AI development is progressing rapidly, with many exciting new products and features being released. Wondering where to start with AI tools in education? We're here to help! We've compiled a list of free AI tools and offers to help you start your AI journey.
AI development is progressing rapidly, with many exciting new products and features being released. Wondering where to start with AI tools in education? We're here to help! We've compiled a list of free AI tools and offers to help you start your AI journey.
AI offers an opportunity to change how we approach creativity, problem-solving, learning, and communication at a time when these skills are more important than ever. AI can help educators grow and focus on what matters most, preparing students for a future in which AI will play an increasingly important role in many professions. It is also important to teach students how to use AI tools safely and responsibly, and to help them understand their benefits and potential impacts.
In addition to taking advantage of the new products below, we encourage you to start by building a solid foundation in understanding AI in education with our free training courses and resources: Understand essential AI concepts and applications in the classroom by taking courses in our AI for Educators Learning Path: Use the Classroom Toolkit: Leverage generative AI safely and responsibly to help students build skills such as fact-checking, cultivating digital hygiene habits, protecting data privacy, and adopting strategies to effectively manage their mental health.
Use AI to take steps towards a more informed and inclusive future. Follow your curiosity and explore free AI tools from Microsoft.
1. Microsoft Copilot
Learn more about Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant for education. Copilot uses the latest AI models to provide AI-powered web chat with source and commercial data protection. It's available at no extra cost to education staff, faculty, and higher education students ages 18 and over. Get an overview of how to use Copilot and ideas and inspiration for how you can use it to save time, differentiate instruction, and enhance student learning.
2. GitHub Copilot
GitHub Education brings technology and open source collaboration to students and educators around the world. To empower the next generation, GitHub Copilot is free to all verified educators and students ages 13 and up. GitHub Copilot suggests code and entire functions in real time from the editor, so you and your students can focus on solving bigger problems and building better software.
GitHub Copilot Chat allows students and teachers to not only get code suggestions, but also ask questions, receive clarification, provide code prompts, and more, all while staying in the flow within their integrated development environment (IDE).
3. Learning Accelerators
Learning accelerators help students catch up, stay ahead, and stay on track. These powerful tools, included in Microsoft 365 Education, allow students to start practicing right away and teachers to start collecting data that helps students improve their skills.
- Reading Coach enables personalized, engaging, consistent, independent and fluent reading practice. Learners can create their own AI-generated stories by selecting characters and settings from a collection of curated options. Reading Coach is available free as a Windows application and a web app that can be used in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft account.
- Leverage our information literacy tools, Search Progress and Search Coach, to help students search, evaluate, and use online sources responsibly—a critical step towards empowering students to confidently navigate AI-generated content and the broader information ecosystem.
- To get started using these powerful tools in your classroom, visit Learning Accelerators: Tools for Students.
4. Microsoft Teams for Education
New AI-powered features in Microsoft Teams for Education, the free communications app for schools, are available to all educators at no additional cost and leverage AI to create content such as assessment rubrics, assignment instructions, personalized reading passages, and learning objectives, putting educators in full control.
- In the assignment, you get various suggestions to enrich your content like creating a rubric, assignment instructions, etc. Once you create your content, you can edit it to generate different options.
- A powerful reading comprehension tool, Reading Progress helps you track students' reading comprehension, get quick actionable insights, and focus students on specific areas for improvement. New enhancements to the tool, AI Sentence Generation and AI Comprehension Question Generation, help save time and personalize learning.
- To download and get started with Teams, visit Microsoft Teams for Schools and Students.
5. Minecraft Education AI Literacy Solution
Cultivate AI literacy and digital citizenship with Minecraft Education learning content and teaching resources. In fun and immersive worlds, students explore how AI can help solve real-world problems, uncover AI's risks and opportunities, and build confidence through game-based learning. Use Minecraft lesson plan resources to inspire classroom engagement and foster AI learning.
- Teach standards-aligned STEM lessons that build AI literacy, including Hour of Code: Generation AI, AI for Earth, and Hour of Code: AI for Good.
- Use the Minecraft Prompt Lab for Educators to learn how to use Copilot with sample prompts to create engaging game-based learning lessons and assessment materials.
- To get started, visit aka.ms/MinecraftAI.
6. Kanmigo for teachers
Khanmigo for Teachers, a pilot AI-powered teaching assistant, is now free to all educators in the US thanks to a new partnership: Khan Academy. Khanmigo streamlines lesson preparation, giving teachers more time and energy to spend with their students. A planning ally and teaching collaborator, Khanmigo leverages Khan Academy content to simplify AI for teachers. No prompts needed. Khanmigo provides engaging lesson starters, insights into student performance, suggested assignments, and knowledge refresher support.
AI tools are rapidly transforming how schools foster creativity, deliver challenges, and enhance learning. We're here to help you find the tools and resources that inspire you and level up your teaching skills. Get started with free Microsoft AI tools to seamlessly integrate AI into teaching and learning.
