Cool Tools for the New Semester! Enrich Your Teaching and Lighten Your Workload!
Authors: Teddy Kim; info@ciddl.org
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant concept; it is already embedded in the ways students learn and teachers work. For educators, AI has the potential to significantly reduce the burden of lesson planning and grading, allowing more time to focus on meaningful engagement with students (Goldman et al., 2024). For students, AI provides personalized support in reading, writing, studying, and research (CIDDL, 2024). Banning AI in schools is not only unrealistic but also unwise, because such restrictions prevent teachers from showing students how to use these tools responsibly and effectively. The question is not whether AI will appear in classrooms, but how educators can guide its appropriate and ethical use.
Cool Tools Overview
As with any resource, it is important to remember that CIDDL does not endorse any particular tool. Moreover, as teachers and students explore AI-based platforms, they must remain mindful of privacy guidelines.
This section introduces several tools that can support teachers and students. To make their features easy to compare, the overview is organized in a table with three columns: the first identifies the tool by ”Name”, the second summarizes its main use case under the label “Best For”, and the third highlights the most essential feature available in the free version under the label “Free Access”.
Tools for Teachers
| Name | Features | Free Access |
| Google Classroom | Centralized class management and assignment distribution. Teachers can post announcements, assign work, grade submissions, and communicate easily with students. | Available for free with Google Workspace for Education, offering assignment management, grading, announcements, and seamless integration with Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. |
| MagicSchool | AI-powered teacher assistant that creates lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, IEP goals, and even parent communication drafts. | The free account allows teachers to generate lesson plans, quizzes, and rubrics. |
| Canva | Designing visual teaching materials such as posters, presentations, and infographics to support classroom instruction. | The free plan provides access to essential templates, presentations, posters, and basic design elements. |
| Eduaide | Quickly generating instructional resources, formative assessments, and differentiated learning activities using AI. | Free accounts include limited credits to create instructional materials, questions, and activity ideas. |
Tools for Students
| Name | Features | Free Access |
| ChatGPT | Brainstorming ideas, practicing writing, receiving instant explanations, and exploring different perspectives on assignments. | The free version provides access to GPT-3.5 for general conversation, writing assistance, and study support. |
| Gemini | Research support, summarization, and multimodal learning (text, image, code) within Google’s ecosystem. | The free version (Gemini 1.5 Lite) supports basic Q&A, summaries, and brainstorming. |
| NotebookLM | Simplifying readings, generating study guides, and creating summaries, outlines, or podcasts from uploaded materials. | Free with a Google account, including the ability to upload documents, generate summaries, and receive AI-produced podcast-style overviews of the content. |
| ChatPDF | Interacting with long PDFs by asking questions, clarifying complex sections, and quickly finding specific details. | The free version allows limited uploads and basic Q&A with PDFs. |
| PDF AI | Annotating PDFs, extracting insights, and creating organized notes or citations directly from academic texts. | Free tier supports basic document interaction and highlighting key points. |
Guidance for Appropriate Use
Teachers should set explicit classroom guidelines for when and how AI tools may be used. This helps ensure that AI complements learning rather than replaces it (Gentile et al., 2023). Students should also be encouraged to critically evaluate AI outputs, recognizing that while these tools are powerful, they are not infallible. Transparency is equally important; students should disclose when and how they have used AI in their assignments, making clear what aspects of the work are their own. Data Privacy and Data security, meanwhile, cannot be overlooked. Teachers and students must avoid uploading sensitive personal information, student records, or proprietary content into AI systems that do not guarantee confidentiality.
In addition to these priorities, educators should help students cultivate AI Literacy by discussing ethical concerns such as bias in AI outputs, responsible citation of AI-generated content, and the long-term implications of relying too heavily on machine assistance (CIDDL, 2024). Schools should also consider developing shared policies or guidelines across departments to provide consistency in how AI use is introduced and monitored, reducing confusion for students who encounter different expectations from different instructors.
Digging Deeper: Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering refers to the practice of carefully shaping the questions and instructions we give to AI tools so that their responses are more accurate, useful, and aligned with the user’s needs. It matters because the effectiveness of AI tools depends heavily on how we interact with them: a vague question yields vague results, while a specific and structured prompt often produces clear, targeted outcomes. For teachers and students alike, learning to craft effective prompts can make the difference between AI being a distraction and AI being a genuine aid in learning.
For further reading, several CIDDL blogs provide excellent introductions to this concept and practical applications in education.
Want to Explore More? Check Out These CIDDL Blogs
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