How to Create Instantly Engaging and Interactive Teaching Resources with AI

Kyla Ball October 14, 2024

Rob McCrae is the AI Lead and ICT Director at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, New Zealand, an independent school of 1600 students aged 5-18. Earlier this year he was keen to create a range of learning resources to demonstrate to fellow teaching staff how easy it was to incorporate AI tools into any learning material, instantly elevating any content into more interactive and engaging multimedia materials.

Challenge

It can often be a challenge for those championing AI in education to easily demonstrate the wide range of AI tools available and to demonstrate how they can bring value to the curriculum. Rob needed a way to show that AI content and tools could quickly and easily be tailored to any subject to add richness, depth and a multi-modal approach to the material. It was vital that each resource provided a realistic context in which students and staff could explore the tools. He also wanted to be able to record and measure engagement with the content. Ideally he needed a platform that could be used to create immersive, 360 content easily that could be viewed in VR.

Given that the curriculum in New Zealand is undergoing a huge amount of change, any new platforms that are introduced need to be easy to use and fast to learn if teachers and entire schools are to embrace them and create a large volume of new content, so a simple and user-friendly interface was vital. In addition, Rob wanted to find a platform which allowed students to create and share engaging content themselves, rather than only ever use teacher-created material. 

With a student body increasingly speaking multiple languages, and with the school having a focus on both the New Zealand Maori language and a requirement to promote additional languages through its engagement with the International Baccalaureate programmes, having the ability to readily repurpose content in multiple languages is a huge benefit. 

Solution: Immersive Learning with ThingLink and AI

Having previously used ThingLink when it was first launched in 2011, Rob revisited the platform to explore whether it could provide a 360 experience, as the foundation on which he could build and combine the AI content. He discovered that ThingLink itself now incorporates a range of AI tools to assist creators in the generation of the “base media”. These include: 

• Pano to 360, which transforms any panoramic image into a 360 photosphere
• In-built AI text-to-image generation tools for creating 2D images as base media
• Skybox AI by Blockade Labs, which allows anyone to create 360 images from simple text prompts.

As proof of concept for incorporating AI tools, Rob created a range of interactive resources using ThingLink which demonstrate how AI can help anyone create highly engaging content on any subject and at any level. Here are just 4 of his examples which you can explore to see how various AI tools are incorporated and combined to build multimedia, multi-modal materials.

Explore the Examples in Action!

For providing context and a deeper understanding of literary texts: Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene. 

• Background 360 generated by Skybox AI as part of the image creation flow.
• The thinglink was translated from English into German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese using ThingLink’s built-in instant translation AI tool. 
• Two different embedded “flashcard” type quizzes; one created with Claude Sonnet 3.5, and one with ChatGPT4o in Canvas, both deployed via Codepen.
• An interactive interview chatbot designed to answer and question back in Shakespearean English, built on the Playlab AI platform.
• AI-generated “podcast” audio content. A short version was created using ChatGPT Voice on Rob’s phone one morning on the way to school, and a longer, 8 minute “deep-dive” AI podcast was created using NotebookLM by Google.   

For younger learners: a Hairy Maclary-themed interactive story. , based on ideas from Lynley Dodd’s famous series.

• Background 360 again generated by Skybox AI as part of the image creation flow.
• Text generated by ChatGPT – demonstrating how AI can recreate content in a specific tone of voice and genre to engage young students
• Images generated by Adobe Firefly
• Audio created with ElevenLabs, using the text ChatGPT had generated.

Mystery of Ravenwood Manor Escape Room

• This was the prototype for year 9 and 10 students to use to create their own escape rooms, to learn about and apply encryption and security principles and techniques.
• The 360 and some character images were created using AI image generation tools built into the ThingLink creation flow. 
• The other character and room images were created with DallE3 by Open AI.
• The text was created using ChatGPT and demonstrates how it can be used to create character sketches and back stories for any escape room or other adventure game. 
• Rob also used ThingLink’s transparent tag icons to make some of the clues and room exits harder to find. 

An interactive resource on the scientist Ernest Rutherford, showing how a large volume of content can be presented in a highly engaging way using a range of interactive tools

• Google Earth was embedded to illustrate Rutherford’s journey from New Zealand to Cambridge. 
• PlayLab AI was used to provide a method for students to “interview” Rutherford via a chatbot. This comes at the end of an embedded slideshow created in Gamma.
• DallE 3 by Open AI was used to create 2D images of Rutherford in the tags
• Skybox AI, the 360 image generation tool that is incorporated into the ThingLink creation flow, was used to create the 360 of Cambridge. 
• ThingLink’s translation AI tool has been used to translate into 4 additional languages.

The benefits of combining ThingLink’s own built-in AI and a range of AI education tools

1. Highly engaging for students: easily create appealing interactive visual and audio content that inspires and encourages exploration, in formats that you know will resonate with your learners. 

“ThingLink engages students that are otherwise difficult to engage. You’re able to speak to and engage the TikTok generation.”

Rob McCrae, AI Lead and ICT Director at Diocesan School for Girls

2. Provides innovative ways to use and transform your own content taken from real life contexts and environments.

On Pano to 360: “A really useful tool. The most powerful aspect is that you’re able to use your own image.”

Rob McCrae

3. Helps you curate and present a vast amount of content in one place in a clear and well-organized way.

The platform is also used for content and class organization by a number of Diocesan teachers, for example to organize a virtual classroom or introduce and explain a project. Tags lead back to the LMS, to further information or exemplars in a variety of media, and in some cases to the school’s own Chatbot.

“It’s used as an organizational tool, and an easy way for the students to find their way around the content.”

Rob McCrae

More inspiration this way!

We hope that Rob’s brilliant examples have inspired you to take a look at incorporating some of these AI tools into your own resources. For more ideas and AI tools in action with ThingLink, take a look at these further blogs below.

Immersive Virtual Experience Tells Villagers’ Stories of 1665 Plague

How a Toronto Teacher Combines ThingLink and AI to Better Engage Students in Online Learning

How to Convert AI-Generated Stories into an Immersive Experience with ThingLink

Empowering Place-Based Learning Through Student Creation With Stanford’s Virtual Learning Resources