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What Are Your Favorite AI Teaching Tools?

Teaching with AI
What Are Your Favorite AI Teaching Tools?
Posted by S. Melissa Steinhardt on October 29, 2025 at 3:05 pm
I realized I posted this discussion topic in the wrong place:
One of the great things about community college is that we get students at such a wide range of college readiness. This adds a depth of diversity in the classroom. Some students are learning things for the first time while others are seasoned pros. That means we have to provide differentiation to meet the diverse needs of our learners. AI is immensely helpful in that regard, and apps like Diffit make it even easier (I know I sound like a commercial, but this is an honest, human review/recommendation ). Diffit provides a solid starting point that simplifies differentiation and scaffolding.
Khanmigo and Magic School can also help save time (though Magic School is not a favorite of mine). I was recently in a professional development course where several instructors said they struggled to lead Socratic discussions because they weren’t confident in developing questions or differentiating them. These tools can provide guiding resources for instructors who need that support.
What are some of your favorite AI teaching tools?
~Melissa🌺
S. Melissa Steinhardt replied 1 month, 3 weeks ago 4 Members 6 Replies
6 Replies

S. Melissa Steinhardt
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October 29, 2025 at 3:08 pm
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@brynbrown Bryn, all the tools I mentioned have beginner-friendly interfaces, but they may not be the best fit for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses. NotebookLM could be a fun place to start. What’s great about it is that you can upload your own sources, which then become the inputs the AI uses. From there, you can create custom videos, podcasts, quizzes, and other materials based on prompts and sources you provide. The content can be as simple or as complex as you want. It’s a great, low-pressure way to start experimenting with GenAI integration.
@edluna and I have shared ways we like to use AI as a starting point and then refine the results with a more human touch. Starting out slowly is probably the best way to avoid becoming overly confident about AI integration without a deep appreciation of the risks and limitations—just as the study @gailclarke shared earlier this week pointed out.
~Melissa🌺

Laurie Pendleton and Bryn Brown
- Gail Clarke
  Member
  October 30, 2025 at 10:09 am
  Hey Melissa — I love how you’re highlighting the importance of a thoughtful approach to AI. I’m including a New York Times piece in tomorrow’s Weekly Round-Up that looks at Cal State’s new partnerships with Amazon and OpenAI, and the questions they raise about where this trend might be heading in higher ed.
  
  S. Melissa Steinhardt
  - S. Melissa Steinhardt
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    October 31, 2025 at 11:29 am
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    Gail,
    I read the NYT’s article. I’m off to figure out how my institution can get a bite (byte) of that $4 billion Microsoft investment.
    ~Melissa🌺
    
    Kelly Williamson and Wendy Bratina
Wendy Bratina
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October 30, 2025 at 9:34 am
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This may be simple, but the tool I’m using right now is ChatGPT to help me curate case scenarios in my classes to be used for different scenarios focused on skills. For instance, I used it to show models of a client interview and a service plan for my human services students.

Mary Kate Terrell, S. Melissa Steinhardt and Laurie Pendleton
- Laurie Pendleton
  Member
  October 30, 2025 at 9:47 am
  That’s such a great use of AI! It is one of those tasks that can take hours to create on your own, but using AI allows you to create multiple scenarios so that each group or even student can have a different one.
  
  Wendy Bratina and S. Melissa Steinhardt
- S. Melissa Steinhardt
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  October 30, 2025 at 9:56 am
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  Nothing wrong with simplicity, Wendy, I use ChatGPT and Gemini to develop case studies and role-playing scenarios for my leadership students. Facilitating these activities is a much better use of our time than developing 25 different scenarios.
  🌺
  
  Wendy Bratina