It seems as though everyone is talking about generative AI, to some degree, these days. This blog post is not meant to talk about what generative AI is or how to come up with the best prompt. Rather, I want to talk about what Canva is calling Magic Switch.
In this short 2 minute video, I quickly show how one can take an existing Canva Presentation and have generative AI take that text content and convert it into a different format. For instance, Jess Gilcreast (high school librarian) and I had a 50 slide presentation that we gave to all high school teachers at the beginning of the school year as a base line for what generative AI is. It was the districts goal for all staff to be knowledgable.
With the announcement of Magic Switch a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take that presentation and ask generative AI to convert it into a poem. In about 3 minutes, a Canva Doc appears with a lengthy poem. I have to admit, I was amazed at what I saw. I felt as though the message was right on point with what we were sharing with our staff.
This has my mind going in a couple of places:
- Perhaps this could be helpful for sharing out information to students or staff a different way to better connect with certain learners.
- My brain is more on the math and science side of things. I love numbers. As a result of that, I would not necessarily spend time putting content in a poem format. However, if I could get some brainstorming ideas, why not dive in and give it a try.
- This could also be helpful to just ask Canva to create a summary of text. Again, this could be helpful for some learners who just need to see the content in a different format. There are times where differentiating content is necessary or helpful. Here is a tool to help assist with just that.
Back in Spring 2023, I would we talking to staff about how we will be witnessing an “AI Race”. We are certainly living it. But regardless of that, it is important that we are finding appropriate uses of generative AI in education while always keeping in mind to never include PII (personal identifiable information). There is a time and place where generative AI can help assist with our work. There is a time where it can be meaningful. It is also important to remind one self that human intelligence should always be included and infused with generative AI work. I look forward to seeing more use cases of Canva generative AI tools in the future.
If you have any questions, or you want to talk more about how some of the magic tools in Canva can be used to help you as a teacher, you know where to find me.
And that is my spiel…
Craig M Sheil 