Artificial intelligence is already here — in our world, our classrooms, and our students’ pockets. The question is: are they ready for it?

My new book, AI Literacy for Any Class, is a practical guide for K–12 teachers who want to prepare students for an AI-shaped future without adding more to their plates.

It’s teacher-focused — and a GREAT choice for a teacher book study. (Bulk order inquiries: [email protected])

“Matt Miller has written … a practical, human-centered guide to preparing students for a world already saturated with AI.” — Holly Clark, author of The AI-Infused Classroom

“Matt shows how to weave AI literacy into the teaching you’re already doing, using the skills you already have.” — Matt Karabinos, emerging tech/project specialist

“Once again, Matt Miller has managed to take a complex topic and make it completely engaging and accessible for every classroom teacher and school administrator.” — Rachel Lemansky, elementary library coordinator

Available in paperback and Kindle ebook!

From the “Teacher’s PlAIground” website of educator Dustin Rimmey …

So, I don't know anything about dating websites, and after many blocked websites on the district internet, I learned that Bumble is one of them. I found a rough version of their website's dating profiles, and color/font matched in this easy-to-steal Canva template!

Here are some simple ways to incorporate "dating profile" activities in your content area!

After ChatGPT was released in 2022, a new model of edtech tools started to emerge …

Apps that allowed teachers (and students) to use AI efficiently and effectively in their classroom roles.

Hundreds and hundreds of tools have entered the marketplace, but three seem (to me, at least) to have emerged as the frontrunners in the K-12 space here in the United States …

I’ve used all of them. I’ve talked about them in trainings and presentations with teachers. I’ve worked directly with each of them. And I have friends that work for all three companies.

After using them, learning about them, and hearing teachers talk about them for a few years, I have opinions — and I’ve noticed some pro’s and cons as well as some differences!

Today, I’m releasing my new report — MagicSchool vs. SchoolAI vs. Brisk Teaching — where I compare the tools, the pricing plans, the major features, and what makes each one stand out.

It’s the first version of this report — which we will certainly update from time to time. (In fact, I’m planning on updating it later this week once I’ve heard back from some of you! Be sure to respond to the poll in the green box above — and if you have more a more detailed response, hit reply and let me know!)

There are huge differences, but all three offer a lot of similar features …

When you start to examine the differences, that’s where things get interesting.

All of these are my own opinions based on using the tools over the years.

PROS: MagicSchool is great for teachers who are new to AI tools. If ChatGPT or Google Gemini is intimidating to them (because they don’t know what to ask or type), MagicSchool gets them started right away.

It has 80+ pre-designed teacher AI tools that help teachers to accomplish lots of tasks they regularly see in their day-to-day lives.

It also offers MagicStudent — its AI student chatbot tool. Like the teacher tools, there are lots of pre-created AI chatbots that teachers can activate with just a quick description.

CONS: I have found MagicSchool’s student chatbots to be less in-depth (and somewhat superficial at times) … but, depending on the teacher or student audience, that might not be a big deal.

PROS: The word I’d use to describe SchoolAI is “depth.” When you gather new teaching ideas and insights using Dot, its teacher chatbot, the responses it gives you are nuanced and rich.

You get the same depth with its student chatbots — called “Spaces” — which I think provide the most intelligent student chatbot responses of any K-12 AI tool.

CONS: The teacher and student chatbots are mostly text-based chats, which limits what you can do with them a bit. And if you’re into pre-designed AI teacher tools, MagicSchool has way more (although you can do a lot with the “Build Your Own” teacher tool).

PROS: MagicSchool and SchoolAI are a LOT alike. Brisk is different in a lot of ways.

Instead of running most of your tasks through the app’s website, Brisk is a Chrome extension. It lives and does its work wherever you are — in Google Docs or Slides, on YouTube, in your files, etc. It has a sneaky teacher dashboard (app.briskteaching.com), but if you work in Google Workspace or Microsoft Office, it feels seamless.

Brisk does lots of little things its competitors don’t in the same way — the inspect writing tool, the text leveler tool, generating audio podcasts about your teaching content, etc.

My favorite part of Brisk, though, is its student chatbot feature — Brisk Boost. It does this unique side-by-side feature where a custom chatbot is paired with whatever your students are working with — a document to read, a PDF to analyze, a set of slides for learning, a YouTube video to watch, etc. My favorite: Give students a blank document and use the “writing coach” feature to give them immediate feedback right out of the document.

CONS: Brisk isn’t as intuitive as MagicSchool and SchoolAI, though. The Chrome extension is great — once you figure out how it works and where everything is. (Notice I said earlier that the teacher dashboard is a bit sneaky.) There’s a bit of a learning curve — and once you’ve got it, it’s easy to miss important (and nice-to-have) features.

This is the big question EVERYONE asks me when I present on these three tools … “What do I get with the FREE plan?”

The answer: A lot … but not everything. (And sometimes not everything you want.)

These AI tools use limitations as a way to encourage people to upgrade to the paid plans. (Hey, it’s a business, not a charity. If they’re going to keep creating things for us, they have to pay the bills.)

The pricing structure for each:

In the report — MagicSchool vs. SchoolAI vs. Brisk Teaching — I break down the free and paid tiers feature by feature.

There’s a LOT more to get to — including the three detailed pages in the report about the differences in the student chatbot features.

Here are my (very subjective) overall ratings of the three tools from the report …

MAGICSCHOOL

SCHOOLAI

BRISK TEACHING

Remember … I’m gathering opinions, favorite features and other feedback from readers … like you! Please fill out the survey at the top (in the green box) and include your thoughts in a poll comment. OR, if you have detailed thoughts you want to share, hit reply and let me know.

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education: