How can I use it to plan and prep?
Now that you know what AI is and some key considerations you need to consider before using AI, let’s explore how to use it to ease your professional workload. This section is broken into three main parts:
Using AI for planning and preparing class materials
Educators can leverage AI to streamline routine administrative tasks that consume valuable time. AI tools can be used to adjust the reading levels of texts, generate practice activities, and quickly create formative assessments aligned with learning objectives. These technologies are particularly valuable for handling repetitive documentation tasks like rewording emails, drafting parent letters, or organizing curriculum materials. They free educators to focus on the vital aspects of teaching that require human touch: building relationships, providing personalized feedback, and facilitating meaningful classroom discussions and activities.
Click to view or download the infographic in the left column, which contains ideas and prompts for educators to try! English version — French Version
Want more ideas on how to use AI in your specific subject domain?
We are working on adding AI connections to all of our subjects and approaches pages on this website! Keep checking them for new & updated tips and resources!
Effective Prompt Writing
AI prompts are the instructions that you give AI systems to generate content. The quality and relevance of an AI’s output is directly related to the quality of its dataset and prompt(s) used to generate the output.
- Clear and effective prompt writing is crucial for obtaining accurate and useful results from AI; and
- Follow-up prompts can improve accuracy to help AI tools understand the user’s needs.
Writing Techniques
Despite their impressive capabilities to quickly analyse large amounts of data, many AI systems lack a nuanced understanding of human intent and cultural references (Yadav, 2024). They often take things literally and do not extrapolate things like the user’s role or intended audience. This is why good AI prompts provide clear and specific guardrails or directives.
Your prompts should:
- Use precise language
- Explain your role and intent
- Specify constraints and parameters on the output (in terms of word count, reading level, sources or specific pedagogical intention, etc.).
- Include keywords (e.g. UDL, STEAM, the reading level of a specific program, etc.).
Just as students learn through examples and practice, AI systems refine their outputs based on clear instructions and iterative prompts. You can continue to refine your initial prompt to get more precise output!
Want to improve your prompts? Try out our interactive game for educators!
REMEMBER: Your prompts should never include confidential information!
Evaluating AI Output
Teachers and students must practice critically evaluating AI output—accuracy and biases are two key points to consider. Let’s explore this in more detail.
Accuracy
AI can generate misinformation or hallucinate (makeup) resources that aren’t real. It is essential to cross-reference content to ensure reliability. Verifying the information with three reliable sources (triangulation) is recommended.
If generating content for your class, you should:
- Cross-reference official MEQ documents to ensure the content aligns with the Competencies and Progression of Learning Documents.
- Verify information against multiple reputable sources, such as textbooks and academic journals.
Tips: Prompt AI for references, then verify those references really exist! You can also include constraints and parameters, such as which documents you want the AI system to pull from.
Bias
Examining all outputs for biases is crucial to creating fair and representative educational materials. You should:
- Analyze AI output for cultural representation, misrepresentation & misinformation.
- Check for gender-balanced language and examples.
- Identify and correct any potential stereotypes.
- Ensuring diverse perspectives are represented.
Tips: Checking for bias can be difficult because we all hold biases (whether conscious or not). You’ll need to cross-check information and, if necessary, ask someone from the specific social group to vet the content. (eg. If you’re generating an activity to learn more about an Indigenous Nation, please make sure the content is not pan-Indigenous and ask someone from that specific Nation to vet the content). You can even try to run the output through AI again and ask it to help identify potential missing perspectives or biases.
The goal is to create inclusive materials that speak to and respect all students, regardless of their background, identity, or experience.
Our Past Webinars
Check out these resources from a webinar we hosted on Experience AI with Digital Moment on January 2025.
Resources: