My Experiments with NotebookLM for Educating 

you had been to my latest X timeline, you’d discover I’ve been experimenting with a variety of totally different AI instruments for the aim of instructing. I’ve been engaged on this undertaking for practically a 12 months, primarily to discover how we are able to make the most of AI to reinforce the interactivity and effectiveness of studying. My focus is on educators, mother and father, and academics in order that they spend much less time looking for assets on-line and extra time with the scholars. I’m conscious that there are already a ton of instructional websites on the market, however in my expertise, they endure from two foremost points:

• A whole lot of these instruments require pointless signups and are full of a variety of irrelevant adverts.
• Generally the content material is simply not tailor-made to our necessities. Both it’s too primary or too complicated.

That’s why I began coding my very own instruments or creating customized assets by mixing and matching what’s accessible. Based mostly 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 properly.

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

Why NotebookLM for Training

The tagline for NotebookLM is perceive something, and it actually lives as much as that. NotebookLM has been an important 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 properly, as a result of its options like thoughts maps, flashcards, quiz generator, customizable studies, video overviews, and many others.

What actually stands out for me is that the solutions are strongly grounded within the precise info offered. That’s one of the necessary necessities when utilizing any device for schooling. You don’t need a hallucinating assistant, particularly when it’s getting used to check.

1. Making Historical past Dates Straightforward to Bear in mind

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

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

To make these dates stick, youngsters want one thing visible. You’ll be able to take the generated timeline and replica it into one other device referred to as NapkinAI, which is designed to show textual content into visuals. NapkinAI will routinely convert into a pleasant timeline chart that college students can use for learning and even embrace of their initiatives.

However we don’t must cease at historical past classes; it really works for educational papers, too. Simply swap the supply with a analysis paper and observe the identical steps. It’s a neat method to pull out all the important thing milestones that led as much as that specific 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, but it surely’s a superb approach to assist them keep in mind their classes in a enjoyable approach. It’s additionally an important methodology to check understanding.

For this, we’ll use CrosswordLabs, a free web site that makes it simple to create crosswords. However as an alternative of creating random ones, we’ll pull the clues straight 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 might 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 remedy it on-line.

3. From Research 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, personalised, and illustrated storybook for any matter, concept, or state of affairs you take note of. Other than being enjoyable, these storybooks are extremely helpful for instructing new ideas to college students. It is because you’ll be able to tailor them based mostly on their pursuits. As an example, in case your college students like Legos, you’ll be able to generate one round that theme. Possibly they take pleasure in picnics, create one round that as an alternative.

What’s much more helpful is that this method may also help college students perceive complicated matters. So, if you happen to’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 novel 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 really 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 properly. However for teenagers, plain textual content isn’t sufficient, so I turned to Google AI Studio to construct a picture flashcard generator from scratch. Whereas NotebookLM just lately added a Flashcard Generator, it’s text-based.

Google AI Studio hosts quite a lot of applets that may be remixed, making it simple to construct on high of them. It really works like an experimental playground to check Google Gemini fashions and create prototypes, which might 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 pictures, 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 individual 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 Stories characteristic suits very 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, quite than simply uncooked translations.

In case you missed it, NotebookLM now comes with a customized studies characteristic. This implies as an alternative of simply getting the common studies, you’ll be able to create your individual report based mostly 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 straight from the supply.

For instance, the report immediate could possibly be:

You're a Hindi–English language tutor for teenagers who know English however are studying Hindi by 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 under 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 simpler when an skilled explains the grammatical nuances. On this case, that skilled might be NotebookLM.

Conclusion

On this article, I’ve shared a few of my experiments within the AI for schooling area utilizing NotebookLM. Each youngster learns at their very own tempo and thru totally different mechanisms. With AI, I consider we are able to supply a extra personalised 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 correct instruments to information college students successfully. This might assist them save time, scale back effort, and focus extra on the precise studying journey with their college students.