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Hi Justine, you’ve outlined some really nice ways of allowing the children to use different AI tools to assist and enhance their learning. It’s a great collaborative approach and I think they would have a lot of fun with this activity!
Strand: Listening and Responding
Strand Unit: Exploring sounds and musical styles
Topic: Using AI to explore and respond to musicContent:
Pupils will listen to music generated by AI and compare it with human-composed pieces, responding through discussion and short written reflections.Learning Objectives:
To identify similarities and differences between AI-generated and human-composed music.
To develop listening skills and critical thinking when responding to music.
To understand the role of AI in modern music creation.
Introduction (5 mins):
Begin by asking pupils how they think songs are made today and if computers can compose music. Briefly introduce the idea of AI-generated music.Main Content (20 mins):
Play a short human-composed piece (e.g., classical or Irish traditional).
Play an AI-generated version of a similar style.
Guide pupils in responding: How does each piece make you feel? What patterns, instruments, or emotions do you notice?
Record responses on the board. Encourage students to suggest whether they think the music was human- or AI-made.
Conclusion (5 mins):
Summarise main findings, highlighting that both AI and humans can create expressive music but in different ways. Reinforce that AI is a tool that can inspire creativity rather than replace it.Resources:
Laptop/tablet with speakers
Access to AI music tools (e.g., AIVA, Soundraw, or free online AI music clips)
Whiteboard/markers
Assessment:
Observation of participation in discussion.
Short written response: “One thing I noticed about AI music was…”
Differentiation:
Provide sentence starters for pupils needing support.
Challenge advanced pupils to describe specific musical elements (tempo, dynamics, texture).
How I plan to use it and other AI tools in my teaching:
I plan to use this lesson to introduce pupils to how AI influences music in a way that is accessible and engaging. By listening to both AI and human-composed pieces, pupils learn to sharpen their critical listening skills and form personal responses to music. This approach also helps bridge technology and creativity, areas that are increasingly connected in the modern world.Beyond this lesson, AI tools can support teaching in many ways. For example, AI-generated backing tracks can provide pupils with accompaniment when performing, helping them explore rhythm and melody. AI transcription tools can assist in notating pupils’ compositions, allowing them to see their creative work in written form. Additionally, AI-powered quiz or feedback platforms can personalise learning, offering instant formative assessment in music theory and listening skills.
In my practice, I see AI as a complement to teacher-led activities—it can spark curiosity, offer new perspectives, and give students hands-on experiences with technology. Most importantly, AI supports inclusivity by offering differentiated learning materials, ensuring all pupils can engage with music in a meaningful way.
Hi Eleanor, what a lovely scheme of work for infants you have outlined. A really creative way of involving AI for a young age group. I haven’t taught at this end of the school so it’s nice to see how AI could support teaching with the younger ages.
As I will have a SET position in the coming year, I think that Immersive Reader is an application that will be extremely useful in my classroom. I really liked the fact that beyond the very obvious literary benefits to the application, including text to speech, line focus and syllable splitting, you could make visual changes in a way that might appeal to an independent child. So for example, changing the background colour, text size etc. I feel that the ownership over learning that it provides would be really beneficial. Clever additions like the picture dictionary and translation tools, mean that EAL students would really benefit from the application. Also, as it is set up to support children with diverse needs, it is already equipped to support dyslexic learners, children with a visual impairment, children with autism, ADHD and more.
There are so many elements of immersive reader that set up children to be independent, remove barriers to reading that they might face and foster a more inclusive environment in the classroom.Hi Bríd, I thought your point about not all schools having the same access to technology was a very important thing to note. Some of the microsoft learning tools are very dependent on each child having access to a device and as we all know that’s not always possible. However, there are still many ways these tools can be used to benefit children even without multiple devices, it would just be a little harder!
This module contained a tremendous amount of helpful AI tools which really made clear to me the potential benefits for my classroom. Search coach struck me as a useful and necessary tool to use with the senior classes as in this current climate of lots of online misinformation, it’s so important that our students are digitally literate and know how to use the internet effectively. Speech coach was another tool that I think would be very useful for the senior classes, particularly when working on presentations. For myself, I thought the latter tools outlined in the presentation were amazing. Diffit will be invaluable in my SET classroom, the ease of powerpoint creation in Gamma was very impressive and magicschool has so many applications, it’s great.
What really struck me with them all, was the quality of the output. I’m looking forward to getting started!Hi Maria, I agree that both cost and ongoing training could be a challenge for schools. We are so stretched in relation to both time and finances, that this could be a reason that school management might make the decision to not invest as thoroughly or as quickly. Your mention of GDPR is also interesting. We have such stringent GDPR laws in the EU in comparison to China, however I wonder if the legislation will be updated to keep up with the speed of introduction?
Based on what you have learned in this module, how do you think AI can transform the teaching and learning experience in your classroom? Provide specific examples and potential benefits and discuss any challenges you might face in implementing AI tools.
Learning about different AI based programmes in the US, UK and China was very interesting but with regards to China’s use, something of a cautionary tale!
I believe strongly in the phrase ‘everything in moderation’ in relation to AI usage in the classroom but I think it will be very useful in my classroom in the current year. I will be in SET and I think my planning will be greatly aided using Chat Gpt etc. I also really enjoyed learning about immersive reader, which I wasn’t aware of. I can definitely see the potential benefits to this.
With regards to challenges, I think writing smart, succinct prompts for the AI tools like Gemini, CoPilot etc will be someething that will take me a while to get good at. I also think creating lesson objectives that link up specifically to the Irish curriculum will be an area where human oversight will be needed so as to avoid other countries curricula being used. Again I feel this will be down to using clear and specific prompts so I will need to start working on this area of my own skillset!Hi Mairead, I completely agree with you with regards to the importance of relationships in teaching. The temptation to use AI in ever increasing ways in the classroom will surely be there however I think it’s all about balance.
I will be going into a SET role this coming year and I think you are correct in relation to the potential benefits to different needs and managing paperwork. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out!
Reflect on the potential classroom use of AI tools and how this can impact on future teaching, learning and assessment.
This first module has really opened my eyes to the potential benefits of using AI in the classroom. I feel that for areas like differentiation, it is a perfect way to (using clear prompts), create work for different children’s needs in a useful and helpful way. Another area where I envisage AI helping in my classroom, is relating to lesson stimulus. The examples of using vidnoz to create a unique video of Albert Einstein talking, or creating a lovely, personalised logo for a class project, show the possibilities of creating stimuli that are relevant to the topic, age level and interests of the class. It is also something that I feel can benefit different learning styles, so perhaps taking a chapter of the class novel and repurposing it as an audio book or a video, could reach a auditory or visual learner in a more targeted fashion than reading the chapter would.
I feel in relation to AI and assessment I have more to learn, and hopefully the next few modules will help with this. I feel that it is important to not give over too much autonomy to AI as the personal knowledge and awareness that a teacher has of students is where assessment can be personal and beneficial, however I envisage there are some clever ways to work in tandem with AI to improve AOL and AFL.
