Playing Gods with Canva Image Generator

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Let’s set the scene: it’s first period, your freshmen are more than half asleep, and you are standing in front of a room doing your best “song and dance” to create some engagement from The Odyssey.

It’s not that the text isn’t great (shoutout to Homer, you’re a real one). There are monsters, sassy language, and more than enough action, but 14-year-olds struggle to connect to a dude trying to get home to his wife.

You can see it, can’t you?

So how do I get buy-in from these sweet little lambs?

I let them create their OWN Gods.
 
After a DLL meeting with Holly Clark, I was talking to Dan Mancoff about how to put more AI tools in the hands of kids. He mentioned he did an introduction activity where he had kids take 10 minutes and make up a God. I thought, Wow. I want to take that and make it a full-blown lesson.

What are the AI Image generators on Canva?

There are two options for AI image generators in Canva. The one that is most student friendly is Dall.e. You students will need to go to APPS and pin it to their individual side panel. If you students struggle to get Dall.e to work for them, they can use Magic Media. Some of the images Magic Media creates might be blocked by the school (which is why I recommend Dall.e), but it’s a good alternative if Dall.e gives you trouble.

Ok, so what do I now?
  1. Open Canva
  2. Create a slideshow- Canva has a million templates, type in a key word or phrase and it will give you several creative and colorful template options.
  3. Type Dall.e into the search bar in your slideshow.
  4. PIN IT.
  5. Play around with the words or phrases you want to see created.
    • Example: A goddess of the American southeast. A brown-haired woman in a big southern kitchen. She is angelic. You can see a lot of the kitchen. Digital art.

    • I also had my students NAME their gods and provide explanations on how their gods got those names.
    • Students will randomly present their gods over the course of the unit.
See how awesome it is?
American Gods by ELIZABETH WHITTINGTON  

Tips
Add a slide with instructions- you can steal mine if you want!

If Dall.e isn’t providing your students with images, go back to the search bar and type in Magic Media; then follow steps 4-7.

But WAIT! I need to see an example. Here you go!

If you are still unsure about adding some AI imaging to your lesson, please reach out. I would love to talk to you about how this helped my kids connect to the reading and how it helped me connect to my kids.



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