with an essential question: Where should educators begin with AI? With so much tech and so many tools, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or even skeptical. This week, I'll introduce the tools and practices that make starting with AI both manageable and impactful.
Feature 1: AI for Critical Thinking – Moving Beyond Answers
Why It Matters
At its best, AI can help students learn to question and reflect, not just memorize and respond. This is where AI tools that encourage critical thinking come in. AI’s value is not in providing the answers but in guiding students to think critically about the why and how behind their answers.
AI Tools in Action
Cost: Currently free in its basic form, with pricing available for advanced API access.
Subscription Required?: No for basic access; Yes for API or business use.
Usage: Claude’s artifacts feature offers an innovative way to turn text prompts into interactive activities and resources. Educators can use Claude to instantly generate presentations, games, websites, and more, all displayed in a dedicated window next to the chat. This interactive content can then be shared with students or colleagues, creating a hands-on learning experience that extends beyond the traditional Q&A.
Cost: Free, available as a mobile app for iOS and Android.
Subscription Required?: No.
Usage: Asks follow-up questions and guides students
Classroom Tip: After using one of these tools, have students write down their thought process or discuss their reasoning with a classmate. This reflection reinforces critical thinking and solidifies learning in a way that memorization alone cannot achieve.
Feature 2: Building AI Literacy – A New Digital Skill for All Ages
Why It Matters
AI literacy is as essential today as traditional reading and writing. For students to thrive in an AI-enabled world, they need to understand the strengths, limits, and potential biases of AI tools. Introducing AI literacy as a part of digital learning helps students engage with technology responsibly and critically.
Getting Started with AI Literacy
Cost: Free for basic use on OpenAI’s platform; premium access to GPT-4 available via subscription (around $20/month). (P.S. I think the $20/month is TOTALLY worth it. If you're a teacher, think of it this way: how much would you spend to save 10 hours week that you spend on admin work? If you're a school, think of it this way: how much does teacher retention cost you per year? $20/teacher, if used well, will 100% be a cost-saving tool in the long-term).
Subscription Required?: No for GPT-3.5; Yes for advanced features (GPT-4).
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Pro-tip: Spend an hour this week with ChatGPT. Ask it to explain AI to you in simple terms, and to create a 10-minute classroom exercise for teaching your students AI in the context of the subject you're teaching. Incorporate this into your existing lesson plan, no matter what you're teaching.
Classroom Tip: Consider creating a dedicated AI literacy segment in digital literacy classes. Introducing foundational concepts like “What is AI?” and “How do AI tools make decisions?” can demystify AI and empower students as informed users.
Feature 3: Freeing Teachers for Meaningful Engagement – Using AI to Simplify Routine Tasks
Why It Matters
One of AI’s biggest strengths is helping teachers reduce time spent on routine tasks, from grading to organizing resources. The time saved allows educators to focus on high-impact activities like small-group discussions, one-on-one coaching, and fostering critical thinking skills.
AI Tools in Action
Cost: Free for basic use; premium subscription available with additional features (approximately $35/year).
Subscription Required?: No for basic; Yes for advanced features.
Usage: Creates adaptive flashcards based on curriculum content, allowing students to independently review concepts.
Cost: Notion offers free access for educators; AI features available at an additional cost of $10/month per user.
Subscription Required?: Optional for AI features.
Usage: Summarizes notes, prepares lesson overviews, and creates study guides based on student feedback, saving hours of prep time.
Classroom Tip: Test out AI for just one task you routinely spend time on. For instance, use Notion AI to summarize a week’s worth of content, freeing you to focus on live, student-centered learning. Over time, these small efficiencies add up, helping you reclaim valuable teaching time.
Final Thoughts
Starting with AI in education doesn’t require a complete overhaul. By experimenting with tools that encourage reflection, incorporating metacognitive exercises, build digital literacy, and save time, you can make AI a meaningful part of your teaching practice. Plus, as you do these things, you'll learn as well. Some of the most instructive weeks for us at @AIDEN have been our student programs - the more we teach, the more we learn, from the process of teaching as well as from our brilliant learners.
As we dive deeper in the coming months, we’ll bring you more practical insights, tools, and strategies to support your journey and share more of what we're learning on the ground.
As I keep preaching, the future of education isn’t about AI or VR or some other tech tool—it’s about using AI thoughtfully to enhance learning, cultivate curiosity, and empower every student
#AIinEducation #DigitalLiteracy #TeachBetter #FutureReady
The ADHD AI Teacher Head of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Head of Junior Duke
3 周I will have to have a look for this book (or get Google NotebookLM to help me out with it) as I completely agree, when developing our Entrepreneurship Curriculum the first thing I put down in my vision for it was "A place for tinkering, innovation, creative and critical thinking". I think Tony's idea of 'whimsy' sounds a lot like my idea of the students 'being a tinkerer'.