Tim Ballaret once dreamed of becoming a stockbroker but ultimately found fulfillment helping high school students in south Los Angeles understand the relevance of math and science to their daily lives. But making engaging class materials is time-consuming, so this spring he started experimenting with generative AI tools.
Recommendations by friends and influential teachers on social media led Ballaret to try MagicSchool, a tool for K-12 educators powered by OpenAI’s text generation algorithms. He used it for tasks like creating math word problems that match his students’ interests, like Taylor Swift and Minecraft, but the real test came when he used MagicSchool this summer to outline a year’s worth of lesson plans for a new applied science and engineering class.
“Taking back my summer helped me be more refreshed for a new school year,” he says. “When I’m not spending so much time at home doing these things, I’m able to spend more time with my family and my friends and my wife so I can be my best at work, instead of being tired or rundown.”
Students’ soaring use of AI tools has gotten intense attention lately, in part due to widespread accusations of cheating. But a recent poll of 1,000 students and 500 teachers in the US by studying app Quizlet found that more teachers use generative AI than students. A Walton Family Foundation survey early this year found a similar pattern, and that about 70 percent of Black and Latino teachers use the technology weekly. As more companies adapt generative AI to help educators, more teachers like Ballaret are experimenting with the technology to find out its strengths—and how to avoid its limitations or flaws.
Since its launch roughly four months ago, MagicSchool has amassed 150,000 users, founder Adeel Khan says. The service was initially offered for free but a paid version that costs $9.99 monthly per teacher launches later this month. MagicSchool adapted OpenAI’s technology to help teachers by feeding language models prompts based on best practices informed by Khan’s teaching experience or popular training material. The startup’s tool can help teachers do things like create worksheets and tests, adjust the reading level of material based on a student’s needs, write individualized education programs for students with special needs, and advise teachers on how to address student behavioral problems. Competing services, including Eduaide and Diffit, are developing their own AI-powered assistants for educators.
All those companies claim generative AI can fight teacher burnout at a time when many educators are leaving the profession. The US is short of about 30,000 teachers, and 160,000 working in classrooms today lack adequate education or training, according to a recent study by Kansas University’s College of Education.
Study author Tuan Nguyen says generative AI is unlikely to heal the problem, which is related to poor pay and working conditions, and a perceived lack of prestige, not just working long hours. “AI tools can potentially save teachers time and can even help teachers target and individualize their instruction, but at this point, I don’t think they are going to change the teacher labor market,” says Nguyen.
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