Aila vs TeachTools

Aila is Oak’s free web-based AI lesson assistant for teachers. It creates editable, downloadable lesson packages containing one lesson plan, one slide deck, two quizzes, and one worksheet. Teachers can also request glossaries, tasks, and quizzes for Oak lessons or their own material. Lessons can be adapted by changing content, reading age, geographical context, tasks, and activities. Aila uses retrieval-augmented generation from Oak content written by teachers and checked by subject experts, with emphasis on the English national curriculum. Its FAQ says the system is built to use ChatGPT-4 while Oak evaluates other models. Usage is subject to request limits for lessons and resources, and fair-use limits may apply. Aila is in beta and under active development, so Oak advises checking generated material. It does not currently make images or diagrams, and results are weaker in some subjects, particularly STEM and modern foreign languages. Use requires a laptop or computer with internet access; mobile use is unsupported.

TeachTools is a web service for K–12 teachers who need generated classroom materials. It provides 26 specialized AI tools for worksheets, quizzes, lesson plans, schemes of work, rubrics, report-card comments, crosswords, word searches, bingo cards, parent emails, newsletters and other resources. Grade coverage runs from Kindergarten through 12th grade, with subjects including Math, Science, ELA, Social Studies, World Languages, Art, Music, PE and Special Education. Materials can be downloaded as PDFs, sent to Google Docs or printed directly. Students do not create accounts or interact with the AI, and TeachTools says it collects no student personally identifiable information. It says the service is FERPA compliant and offers a Data Processing Addendum to districts. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Plans include Free at free, Starter at $2 a month, Plus at $5 a month and Pro at $10 a month.