I am by no means an AI expert, but I do like to tinker and try new ed tech tools in my classroom. This post will describe four tools I have been experimenting with recently. I hope to inspire you to come up with new ways to help students engage in deeper learning.

1. Story File. This video technology uses artificial intelligence to match video responses to student questions. Imagine an Alexa that helps your students interview any historical figure living or dead? Story File is ideal for helping students practice asking interview questions and conducting oral history projects. Try Story File and watch your students improve their speaking and listening skills.

2. TeachFX. Imagine a Fitbit that uses AI to track the student conversations in your classroom. Teachers download the app on their phones, record whole class conversations, and get feedback on who spoke and how long they spoke within minutes. Reflecting on these talk ratios is a powerful reflection point for teachers. Plus, the interactive transcripts can give even your most introverted students a chance to demonstrate what they learned from a Socratic Seminar where they remained silent. TeachFX can be a game-changer for teachers who want to build soft skills like deliberation and conversation in their classrooms.

3. Class Companion. How much would it cost to have a personalized writing coach give your students individual, real-time feedback as they compose drafts? Based on research that shows students can be encouraged to make multiple attempts in safe environments, Class Companion shows how student writers can motivated by fast feedback and the opportunity to improve upon their mistakes.

4. Sherpa. This program uses AI to ask a series of questions about the text uploaded by a teacher or student. The student responds to the prompts via video or audio and the AI flags areas where student answers wander off point. These can be followed up on by the teacher so that misunderstood concepts do not become misconceptions or learning gaps. Two Stanford students started this platform to help students talk through an assigned reading so that teachers could hear how well they really understood it. Here’s a video from one of their founders explaining new features.

Asking students to reflect on the iterative feedback they get from AI tools like these may be an effective way to get them to engage in deeper learning. As Artificial Intelligence causes you to rethink your traditional assignments, how can you use tools like these to get more metacognition and problem-solving from your students?

Go to bit.ly/4AItools for the slides I used to present this material.