EnlightenAI - Your New T.A. for Grading and Feedback

I recently recorded a webinar about one of my favorite AI tools for education - EnlightenAI. (Disclosure - EnlightenAI sponsored this webinar, but all opinions were my own.)

If you are not familiar with it, EnlightenAI is an AI-powered tool that works hand-in-hand with a teacher to assist in guided grading and personalized feedback for student writing.

Here are a few key aspects of how EnlightenAI works:

• You can pull in writing assignments from a wide range of sources (Google Classroom, Illuminate, Canvas, Form, Docs, and more)
• You can provide the AI with your rubric, the assignment prompt and materials, exemplars, guiding instructions, and more.
• The AI will use that information to provide grades and feedback for student writing.
• You can override any grade and customize any feedback which will train the AI even more to learn your style and grading requirements.
• The AI will provide insights into strengths and weaknesses for every student, as well as customized lessons and activities to help address those.
• The AI can also provide instant writing feedback directly to students while they are writing to support revision during the writing process.

And all of this comes in a robust free version! To learn all about EnlightenAI, see below to watch my recorded 1-hour webinar and to access the resources from the session.

Using, Creating & Sharing Gems in Google Gemini

As I have shared before, Gems are a great feature of Google Gemini where you can save a common prompt to use anytime you need.

In addition to using the Gems yourself, you can also share them with others so they can benefit from them too.

To help explain all the details of Gems and how they work, I recently recorded a short 12 minute tutorial video about Gems that covers the following topics:

• ❓ What are Gems?
• 🎁 Premade Gems from Google
• 🛠️ Creating a Gem
• 💎 Using a Gem
• 🔗 Sharing a Gem
• 💻 My EduGems Website

See below to watch the video, and be sure to visit my new EduGems.ai website where I share dozens of my favorite Gems for schools.

EdTech Links - Week of 10-13-2025

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Introducing EduGems

Gems are a great feature of Google Gemini where you can save a common prompt to use anytime you need. Rather than having to copy and paste or retype the prompt each time you need it, you can simply click on the Gem to launch the saved version of the prompt.

Recently Google released an update for Gems that makes them better than ever. Now any Gems that you create can be shared with others. You can share a Gem with specific people, or your whole school, or the entire world.

This is significant because now schools can create and curate their own collections of educational Gems to share by department or grade level or with all staff. I am excited to see schools begin to do this.

Inspired by this new feature, I have put together my own collection of favorite Gems that I have created or collected. You can find them at my new "EduGems" site at:

edugems.ai

Note: If the main link does not work for you, you can just go to the Google Sites link for the site here - https://sites.google.com/view/edu-gems/home - It looks like Squarespace may have a DNS issue, so I am working with them to get that fixed.

See below for more details about this new site and how you can submit your own Gems.

EdTech Links - Week of 10-6-2025

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Recorded Webinar - Brisk Teaching: The AI Multitool for Education

I recently recorded a webinar about one of my favorite AI tools for education - Brisk Teaching. (Disclosure - Brisk sponsored this webinar, but all opinions were my own.)

If you are not familiar with it, Brisk is a free Chrome extension that provides AI-powered tools for teachers and students. 

It does so many things, I often call it the "Swiss Army Knife of AI Tools".

With Brisk Teaching you can:

• Generate resources such as quizzes, slideshows, rubrics, lesson plans, DOK questions, guided notes, podcasts and more. 
• Relevel content for different grades. 
• Provide personalized feedback on student writing. 
• Monitor the student writing process. 
• Create school-safe "Boost" activities for students with customized AI chatbots for tutoring, chatting with a character, debating, brainstorming, exit tickets and more. 
• Plan and bundle instructional materials with Brisk Next. 

And all of this comes in a robust free version! To learn all about Brisk, see below to watch my recorded 1-hour webinar and to access the resources from the session.

Podcast Spotlight - GaETC

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "GaETC Podcast" which is the official podcast for the Georgia Educational Technology Conference.

I am excited and honored to be a featured presenter at this conference in Atlanta, Georgia on November 5th and 6th, 2025. You can get all the details on my sessions in my earlier blog post here: My 2025 GaETC Sessions

As for the podcast, here is a description for the episode I was on:

Join us on GAETC The Podcast as we dive into the world of educational technology with Eric Curts, a renowned expert with over 33 years of experience. In this episode, Eric is joined by Clint Winter from Elbert County Schools, Hollie Sisk from Effingham County Schools, and Lee Green from the University of West Georgia. Together, they explore the transformative power of AI in education, the importance of creativity and innovation, and the evolving landscape of teaching tools. Discover how AI can enhance teaching, the significance of empathy in education, and the future of personalized learning. Whether you're an educator or tech enthusiast, this episode offers valuable perspectives on the intersection of technology and education. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with practical insights and inspiring ideas.

Take a look below to listen to the episode and access other interviews with more GaETC presenters.