My Experiments with NotebookLM for Teaching 

you had been to my current X timeline, you’d discover I’ve been experimenting with a variety of completely different AI instruments for the aim of instructing. I’ve been engaged on this venture for practically a yr, primarily to discover how we are able to make the most of AI to boost the interactivity and effectiveness of studying. My focus is on educators, dad and mom, and academics in order that they spend much less time looking for sources on-line and extra time with the scholars. I’m conscious that there are already a ton of academic websites on the market, however in my expertise, they endure from two foremost points:

• Lots of these instruments require pointless signups and are stuffed with a variety of irrelevant advertisements.
• Typically the content material is simply not tailor-made to our necessities. Both it’s too fundamental or too complicated.

That’s why I began coding my very own instruments or creating customized sources by mixing and matching what’s out there. Primarily based on the optimistic responses I’m getting from the group, I’ve now compiled them on this article, beginning with NotebookLM. Over time, I plan to proceed this sequence with different instruments as nicely.

By this text, I share my experiences of utilizing NotebookLM to show extra successfully, specializing in the Ok—10 age group children.

Why NotebookLM for Schooling

The tagline for NotebookLM is perceive something, and it actually lives as much as that. NotebookLM has been an ideal companion for me. I’ve been utilizing it in quite a lot of methods, from understanding analysis papers to organizing concepts, summarizing technical talks, and much more. However it may be an efficient device for instructing as nicely, resulting from its options like thoughts maps, flashcards, quiz generator, customizable studies, video overviews, and so on.

What actually stands out for me is that the solutions are strongly grounded within the precise info supplied. That’s some of the essential necessities when utilizing any device for schooling. You don’t desire a hallucinating assistant, particularly when it’s getting used to review.

1. Making Historical past Dates Simple to Keep in mind

NotebookLM has a timeline characteristic that may mechanically generate timelines from the sources you present. That is particularly helpful for remembering essential dates or occasions in historical past, making it simpler for college students to see how issues join over time.

Let’s see it in motion. Under, I’ve pasted some textual content from Wikipedia on human historical past as a supply in NotebookLM. Then, by going to Studies and deciding on the Timeline possibility, I can get a transparent timeline of the primary occasions.

To make these dates stick, children want one thing visible. You may take the generated timeline and replica it into one other device known as NapkinAI, which is designed to show textual content into visuals. NapkinAI will mechanically convert into a pleasant timeline chart that college students can use for finding out and even embrace of their initiatives.

However we don’t must cease at historical past classes; it really works for tutorial papers, too. Simply swap the supply with a analysis paper and comply with the identical steps. It’s a neat method to pull out all the important thing milestones that led as much as that exact analysis.

2. Flip Classes into interactive Crosswords

College students love crosswords, and if we are able to flip their classes into crosswords, they’ll not solely take pleasure in fixing them, however it’s a superb approach to assist them keep in mind their classes in a enjoyable approach. It’s additionally an ideal methodology to check understanding.

For this, we’ll use CrosswordLabs, a free web site that makes it straightforward to create crosswords. However as a substitute of constructing random ones, we’ll pull the clues instantly from lesson plans.

Add your lesson supplies to NotebookLM. Now, CrosswordLabs expects clues in a selected format:

canine Man's greatest buddy
cat Likes to chase mice
bat Flying mammal
elephant Has a trunk
kangaroo Giant marsupial

To generate clues out of your classes on this format, immediate NotebookLM with a few-shot instance just like the one above. As an example, the immediate will be:

Given the lesson textual content, create phrase–clue pairs on this fashion:
canine Man's greatest buddy
cat Likes to chase mice
bat Flying mammal.

Take the generated output and paste it into CrosswordLabs, and it’ll auto-build your crossword. As soon as it’s prepared, you’ll be able to print it, obtain it as a PDF, or share the hyperlink so college students can clear up it on-line.

3. From Examine Guides to Storybooks

Storybook is a good characteristic within the Gemini App and certainly one of my favorites. It means that you can create a 10-page, customized, and illustrated storybook for any matter, thought, or scenario you take into account. Aside from being enjoyable, these storybooks are extremely helpful for instructing new ideas to college students. It is because you’ll be able to tailor them primarily based on their pursuits. As an example, in case your college students like Legos, you’ll be able to generate one round that theme. Perhaps they take pleasure in picnics, create one round that as a substitute.

What’s much more helpful is that this method may help college students perceive complicated matters. So, in the event you’re an educator planning to introduce a brand new idea, right here’s how you should utilize the Gemini Storybook characteristic along with NotebookLM to make it simpler:

• First, create a easy examine information in NotebookLM from the fabric that you’re planning to make use of.
• Paste the generated information within the Gemini App together with the immediate:

Create a singular storybook concerning the examine information I've uploaded.
Tailor it for a 2nd grade child.

Right here is how I created a storybook to introduce the idea of Magnetism to fifth graders.

It’s a fast method to flip your syllabus into one thing college students truly take pleasure in studying from.

4. NotebookLM + Google AI Studio

I like the mindmaps from NotebookLM as a result of they seize the entire matter so nicely. However for youths, plain textual content isn’t sufficient, so I turned to Google AI Studio to construct a picture flashcard generator from scratch. Whereas NotebookLM lately added a Flashcard Generator, it’s text-based.

Google AI Studio hosts quite a lot of applets that may be remixed, making it straightforward to construct on prime of them. It really works like an experimental playground to check Google Gemini fashions and create prototypes, which may then be deployed on the cloud. One of many applets was designed for producing flashcards, so I modified the flashcard app to pair textual content with photographs, making the flashcards extra partaking and kid-friendly.

I’ve revealed the app, and now you should utilize it as it’s or make your personal model of it. 

5. NotebookLM for studying a brand new language

I’ve been experimenting with NotebookLM for language studying, and the brand new Flashcards + Customized Studies characteristic matches rather well. Since NotebookLM now helps many languages, I attempted customizing prompts in order that the outputs really feel extra like a language instructor explaining ideas, reasonably than simply uncooked translations.

In case you missed it, NotebookLM now comes with a customized studies characteristic. This implies as a substitute of simply getting the common studies, you’ll be able to create your personal report primarily based in your desire and output language.

So let’s say I’m an English speaker and I wish to study Hindi. I can take any Hindi passage that I wish to perceive, generate a customized report by specifying the output language as Hindi, after which save that report as a supply in NotebookLM. From there, I can create flashcards instantly from the supply.

For instance, the report immediate could possibly be:

You're a Hindi–English language tutor for youths who know English however are studying Hindi by means of tales. I gives you a Hindi story. Create a structured bilingual studying report on this format:

Title of the story in Hindi and English

Introduction in English: Clarify what the story is about in a pleasant approach

For every sentence within the story:
• Write the unique sentence in Hindi
• Give a easy English translation"*
 Learn the passage beneath and rewrite it in easy Hindi with grammar notes and phrase meanings in brackets.

Whereas there are many good apps for studying a brand new language, not everybody learns greatest by answering a repetitive set of questions. For many individuals, myself included, it’s simpler and more practical when an skilled explains the grammatical nuances. On this case, that skilled will be NotebookLM.

Conclusion

On this article, I’ve shared a few of my experiments within the AI for schooling area utilizing NotebookLM. Each little one learns at their very own tempo and thru completely different mechanisms. With AI, I imagine we are able to supply a extra customized strategy to instructing by creating content material tailor-made to every learner. As I discussed earlier, my focus is on empowering educators, since they’re those who want the precise instruments to information college students successfully. This might assist them save time, cut back effort, and focus extra on the precise studying journey with their college students.