About a month ago, I was talking to an instructional designer who said she had created an “AI Playground” inside the LMS of her college to help faculty and students understand how to use AI.
This was fascinating to me, and I asked her if I could see an example. She said they had not completed it. Therefore, I was left to my own devices. So, in an effort to make an AI Playground for my students this semester, I devised the following. Whether you are new to AI or not, you might try playing a little!
Have fun!
Let's Play!
One of the best ways to learn about AI is to play with it. In this class, we will be using a lot of free AI tools, and we want you to get comfortable with what they can do. You might have some AI tools you already use regularly, and you are free to use those, of course. Here are a few new tools you can try. Feel free to explore! If you are looking for something specific that's not here, try Futuretools.io or TheresanAIforthat.
General Chatbots
There are some general chatbots out there, and they can do remarkable things. One of the best way to find out what they can do and how they are different is to play with a few of them. Here are some you might try:
Some things you can try:
Give it some ingredients and ask it what recipes you can make
Brainstorm for an idea
Ask for an outline of a topic, then expand a point on the outline.
Make a song or a poem
Make a script for a skit or podcast
Make tables
Write code
Image Creators
These are text to image and text to video tools. They are quickly evolving, so what you can't do today, you will probably be able to do tomorrow. Try playing by making some different images in these AI image generators.
Adobe Firefly (Must download)
Some things you can try:
Put in a favorite line from a poem or a song lyric and ask it to make an illustration of it.
Try one simple idea like "a cat with a ball of string" in different artistic genres: realism, impressionist, cubist, etc.
Try one simple idea in different artistic mediums: watercolor, oil painting, photograph, etc.
Try the same prompt in different AI Image programs to get an idea of how they differ.
Ask for different angles "Show this from above" or "show this from a 45 degree angle."
As for different aspect ratios (some can do this, and some can't) like "landscape format."
Ask to see an image from different distances "40 feet away," or "close up."
Misc. Creators
Suno.ai to create AI-generated Music
Comicsmaker.ai to create comics
Skybox to create a 360 scene.
Plazmapunk for short music videos (up to 20 seconds)
AutoDraw to perfect your drawing
Audiobox to create an audio story (up to 20 seconds)
MyLens to create timelines
MemeSwift to create memes from photos
Rory an AI App for your phone to create personalized bedtime stories
Text-to-Pokemon for generating your own personalized Pokemon
PlaylistAI to create your own playlist for AppleMusic or Spotify