Let me start by saying that I am new to the AI game. Prior to taking this class the only AI tool that I have used is chatgpt, and I had only used it a couple of times. For this assignment I checked out a few different tools. The three that I found most useful/easiest to use were copilot, GPTzero, and magic school. I decided to try out magic school and this tool is quite amazing. I started by scrolling through the website and checking out the different options. I decided to try the Rubric Generator, so I took one of my assignments that I knew I didn’t love the rubric for and put the assignment into the tool and poof, there it is.
I attached this to my assignment and now I have a new rubric. Next I wanted to test out the worksheet generator. It was super easy. I chose a topic (basketball), and a grade level and it did the rest of the work. Here is the grade 11 worksheet that was generated.
Hopefully that link works but what it created was a three page document with fill in the blank, multiple choice, and short answer questions. It also attached an answer key!
I think that magic school is a great tool for teachers for a number of reasons. I love that it is easy to generate grade appropriate assignments without having to provide extra information or continually asking the AI tool to make little changes. I also like that this is a time saver, especially when generating a rubric. I find rubrics so time consuming and I know there are other rubric generators out there but I never really found one I liked previous to this one. I think that an AI tool is nice to have in your back pocket. Sometimes you have an idea for an assignment but just don’t know how to put it on paper or in a presentation. This can provide that extra help that teachers sometimes need to get their message across. The other thing that I noticed while working through some examples is that it can provide different ideas for you to use when teaching. Looking at the basketball worksheet that was created I realized that there are some aspects of the game that I don’t always go into detail on and I probably should. Having the worksheet is a reminder to make sure I cover those areas.
Magic School is a tool designed specifically for teachers but there is a sister site called magic student which is a great resource for students that provides all types of writing tools as well as creative ways for students to present their work.
I think that if AI is used properly and with a bit of caution it can have a place in education. I think what we need to be aware of is having AI do the work for students and teachers. I think that it is important that teachers don’t just rely on AI as that can take the creativity and fun out of lessons.
Today I was having lunch with a colleague who is in his 28th year of teaching. He asked me if I use AI. I said, I have been using it a little bit since I started this class. He went on to tell me that his friends wife was showing him the magic school website. He was amazed by what the AI tool could do. I told him that ironically I was going to be blogging about magic school today and that I have used it to create a few resources of my own. For me it was cool to see an old school teacher acknowledging the benefits that AI can provide.
I also reviewed MagicAI and my review wasn’t quite as favourable as yours. My biggest issue with Magic AI was that in order to do any sort of customization you had to do a paid version, and I thought their questions were pretty basic, at least in math. I think it is a big time saver though, and one thing I liked about it was how it can directly export to google, or other systems. Have you compared it to any other AI tools?
Hey,
I just read yours and I think a big difference was what we were asking it to do. I wanted a rubric and a basketball work sheet that were both quite simple to generate. I can totally see that the more complicated subjects would provide more difficulty with not being able to refine the results with further prompts. I have tried a few other tools but not in detail. This is something that I’d like to explore more when I have more time.
I am going to have to check out Magic school now after reading this. I know we have talked a lot about it here but I still have not got a chance to take a critical look at it. I find AI extremely helpful so I can put more effort into the things that matter like making connections with those I work with, since I work with teachers I find that I spend less time working on my presentations for them and more time on activities I will do with them to bring an element of interaction and dimension to my presentations. I am pro AI if used responsibly. I like to think about it as AI should “help” not “do” the work for us. Thanks for sharing about Magic School I will be sure to look it over now and recommend it to teachers I work with.
Yes I think Magic School can be a helpful tool for the right people. I am not sure how great it is for literacy, I haven’t tried that out at all but I know it has a lot of different literacy tools available so I would definitely recommend checking out and seeing it if works for you or them.