Microsoft Copilot is an artificial intelligence tool created to assist with daily tasks that can free up more time to focus on teaching.
The company announced that Copilot is now available with commercial data protection for all faculty, staff, and student users ages 18 and older. This means that, unlike many other ai tools out there, language learning will not grow based on data collected when used within schools, making it one of the safest ai options available.
This tool can help speed up work on documents, create images, summarize, create presentations, and more. Could this be the ultimate ai assistant for use in education? This guide aims to lay it all out for you to decide.
What is Microsoft copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an artificial intelligence tool that helps speed up workflow by helping to summarize text, generate images, and more, using artificial intelligence.
Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence tool, so it uses GPT-4 for conversational interfaces and DALL-E 3 to generate images. All of that makes it a tool you can talk to to get what you want, like a co-pilot or assistant in the real world.
This can be used for many different scenarios in education, from generating rubrics to customizing content for specific students. The point is, lessons can be better than ever while saving you time as a teacher.
Because it uses generative ai, you can create text, images, audio, and more, from scratch, to give your classroom lessons a more personalized and original touch. Ideally, all of this should help make learning more engaging for students.
How does Microsoft Copilot work?
Microsoft Copilot is free to use and can be tried immediately, although for education there are specific plans, which include Pro-level subscription extras. The schools model offers that additional layer of security mentioned above, business data protection, for added security.
Copilot, like many ai tools, lets you ask for something and it will do the legwork. For example, you may want to create a lesson plan on a topic, so simply write that message. Then, since this uses natural language, you can follow up with more. You can request that a lesson plan be created about our solar system and then follow up with a request to generate some original images.
This is a bit like having a real assistant who you can ask for something and who is smart enough to understand what you need and be able to create it. This should save you time opening specific apps, creating content, and getting images, for a final result that might look better anyway.
What are the best features of Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot is super intuitive to use, so you can literally type a request and it will get going, which is great even for those who are less tech savvy. It combines the intelligence of many applications all in one, so you don't need to learn how to use these creative tools and still get professional-grade end results.
Microsoft Copilot is great for creating lesson plans, as you can request whatever you want and the results are presented sectioned for ease. You can then make edits and edits as needed to get the perfect plan for your class. You can also make suggestions or create a rubric for a lesson as needed.
This tool can also help you write feedback for students, so you can save time on grading while also giving them lots of useful information to ensure they make the most of their mistakes.
For research, this tool is very useful as you can get a direct explanation about a topic without having to spend a lot of time researching it. This will take the legwork out of your hands, so to speak, with a clear, detailed answer to clarify anything you're unsure about.
For image generation, this is very powerful, especially if you go for the Pro version. This allows you to create images by simply entering a description of what you want to be generated on the other end. This can be great for very specific areas where you might not otherwise be able to find the right image to illustrate the point and still keep the images engaging for the class.
How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?
Microsoft's co-pilot is free wear. But to get the full experience, with Microsoft organizational data protection, you'll need to register as an institution and have staff use accounts to stay as safe and secure as possible.
Pro Copilot is loaded in $20 per user per month and adds faster responses, use within applications like Word, and better imaging capabilities.
Or go for Microsoft co-pilot for 365, which comes as a complement to the 365 system. It is loaded from $56.80 per user per monthand that adds all the usual 365 tools, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others, but with Copilot built in for use with those tools, as well as a standalone ai assistant.
Best Microsoft Copilot Tips and Tricks
Curriculum
Use Copilot to draft lesson plan ideas, like a brainstorming session, or have the tool create the actual lesson plan with images ready to use and share.
Individualize
Because this speeds up work, you'll have time to create personalized content, feedback, and learning for students that fit their specific needs.
Explore
Ask about topic areas you may want to investigate and delve deeper as needed. Maybe do this with the class so they can also model how to properly use an ai tool.
