How are you using Artificial intelligence this school year? Teachers can use NotebookLM and other artificial intelligence tools to scale their impact in the classroom. With lots of different tools to consider, NotebookLM from Google is one that lots of educators and professionals in many different industries are looking at closely.
AI in education has been a popular topic on the blog and podcast this year. As you can imagine, I’m following this topic closely so I can share strategies for leveraging AI technology and new tools with educators. Whether you are a member of my AI in Education Membership or get my newsletter each week, you know this topic is front and center.
If you’ve attended a keynote or workshop with me this year, you’ve probably heard me mention NotebookLM. I’ve demonstrated it to groups in a handful of ways, including a few mentioned in this blog post. Let’s jump right into what’s possible with NotebookLM.
What is NotebookLM?
Heading straight to the source, the team at Google describes NotebookLM as follows:
“NotebookLM gives you a personalized AI collaborator that helps you do your best thinking. After uploading your documents, NotebookLM becomes an instant expert in those sources so you can read, take notes, and collaborate with it to refine and organize your ideas.”
I’ve tried NotebookLM with a variety of sources, including the first chapter of the new edition of my book. This document becomes the source material for your “notebook.” You can then pose questions, similar to the way you might interact with a chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini. One of the features that has gotten the most attention is its ability to create an audio recap of the source material. It sort of sounds like a podcast, but the two voices speaking aren’t actual people.
What is Illuminate from Google?
Google has another tool called Illuminate that also creates audio interactions with text. This tool is powered by NotebookLM and lets you add your own content or use content they already have access to. For example, on the books tab, you can find text in the public domain and listen to short conversations about that book. Here is a link that takes you directly to the AI-generated “conversation” on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The Generate option lets you add your own source material with a link. With NotebookLM (mentioned above), you can upload multiple pieces of content. This is a simpler option that works with a copy and paste of one or multiple links. For example, you might have an article like this one from Time Magazine. Paste the link into the tool, choose the tone, and generate.
Once you save the conversation, you can review it to make sure you are comfortable sharing it with students, just like you would read over a newspaper article or watch a YouTube video before sharing. Then you can share the link with them to listen to (if they are able to sign into a Google account) or download the file for them to access on any device with a media player.
5 Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM
So if you consider Conversations on Books (like Sherlock Holmes) as first on our list, and Creating Dialogue About Articles as number two, let’s keep adding with number three next.
Conference Notes
If you attend a conference and take copious notes, then NotebookLM might be your best friend. Upload the document with your notes (exporting a Google Doc to PDF first), and create a podcast from them. It might not be perfect, but even if the AI-generated content has a small mistake or massive error, it will probably catch your attention as you revisit content that might have stayed in your notes otherwise.
Use When You’re on the Move
Has anyone sent you an article you wanted to read but just couldn’t find time for? If you’re on the move a lot or would rather press play at your computer while working on another task instead of carving out time to read, then NotebookLM can certainly come in handy. Upload the article document or add the link to Illuminate. Then it will create audio so you can listen to it while you’re on the move.
Create a Study Guide
At the end of a unit, your students might have content they want to review. Although you might still give them access to PPT presentations and a study sheet, you may want to try creating audio content for them to interact with, too. If you’ve followed my work this year, you know that my primary goal when exploring AI with educators is to look at these tools through an instructional planning lens (aka, only adults using these tools).
You might use NotebookLM yourself to create content for students to consume without them interacting with this tool themselves. One of the things I’m excited about with this tool is how easy it is to share the output with students. For example, you can download the audio file to your device and share the file with students. This means they won’t have to sign on to any new tool.
Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM
These quick ideas are just scratching the surface of ways teachers can use NotebookLM. As you dive into the tool yourself, you will certainly find use cases that align with your everyday work and the needs of your students. Have a great idea to share? Send a message my way! I look at every DM that comes to Instagram and read every email that comes as a reply to my weekly newsletter (sign up here).