At first I must admit I was a bit skeptical at the use of AI to help with teaching, however upon entering Magic School that perspective immediately changed. Magic School is an AI tool developed for the sole purpose of helping teachers of all classroom levels have an spend less time on the more tedious parts of teaching, and more time on actually teaching. As a pop-up stated their goal is to reduce teacher burnout as much as possible through the use of convinient AI tools. However, this does not mean they wish for the teacher’s job to be fully converted into AI doing the work, and they have a disclaimer and advice pop-up that suggests the best way of using these tools. They also allowed the user to set parameters they might enjoy in order to create a more smooth experience.
I appreciated that they remind teachers who use these tools that they are only intended to be used as the initial step and has limitations. This is not a cure all solution, but requires a human component to both check the work and use their judgement appropriately.
The first thing I did was discuss with Magic School’s AI chatbot Raina, where confused how to use it I decided to use a suggested question and see what answer I was given. The prompt was “How can I facilitate a discussion on recent global news?” (picture on the left), then after getting a reply I asked for some sample questions to be provided for ideas and brainstorming (Picture on the right).
One feature I appreciate is how the sample questions don’t give a specific event, but instead provide a fill in the blank format to use and insert with your own research in order to apply it in your own classroom environment. Not wanting to spend all my time chatting with Raina I decided to explore some of the other tools and options that were provided to me (there were a LOT of tools). The first tool that caught my eye was one that could turn a YouTube video into a quiz. I Used Endocrine System, Part 1 – Glands & Hormones: Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology #23 by CrashCourse as I have fond memories of watching many of their videos when I was in High School and I was given the following 7 question multiple choice quiz:
1. What is the main topic of discussion in the video?
a. Hormones and reproduction
b. Endocrine system and hormones
c. Nervous system and glands
d. Hormonal stereotypes
2. How many different types of hormones are mentioned in the video?
a. 25
b. 50
c. 75
d. 100
3. What is the function of the pituitary gland in the endocrine system?
a. It regulates metabolism
b. It produces sex hormones
c. It triggers emotional responses
d. It controls the homeostasis of the body
4. Which system uses lightning-fast electrochemical action potentials for communication?
a. Endocrine system
b. Nervous system
c. Immune system
d. Digestive system
5. What is the main function of cortisol during times of major stress?
a. Lowering blood pressure
b. Regulating blood sugar
c. Managing immune response
d. Initiating fight-or-flight response
6. Why are some hormones called lipid-soluble?
a. Because they are made of amino acids
b. Because they are slow-acting
c. Because they are derived from lipids
d. Because they regulate metabolism
7. How does the hypothalamus contribute to the stress response?
a. By releasing sex hormones
b. By stopping the secretion of panic hormones
c. By producing insulin
d. By controlling blood pressure
The Quiz also provided an Answer Key, but as I didn’t know where the answers came from: I further prompted the AI for the timestamps in the video so I could double-check it’s work. To this request I was given a vague timestamp but that was still better than nothing. Below I have displayed some other AI tools provided on Magic School that I did not cover in this post. Even though my experience with magic school was positive and I can see the benefits it could provide, when it comes down to if I would actually use these AI tools in the classroom environment I would say no. While lots of these tools are useful, I feel I would need to build up personal experience in things such as creating quizzes, lesson plans, rubrics, etc. in order to properly judge how useful this AI is. Without prior experience I won’t know for certain whether the tool is helping or harming my teaching. So until I gain this experience I would personally avoid the use of AI. However, with that being said, using the tool for fun things such as generating jokes or jeopardy quiz games could still be used.
Hi Everett,
I really enjoyed your reading your honest opinion about the Magic School and how you’ve provided the information about different features of it. I agree with you, though lots of AI tools are helpful but we definitely need to develop our experience. Thank you for sharing your quizzes creation review, it was interesting to read it.
Uzma
Hey Everett!
I really appreciate the title of this blog post. Very clever! I also looked at Magic School AI. It is amazing all of the capabilities of this AI website. There’s an educator on TikTok – Dr. Tyler Tarver, who created a few guidelines for using AI in the classroom and the one that stuck out to me is using AI for assistance, but not substitution. I think this is great advice for teachers and students as we all navigate through AI. I wonder if this is what it felt like when the internet was being introduced into schools?
I will definitely take a look at Dr. Tyler Tarver as having a few extra guidelines won’t hurt. And the point of AI making a similar impact on education like the internet back in the day definitely seems like an apt description. I hadn’t thought of it that way.