This week in our Technology class, we spent a good amount of time discussing AI and some of its uses in the classroom. To be honest, AI has always been a bit confusing to me, and the more we learn, the more I become confused. Chat GPT was launched in the year 2022, but as we discussed in class today, it reached 1 million users in 5 days; In contrast to Spotify in 2008, which took about 5 months, and Facebook in 2004, which took around 10 months to gain 1 million users (now THAT is confusing). Our world has slowly become more obsessed with AI. Statistics Canada states that from June 2024 to 2025, 12.2% of businesses in Canada used AI to make products or provide services. This is up from 6.1% in early 2024, showing that AI use in Canadian businesses is growing quickly.

I want to look into some of the ways I might be able to incorporate AI into my future classrooms, and some of the ways I have used AI in beneficial ways as a student.

Potential Uses for Students and Teachers

There are so many ways that AI can be of good use to people. As a student, a lot of the time, I struggle to start on assignments if I can’t decide on a good topic. AI has helped me come up with ideas many times, such as drawing ideas to put into my psychology journal or prompts to get started on essays in previous courses. Many different apps and websites now incorporate features that use AI, such as Quizlet and Canva, which are also of great use to students. We also mustn’t forget Grammarly, which corrects silly mistakes as you go and recommends new words, highlighting your vocabulary to showcase mistakes and areas for improvement.

There are actually some AI websites we have discussed that I can see myself using in the future!

1. Magic School AI
2. Google Gemini
3. Padlet

I was recently taught about the website Magic School AI, and it is so much fun. As a future educator, I can definitely see myself using this website as it has features such as a joke generator that centers jokes around certain topics, a Jeopardy review game generator, and a song generator, which I’ve already experimented with.

Some Joke Examples

When I prompted for subtraction jokes for grade 2, I got:

1. Why was the number 10 worried about subtraction?
   Because it knew it might get “taken away”!
2. What did the subtraction sign say to the number?
   “You’re so great, but I can make you even smaller!”
3. Why did the number 8 break up with 3?
   Because it couldn’t handle the “negative” energy!

When I prompted for grade 5 jokes about the heart, I got:

1. Why did the heart break up with the brain?
   Because it found someone more “heartfelt”!
2. What did the heart say to the lungs?
   “You take my breath away!”
3. Why did the heart go to school?
   Because it wanted to learn how to “beat” the competition!

There is a site called Google Gemini, and I actually just discovered this by doing some random searching about AI online. This site has a free and paid version, but with the free version, you are able to create AI images.

I would totally use this feature if I needed to create last-minute posters or infographics in my classes. Since I quite enjoy my gym class, I thought I would ask AI to make me a poster for a future gym class. I tested this by asking AI to create an image of an animated little boy touching his toes with “TOE TOUCHES” written above his head, and sure enough:

I could also create an art lesson for my future class that revolves around AI-generated images. Students could think of what their favorite place looks like, and generate a photo of it with AI to help prompt an English project about their dream place or dream bedroom.

Last but not least, Padlet! This app has been used in many of my past classrooms, and I truly love it. It allows students to collaborate on ideas and showcase their thoughts on interactive digital bulletin boards. Here is a great tutorial on how to use Padlet.

Since the age range that I would like to teach is between grades 2 and 4, I can see these three tools being very useful in my future classroom. These tools can make learning more interactive, creative, and engaging for younger students. At this age, children are very visual and learn best through play, storytelling, and hands-on activities. Magic School AI can help teachers design fun review games or create songs and jokes that make lessons memorable. Google Gemini can support visual learning by generating images that help students better understand ideas or inspire creative writing and art projects. Padlet is an excellent platform for collaboration—it allows students to share their work, post reflections, and respond to classmates in a safe, guided online space.

Potential Roadblocks

AI opens the world to so many wonderful possibilities, but with these positives, also come several negatives, and potential ethical issues.

We have discussed in class that AI tends to be biased. Artificial Intelligence is gained from data that it takes from the internet, and a lot of the data on the internet reflects biases about certain topics. I found a post that speaks about the many biases that AI can have, specifically touching on gender bias and blatant racism.

AI tools can create realistic fake images, videos, and news stories, making it harder to know what’s true. This can harm people’s reputations, spread false information, and even affect elections. Even now, there are plenty of videos and photos being posted online that have already damaged reputations across the internet. For example, a man by the name of Chiranjeevi was subject to the misuse of AI when an individual created explicit videos of him without his consent. Give this article a read if you get the chance.

“Because that power is not bound with responsibility, it also means you get a flood of deepfakes”

Tristan Harris

This quote to me means that people are able to access all of this power to use AI with little to no limitations, which can be pretty darn dangerous. AI has been known to help people get away with creating rumors and engaging in fraudulent activity. There have also been cases of AI creating fake voicemails that sound exactly like your real voice.

⚠️SENSITIVE INFO! There is one more issue I would like to discuss, and that is the mental health aspects behind AI. Plenty of children have been given access to the internet and are experimenting with new technology. At younger ages, children may be using AI to write love letters to their crushes, or maybe help them find useful information without having to do too much research. Some of the things that AI gives these kids access to are severely damaging. One boy in the USA, in particular, at age 14, committed suicide after months of chatting with an AI bot. Another example is the AI nude generators. We have talked about the dangers of people being able to simply input a face into AI, to insert that face onto a body of their choice. What blew my mind is when I tried to find any information on this topic, all that popped up on my search was a bunch of AI nude generators.

Please take some time to watch this video featuring speaker Tristan Harris. He discusses the incredible power of AI and explains how it poses serious existential risks and societal challenges. At the same time, he presents AI as an opportunity for humanity to rethink how we use intelligence, rather than allowing it to control us.

My thoughts

Going into teaching, I have to admit that I feel nervous about how easily students can access AI and how many of them may not understand its improper uses. One of my biggest concerns is the risk of overreliance on AI; if students depend too heavily on AI, they can lose valuable opportunities to develop their own writing, creativity, and problem-solving skills. It’s concerning how deeply AI has already impacted the way people seek and process information; even a simple Google search now presents AI-generated answers before anything else, which makes me question accuracy and necessity. Some of the issues AI has caused genuinely worry me, but I feel hopeful that, over time, we’ll move toward safer and more responsible uses of AI.

As a future educator, I believe it’s essential to address these issues head-on. I plan to teach my students not only how to use AI responsibly, but also how to recognize its limitations and potential biases. By doing this, I hope to help them build strong critical thinking skills and use AI as a supportive learning tool rather than a shortcut. When used thoughtfully, AI can absolutely enhance education, but it should never replace human understanding, curiosity, and genuine learning.