Teaching with AI: making learning fun
Practical guidance for teachers on using AI and everyday devices such as PCs, laptops and mobile phones to teach in ways that are engaging, inclusive and meaningful, with students' curiosity and independence at the centre.
The aim is to use technology like AI to inspire and guide learners so they develop a lifelong yearning to learn, learn how to learn, and learn to be: to live a life of joy, good health and purpose.
What's in this guide
Video AI: see what the textbook describes
Textbooks describe many things students have never seen: a coral reef, a glacier, the inside of the human body. Text-to-video AI turns a sentence or two of description into a short moving picture, so students can see it before they read about it, and remember it after. Each clip below came from a short written prompt.
Use a clip to open a lesson and spark questions. Then ask students to check it against the textbook: what did the AI get right, and what did it get wrong?
Clips made by Atul Pant with Magnific, on a paid plan.
Music AI: songs that make facts stick
Some things simply have to be remembered: times tables, the elements, dates, formulas. A tune makes that much easier. Think of how many songs you still know by heart. Text-to-music AI can turn a list of facts into a catchy song in a few minutes, in any language and style. Tell it the topic, the language and the mood, and it writes the music and sings the words.
Go one step further: ask students to write the words of their own revision song. Getting the facts right, and making them fit the tune, is learning too.
The 13 times table, in Tamil
Count up in thirteens with a song that is easy to hum.
The periodic table, in English
The elements of the periodic table, set to a tune to sing along with.
Songs made by Atul Pant with Suno, using its free plan. Under Suno's free-plan terms, the songs belong to Suno and are shared here for non-commercial learning use.
Examples: classroom games made with AI
Looks tricky? It is not. Tell the AI what you need, in plain English, and it does the rest. Each of these games was made by asking an AI chatbot, then refined with a little feedback. They were first used in The Value of You workshops. All are free and run in any web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. No AI account needed.
Watch the video to see many of them in action.
School subjects
Class 9 biology revision: the whole class plays a quiz-board show in teams.
Play Bio Quest →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/A team grammar race, built from a student's idea.
Play Grammar Express →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Class 11 accountancy: practise the golden rules of debit and credit on a village shop's daybook.
Play Meenakshi Stores Daybook →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Show 5 more subject games
Class 9 percentages and profit and loss, played as a run chase.
Play Percentage Premier League →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Half the school is dark. Use a multimeter to find the faults and relight four rooms before the science exhibition.
Play Blackout Brigade →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/A whole-class physics game on weight, pull and how much a cable can take.
Play Cliffside Rescue →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/The prompt “Convert the Class 8 Exploring Continents chapter into a simple game” made this.
Play Across Africa →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/One prompt made a picture explaining photosynthesis; another turned it into this revision quiz.
Play Photosynthesis Revision Mission →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Life skills and how our minds work
A class game on how trust is earned slowly and lost quickly, and what forwarded rumours do to it.
Play The Trust Bridge →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/How automatic thoughts drive our reactions, and how we can switch tracks.
Play The Thought Railway →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/A 2-minute whole-class experiment on attention and habits.
Play Brain on Autopilot →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Show 5 more life-skills games
Everyone studies themselves: measure your pulse and see how quickly your body responds.
Play User Manual of Me →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/The Candle Problem, three trick questions, and The Lake: can four villages share one lake?
Play Think Again →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/One budget, one big night. What can you do with what you have?
Play Annual Day Ledger →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Grey-area choices for the class to discuss.
Play Crossroads →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/A team game to close the workshop.
Play The Value Journey →Share: timelesslifeskills.org/Your teaching, supercharged by AI
Whether planning a lesson, guiding inquiry or growing professionally, this step-by-step guide shows how to use AI for support. Once you get the hang of it, AI can make teaching easier, more engaging and more effective.
Open the quick start guide in a new tab
AI for teachers: a forward-looking framework
AI is powerful, but not perfect
Human intelligence comes before artificial intelligence. Used well, AI can be a great learning tool. Used carelessly, it can harm learning. What to watch out for:
Hallucinations
ChatGPT sometimes makes things up: facts, names, even sources. Double-check important information against trusted sources.
Lazy thinking
Leaning on AI too much can weaken thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. Use AI to explore ideas, not to avoid effort.
Plagiarism
AI does not cite its sources. Copying without checking can become plagiarism by accident. Rewrite in your own words and credit ideas.
Energy use
Each AI query uses electricity and water. Use it wisely.
Video tutorials
Some videos are auto-dubbed by YouTube and can be played in other languages: play the video, tap ⚙ Settings, then Audio track.
