The best AI tools for teachers

While we tend to think of generative AI as being for personal creativity or big business, there’s plenty of middleground between those points — including, of course, more generous pursuits like teaching. These are some of the best AI tools for teachers, whether you’re prepping lessons or correcting homework.

The best AI tools for teachers

You could in theory apply AI to many aspects of teaching, but it’s best suited to the ones we mentioned above. We should note that by “correcting homework,” we mostly mean fixing spelling and grammar, catching plagiarism, and detecting AI-generated content. You can sometimes use AI tools for fact-checking, but you probably already have the answers handy.

• Canva Magic Write
• ChatGPT
• Copyleaks
• Curipod
• Eduaide.Ai

Canva Magic Write

Canva’s Magic Write tool makes it easier to draft text in the context teachers need it, such as lesson plans, handouts, and visual presentations. The tool handles not just writing but tasks like brainstorming, outlines, paraphrasing, and rewriting.

You’ll probably need to finesse the end result to get something you’re happy with, but that’s to be expected. The most important thing is that Canva is free to use on a basic level, and includes other AI assist options such as Magic Edit and Magic Design. Just be aware that on a standard free plan, you’re limited to 50 uses of Magic Write. Past that you’ll have to upgrade to Canva Pro, which costs $119.99 per year or $14.99 per month, or qualify for a free K-12 Teacher account.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT might be an obvious choice for a list like this, but it’s the tool that kickstarted the hype for generative AI, and with good reason. It can answer questions, summarize reading, and help draft and proofread writing projects. As with Magic Write you may need to learn a few tricks and refine your prompts to get the results you’re after, but for a lot of teachers, ChatGPT may be the only AI tool they need to bother with.

One underrated aspect is its usefulness in research and brainstorming, since it can quickly produce lists and outlines. With research, be sure to note sources and doublecheck them — there’s no way to force GPT to pull from the most reliable textbooks and research papers. You’ll be in deep trouble if you end up using hallucinated data (a real industry term).

ChatGPT is generally free to use, although you may have to wait in line depending on demand. To get around that you can subscribe to ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month, with further benefits such as plug-ins, faster response times, and access to the AI’s latest language model.

Copyleaks

If you’re at the college/university level you may already be familiar with Copyleaks, which is regularly used to flag suspected plagiarism as well as AI-generated content from sources like GPT-4 and Google Gemini. It can even spot plagiarized code, so if you’re teaching Computer Science, it’s a way of both catching cheaters and teaching students about open-source attribution.

We should note that while there’s an AI grading feature, it’s really geared towards grading standardized tests en masse rather than the content you whip up for your own class.

You can test Copyleaks for free. Beyond that you’ll have to sign up for a subscription that starts at $167.88 per year or $16.99 per month if you want both AI and plagiarism detection. 

Curipod

Curipod is a straightforward tool for producing interactive lessons, complete with slides and graphics, and activities such as polls, word clouds, and drawing prompts. As that suggests it’s mostly intended for K-12 classrooms, but you could probably make it work at the college level for some lessons.

What’s nice here is that the tool is entirely web-based, and even free to use for the most part, the main catch being a 1,000-character limit on student responses for AI feedback. You need to upgrade to a Premium, School Site, or District plan to gain things like a 2,300-character limit and the ability to save lessons as PDFs. Premium is $90 per year or $9 per month.

Eduaide.Ai

If Curipod is too basic for your lesson needs, Eduaide.Ai takes things to the next level. The tool can generate more than 100 resource types, from simple grammar and spelling prompts to role-playing skits, resumes, and mock budgets and business models.

In fact Eduaide.Ai goes well beyond lessons, offering help with things like administrative tasks and student assessment. You can also use it for brainstorming or knowledge questions if you want, though at that point you might as well be using something like Google Gemini or ChatGPT.

When you try the tool for free, you’ll get 15 AI prompts per month with few options and limited feedback. Unlocking all the features we’ve talked about so far requires upgrading to a Pro or school-wide plan. Pro subscriptions are $49.99 per year, or $5.99 per month.