Educators, have you ever wondered how you can make your classroom more interactive and engaging? These powerful machine learning tools have just given us a tool to help students practice their writing, reading, and comprehension skills.

Before we compare two specific companies, I’m writing to share how educators can use AI and machine learning as a tool for themselves in their classrooms. Magic Write is not yet available for educators on Canva.com but is available on the free private account. I have used my personal account in using Magic Write. I have been assured that a version for educators is coming soon.

Let’s start by saying that any AI, machine learning, or technology used in the classroom must be taught with digital citizenship principles. Teaching ethics and living as a healthy digital citizen is needed in our world. Teaching how to cite sources, stay away from plagiarism, and why there is a need to protect personal information is a start. 

Also, teaching kindness, not stealing someone’s work of any kind, and living with integrity all have a place in our classrooms. When we teach living with integrity, being kind, and being a healthy digital citizen, we lay a foundation that helps educators in the classroom when talking about AI, machine learning, and other technologies.

“We also need to remember that language, even from ChatGPT, is deeply linked to culture and cognition” – Bryan A. Brown, Professor of Education at Stanford

Words have meaning. And the meaning may be different from one culture to the next. The definition of words also changes over time. Programs such as ChatGPT and Canva.com Magic Write are new. They will continue to improve as they learn. 

But depending on the cultural makeup of your school, an educator will need to be mindful of the language they receive from an AI program. As an educator, know the different cultures in your class, so that you can pick up on these nuances. 

AI is not as meaningful as real-life conversations. Brainstorming with colleagues, and collaborating on projects, is where I find significant meaningful learning takes place. AI is just a tool to supplement, not replace.

Let’s define machine learning. It’s a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows systems to automatically learn and improve from experience with being explicitly programmed. It involves using statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to “learn” with data, without being explicitly programmed. 

This learning can be surprising or unsupervised. It can also be reinforced when the system learns to make decisions by interacting with its environment and receives feedback. 

Some places it is currently being used are:

• Image and speech recognition
• Fraud detection
• Robotics
• Healthcare
• Self-driving cars
• Recommender systems

These are just a small list of where you may already see AI and Machine Learning in use. 

Before I dig into the weeds on the differences between ChatGPT and Canva Magic Write, let me show you what the different software had to say: 

ChaptGPT: “ChatGPT is a general-purpose language model that uses machine learning to generate text on a wide range of topics. ChatGPT is a powerful language model because it’s trained on a much larger dataset and is capable of performing a wide range of language-related tasks, such as answering questions, generating summaries, and composing coherent paragraphs and documents.”

Magic Write: 

“Canva Magic Write is a text-editing tool that allows you to quickly and easily create content with natural language. It uses natural language processing and AI to help you create content more quickly and accurately.”

Chat GPT and Canva Magic Write are both text-generating tools that can help you generate content for your website and social media posts, lesson plans, and more.

Both are incredible tools and have incredible power in helping the teacher in the classroom. But as schools have become fearful of cheating and sharing personal information with ChatGPT, I have found that as a teacher using these tools, Canva Magic Write has become my go-to AI tool.

WHY Magic Write?

1. It feels like home. No really. I was drawn to Canva.com because of its design, ease of use, and layout. I was reminded of years ago when I went from a clunky computer to an Apple computer and discovered the mouse. The mouse was brand new to the general public. Oh, how I loved the mouse. 

I know I’m dating myself, but it’s true. Moving to Canva from other programs as an educator, writer, and team leader, I could hear echoes of years ago when I shouted with excitement about the new tool of a mouse and how Spell Check was going to help this dyslexic young woman take on the world. I was back home.

With Canva, once again I felt like I could take on the world by creating graphics for my students, teams, and presentations that were professional and engaging in a lot less time. There was a behind-the-scenes assistant helping me with templates, graphics, and more.

Then came docs within the Canva family. I could create prompts for my students that easily inserted engaging graphics and charts. And this new tool, called Magic Write is a tool within the doc. Now I have a team of assistants!

1. I do not fear losing any of the responses I am given from AI. Canva allows me to keep my work in folders well organized. The latest version includes an improved auto-save feature that allows you quickly and easily store your writing drafts in the cloud, an upgraded spell checker that catches more errors and typos, and a new improved user interface that makes the writing experience easier and more enjoyable. 

2. If I have a question, I ask right there within the doc. It’s not a Google search that will pull up a resource. Instead, it ‘talks’ to you in giving you the information you need. 

3. Canva is designed to make it easy to create professional designs and documents. Magic Write continues to help creators, educators, and more create now with words as well as images.

4. I just learned that Magic Write has the ability to summarize sites and fact check! (Thank you Canva) As an educator I have focused on getting three other academic or professional sites as I fact check. Magic Write will become a 4th add on. It’s important to teach students how to find reliable sources in the era of fake news. It’s important as an educator to have our facts accurate.

In conclusion, AI and machine learning tools like ChatGPT and Canva Magic Write can be powerful tools for educators to make their classrooms more interactive and engaging. However, it’s important to remember that language is deeply linked to culture and cognition, so educators must be mindful of the cultural makeup of their classrooms and the language generated by these tools. 

With all programs, we must fact check, cite our sources, and critically evaluate what is presented. Additionally, it’s important to teach digital citizenship principles and to use these tools as a supplement, not a replacement, for real-life conversations and collaborations. With the right approach, these tools can help educators to create engaging and effective learning experiences for their students.