Magic Student

What is it?

Magic student is a student-facing tool from the AI platform, Magic School. If you've used Magic School to help you with teacher tasks in the past, Magic Student will feel very familiar. Teachers select one or more AI-powered "tools" and launch them to students to use in a moderated environment. 

Why should I use it?

There are many reasons to consider using Magic Student with your students. Teachers can choose from over 40 AI-powered tools that students can then interact with for a variety of purposes. For example, students might use the "song generator" tool to generate song lyrics on a topic of their choosing, to any popular tune, to help them remember an important concept or event. They may use the "step by step" tool to break a complex problem, challenge or project down into simpler, clear steps.  They may use the "idea generator" to help them get started on an open-ended project. The possibilities are really only limited by our imaginations, and even those are supported by AI. 

How do I use it?

To use Magic Student, you must have a Magic School account. You can sign up one for free. We recommend using the "login with Google" button to create an account with your work email. Once you are in Magic School, you simply have to click "launch to students", choose the tool(s) you want students to use for that session, and then share the link to the "room" with your students however you share links.  When students access it, it will not make them login but it will ask for a name. We do not currently have a privacy agreement in place, which means it's important that students do not enter their full names. They could enter their first name, their initials, a nickname, or something that does not qualify as personally identifiable information. Once students are in the room, they can use the tool(s) that you have set up for them. You can pause or close the whole room or a specific student at any time. You can also keep track of what students are asking the AI tools to do. Check out a full walk-through of the tool in the video below.

What kind of control do I have as the teacher?

• You create the "room" where students use the tools, which means you have complete control over the students' access

• You choose which tool(s) to include in a room

• You can customize a tool before you launch it to students, which gives you extra power over a tool's output to students

• You have the ability to pause, lock or delete a whole room. You can also pause, lock, or remove an individual student

• You have the ability to view each student's output history

What should I keep in mind as I use this with students?

There is a developing set of best practices that apply to all uses of AI, including Magic Student. Here are some things to consider:

• Never use PII data in your prompts or students' prompts

• Be very cautious of evaluative uses, like grading student work or providing feedback, generating IEP ideas, etc. 

• Understand that generative AI tools are known to "hallucinate" or make confident statements that include factual inaccuracies. Don't trust the AI tool to get all its facts right- be a careful and critical consumer

• Be specific with your prompts to get better results

• Be creative and ask your AI tool to make novel and unexpected connections between ideas. For example, you might ask it for ideas on developing a board game to represent an economic principle

If you want to learn more about best practices with AI, check out this self-paced PD: https://sites.google.com/cccsd.org/levelup/trainings/ai-level-one