Name one educational AI tool your students use — not you, them — and tell us why you think it's so good.
As we put together The Educators' AI Guide 2027, we may feature your post in the book. Just say so if you'd rather not be included.
38 replies
One that keeps coming up in my classes is Perplexity AI. What I’ve noticed is that students aren’t just using it to get answers; they’re using it to interrogate ideas. The key difference is that it shows sources alongside its responses, which subtly shifts the task from “copy the answer” to “check the thinking.” That aligns much more closely with what I'm trying to build in NCEA contexts....
Notebook LM, which I have been explicitly teaching my students how to use. They can upload resources for each subject, as well as website links and video links, and convert into quizzes, infographics, summaries, study guides, deliberate practice resources, flashcards, podcasts, videos.... this is so helpful for all students - particularly neurodiverse learners - to help them revise, process...
I think the best way to use AI is through a co-learning model with students. This way, it isn't "us" against "them," but instead, we are working in unison to create the best ways to use AI in education. I used PlayLab to build a custom AI bot that serves as a textbook replacement in one of my courses. My students interact with the bot before class, then complete a short formative assessment to...
Notebook LM. This is a great tool to support students in AI use with guardrails. You/they can upload their notes and any other resources and then can query off them. They can listen to a podcast of the information. They can create student guides, presentations, notecards...a ton more. This gives them the opportunity to dip their toes into the AIsphere while allowing teachers to...
Goblin Tools is great. SeeingAI is useful for some of our dyslexic students; it's an app primarily designed with visually impaired users in mind but for those students who find reading a challenge it can function as a quick, accessible read aloud tool.
Good day friends!Playlab.AI - I have used this (and I am using this) with grade 6 and grade 8 students! I'm a superintendent who GETS TO TEACH!! I finished two fellowships this past year, Generation AI (ISTE-ASCD) and Google GSV (cohort 3). I've used a bunch of tools - all powerful and fun and meaningful - so to choose one is hard! So - first Playlab.AI - then MagicSchool AI!!Playlab - why is...
A few of my college level students, have mentioned using AI to colorize black-and-white family photographs. That experience has allowed them to engage with older adults in the family to provide insight about the time period and appropriate coloring of various objects. That has made me wonder if this activity might be built into a good oral history research project that would involve an older...
I am frequently making custom Gems for students to use in all areas of their learning, but the one tool that students really latch onto and use independently once they have been shown how is NotebookLM. Students are compiling their class notes and creating living study guides for each unit. Many students are not creating shared notebooks, adding all of their collective notes and ideas that way...
Students just love Notebook LM. It allows them to analyse a huge number of documents in a short space of time. If you use this and prompt a talk well, it can really help them analyse and get the data they need out of material.
Thank you for your reply. Co-learning is part of the Collaborator standard in the ISTE Standards for Educators. I think it's important that we acknowledge that we are all learning together when it comes to GenAI. Transparency is key.