AI and technology that make teaching easier.

ChatGPT is probably the AI tool I use most. I use it every day as a personal assistant: somewhere to develop ideas, ask questions, solve problems and, increasingly, actually create things.

I use it to design websites, build online tools and resources, analyse data, create documents and develop ideas from a very rough starting point into something I can actually use. It is also one of the best AI image creators I have used, particularly when you want to keep developing and refining an image rather than accepting the first result.

It is brilliant for creating resources. I can scan in an existing worksheet, for example, and ask ChatGPT to recreate it as a properly formatted document with questions, answer spaces and examples, ready to give to students.

For me, its biggest strength is its versatility. I do not really use ChatGPT for one particular job. It has become the AI assistant that sits alongside pretty much everything I do.

Claude is my go-to when I want to code or build something more substantial. I use it a lot for developing websites, web apps, interactive tools and resources.

I particularly like using its Design Mode because I do not just want something that works. I want it to look good as well. I can describe an idea, build it, test it and then keep refining the design and functionality until I get what I actually had in mind.

I also use Claude for creating animations and interactive elements, which means I can take what would once have been a fairly static teaching resource and turn it into something much more engaging.

NotebookLM has become my default research tool. The important difference for me is that I can give it the sources I want it to work from: documents, PDFs, websites and other material, then ask questions based specifically on that information.

That makes it particularly useful when accuracy matters and I do not want AI filling in the gaps or creating information that is not actually in my sources.

I also use it extensively with YouTube. If I find a long video containing something I want to reference, I can use NotebookLM to analyse and summarise it rather than having to go back through the entire video myself.

It can then turn that research into summaries, reports, infographics and other useful information. I often take those outputs and feed them into other AI tools to create resources, websites or interactive tools.

Napkin AI was one of my go-to tools for creating quick infographics and visualising information. Give it some text and it can turn that information into diagrams and graphics without having to design everything yourself.

I probably do not use it as much as I used to. Other AI tools have developed incredibly quickly, whereas Napkin has not progressed at quite the same rate. There have been some interesting new features added recently, so it is still one I keep an eye on.

It is worth trying, particularly if you want a quick way of turning written information into something more visual, but it is not as essential to my workflow as it once was.

Genially has become my go-to replacement for the traditional PowerPoint at school. I use it when I want to create something interactive, multimedia-based or simply more engaging than a standard presentation.

One of its biggest strengths is the ability to embed code, which means you can create your own interactive tools and almost mini-websites that can then be shared with students, staff or anyone else through a link.

A lot of the interactive resources on this website have been created using Genially. You will probably recognise them when they appear because you will see the Genially branding. Feel free to have a play with them.

There is a free version, which is more than enough to get started. If you begin creating more sophisticated resources, you will eventually find some limitations and may want one of the paid plans. I pay for the full version yearly and, for the amount I use it, I think it is well worth it. For a teacher simply wanting to experiment, though, I would start with the free version and see how far you can push it.

ElevenLabs is my go-to tool for AI voices and voiceovers. I use it across videos, presentations, social media and interactive resources whenever I want professional-sounding audio without having to sit down and record everything manually.

I have also cloned my own voice, so I can create a script and have ElevenLabs generate the voiceover in a version of my voice. You will hear that used in quite a few of the resources I have created.

It is one of those tools that becomes increasingly useful once you start combining it with everything else. I can develop an idea in ChatGPT, build something interactive in Claude or Genially, and then use ElevenLabs to add the voice and audio.