Teaching history can be challenging but making it come alive and keeping the children interested are two very important approaches and methodologies all teachers loke to use. Imagine instead of just reading through a textbook you could chat with real historical characters like Benjamin Franklin, Leif Erickson, St Patrick or someone who lived through the Irish potato famine. That’s the experience that YourStory Education brings to the classroom. It makes subjects like history feel alive, personal, and interactive.
It’s a very simple tool to operate. Simply go to the site https://www.useyourstory.ai/ and choose a historical figure and start a conversation. You can select grade level to match age and interest level. The AI then responds in character, using accurate historical details. If you want to ask St Patrick about his life in Ireland in 431? Or Leif Erickson about his Viking raids? Go ahead. The platform even suggests other questions that you could ask and offers an audio option so students can listen to responses. This feature is great and can really help you to differentiate learning for all learners in your care.
The group behind YourStory are currently working on a video chat feature, that will give students an even more immersive way to connect with the past. A preview of this feature is already available on their website.
By using this AI powered conversation tool, students can talk to historical figures, ask follow up questions and even get visuals. All of this will make learning more interesting, engaging, and meaningful and will help the understanding, consolidation and memorisation of key information especially for those who may struggle in their learning. All of these AI tools tend to have paid for features and YourStory is no different. However the free version ensures every student can join in, no matter where they are.
Overall YourStory is a fun and powerful teaching tool. It helps students understand context, personalities, and events in an engaging, memorable and meaningful way. Teachers could even create quizzes, or projects based on students’ chats and this makes it a very versatile tool that all teachers could use to improve their teaching of History.