AI in school, Magic School

    For this week I will be exploring the website Magic School and utilizing its AI lesson plan creating function to adhere to the Oklahoma Academic Standards:

5. VA.CP.3.2 The student will apply creative thinking to demonstrate artmaking techniques. Express emotions, personal ideas, images, and themes through artistic choices of media, techniques, and subject matter.

Magic School AI Lesson Plan - Visual Arts G5

Evaluate the quality of the lesson.  Is it well aligned with the standard that you provided? Is the lesson sufficiently rigorous? Are assessments aligned with the objective and the lesson procedure/content? 

    The produced lesson plan is bare framework of a lesson plan that does provide activities that do adhere to the content standards provided. To utilize this lesson plan, there certainly needs to be more ‘meat’ added to the ‘bare bones’ provided.

    For example the images provided to convey learning goals for student’s must rely on the teacher’s content and pedagogical knowledge to efficient convey examples of expression through visuals and set up expectations for students.

    I think it’s interesting that the AI bot has considered potential learning obstacles and solutions such as pre-addressing common misconceptions of needing complicated techniques to convey expression, and additional extension activities for those who work faster and need additional  exercise.

How to introduce the elements of design could vary greatly among teacher’s personal preference and focal points. This lesson plan still needs specific learning content for the lesson and scaffolding activities to have students move from new terminology and ideas to completing a class project and homework. Mastering basic terminology and previewing examples of line, shape, contrast, movement, and color would be necessary before student’s could engage in meaningful work.

In your expert opinion, is the tool useful for the creation of rigorous lesson plans?  Support your answer with evidence.

    I think the tool is useful in creating rigorous lesson plans. As AI production is a tool, two individuals may end up with widely different results. As the prompt and input I gave to Magic School AI was extremely basic and generic, the lesson plan created was equally generic. As educators are more specific with their learning goals and parameters for class expectations, Magic School could also provide a corresponding lesson. However according to the OAS and the framework provided, the activities in this lesson plan do in fact allow for students to engage in meaningful learning by taking elements of design and creating original work that could be reflective of students personalized learning goals, ( creative expression) and the optional extended activity ( consider other perspectives). The homework of a written reflection could also be adjusted to incorporate technology as a peer-reviewed assignment via shared digital tools. This further extends the learning goal to reflect on multiple perspectives and reinforce terminology and elements of design.

Does the lesson reflect the readings that we have had in class in the last few weeks? In what ways?

     We have read about Triple E’s engage, enhance, extend framework that is reflective in the Magic School lesson plan. I believe the reading by Gura (2020) describes the importance of working memory and executive function, redirecting oneself when there are no explicit rules in place, which can be achieved through open-ended assignment tasks. This allows students to be creative within a structured environment, while increasing engagement. The lesson really sums up the Office of Education Technology (2023) article on AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning by describing how AI cannot simply replace the role of educators, but tools such as the Magic School can free up teacher’s of some time-intensive activities and have more time to respond in creative and teachable ways .

Part 2: Interact with at least one AI powered tool of your choosing on the Magic School page.

Which tool did you choose?  What does it do?

    I explored a few different tools on the Magic School student page, and decided to write about the Rap Battle function.

    This was a surprisingly quirky and fun tool. With the Rap battle function, users are able to create and educational rap battle by entering who the battle is between as well as any other specific information that students are learning about these figures.

    The function then produces a one-on-one rap dialogue between the two figures, while eliciting historically accurate information in a rap battle stanza.

Is it useful?

    I would love to incorporate this somehow in a ELA, social studies, or even mixed media course curriculum as it allows for a fun, non-traditional way of learning about history, public figures, or other course concepts from multiple perspectives. I imagine this could make for a fun and engaging activity. Rap battle may be able to extend learning activity by assigning students into groups and performing a Rap battle similar to a class debate. For the activity of expressing via visual elements and design, the rap battle could be between different emotions like Anger vs. Joy. The students could use Rap battle to create a dialogue utilizing terminology from class and could also incorporate visual elements to create a performance piece.

 

Reflection

Magic School contains abundant resources that certainly could be utilized to create an interactive course curriculum. I would definitely consider adding these tools into my own courses and would recommend them to colleagues as well. I think the convenience and utilization of the website is relatively intuitive and could efficiently be implemented into class as long as students have equitable access to technological resources. The tools available could help teacher’s reduce some clerical work time, and may lend to creative and blended-learning activity ideas.

There are some resources such song/lyric generators, image, writing, and step-by-step functions that can engage students by creating professional-like results in less time. These tools can be utilized to create engaging activities that take traditional school assignments and bring them to life with new-age appearance.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for teacher’s and administration is monitoring online access and digital tools being explicitly used for school-related activity and students staying on task. Also providing students with equitable access and sufficient working time with the technology may be a challenge for some schools.

Another challenge for both students and teachers is creating authentic, honest work. Relying too much on convenience and AI-produced work defeats the purpose of learning. For both groups, AI should be used as a starting point and as a tool for streamlining some process, but should not replace original work.

 

Conclusion:

I see many benefits to Magic School. As listed above, the engaging activities, efficient planning, time-saving and convenience and accessibility across curriculum all are benefits.

The key points from Guidance and Considerations for Using Artificial Intelligence in Oklahoma K-12 Schools (2025) highlights AI is not to replace human instruction, should promote equity and access, and protect student’s well-being and safety. Just as the document states, AI is not something to be ignored and will simply go away, but rather a integral component of modern society that needs to handled as a tool that should be treated ethically and responsibly.

As ISTE stand 1.3.b states, students should be able to evaluate the accuaracy, validity, and bias of digital content. Young minds need guidance and the role of instructors should be to help students discern reliable sources as well as maintain academic integrity by not relying on AI to replace student learning.

I have not utilized AI in the classroom yet as an activity tool for students. As a tool for lesson planning, using AI generators has made for great reductions in time preparation, however I have yet to implement AI as a student available resource. I believe educators proficient in AI policy and implementation is a effective tool for customizing student-based learning environments.

 

 

Resources:

 

Crompton, H., Burke, D. The Nexus of ISTE Standards and Academic Progress: A Mapping Analysis of Empirical Studies. TechTrends (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-024-00973-y

 

Guidance and Considerations for Using Artificial Intelligence in Oklahoma K-12 Schools 2.0.(2025)

 

Gura, M. (2020). Fostering Student Creativity. EdTech Digest the State of the Arts, Creativity, and Technology 2020: A Guide for Educators and Parents. p. 7. Gura (2020).pdf

 

Office of Educational Technology. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning.