Slides. Infographics. Video overviews. Audio overviews.

And that’s just scratching the surface!

WHAT IS Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): It’s Google’s free tool that helps you create all of these fantastic teaching resources.

The best part? They’re based out of YOUR teaching materials … PDF files, documents … even scan a chapter out of your textbook. It stays within the confines of the material you’re teaching.

💻 ONLINE COURSE: Our latest online course — Getting Started with NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) for Teachers helps you make the most of this incredible tool.

PS: Group discounts are available! Just hit reply and I can provide you with a quote.

📚 New AI resources this week

1️⃣ Who Is Building the AI Foundation for K-12 Classrooms? (via EdSurge) — Examines the new Learning Commons platform, which aims to give AI tools better access to standards, curriculum, and learning research.

2️⃣ AI Deployment: These 4 Districts Are Ahead of the Curve (via District Administration) — Looks at four districts using AI to remove bottlenecks in existing priorities such as competency-based learning, project-based learning, career pathways, and workforce alignment.

3️⃣ AI-Powered Instruction Needs Precision. Right Now, It’s Not Even Close (via The 74) — A study tested four large language models on their ability to judge the difficulty of more than 1,800 reading passages and found widely inconsistent results.

AI gets a lot more useful when you stop staring at a blank prompt box and start with resources you already trust.

That's the idea behind Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM). Upload your lesson slides, PDFs, videos, notes, and curriculum materials, and you can use AI to turn them into practical resources for teaching and learning.

We asked educators in our Getting Started with Gemini Notebook course how they could use it in their classrooms. Their ideas ranged from saving planning time to helping students engage with content in new ways.

Here are just five of our favorites:

You can read more about these — and 20 (!) more — in our new post: 25 practical ways teachers are using Gemini Notebook

PS: Our online course, Getting Started with NotebookLM for Teachers, is a great place to get teachers going. You can enroll for yourself — or hit reply to this email to inquire about bulk pricing for groups of educators.

What’s a topic you’d like to see covered here? Hit REPLY to this email and let me know.

Have you done anything you’d like to share with the AI for Admins community? Hit REPLY and let me know.

Would you like to write a guest post to support and equip AI for Admins readers? Hit REPLY and let me know.

🗳 Poll: What skills are becoming obsolete?

Posted by Judson Birkel in this discussion from Ditch That Textbook online community …

The NYT recently wrote an article talking about how some in China think AI may make learning English unnecessary (In the Age of AI, Some in China Wonder if Learning English is Worth the Trouble).

That question lead me to wonder if language-learning classes in the US (Spanish, German, French, etc.) are going to see major changes over the coming years as real-time-AI-Interpreting eventually renders learning second-languages obsolete (similar to cursive) - maybe World Language courses will gradually be replaced by World Culture courses instead (a little language, mostly lifestyle/culture).

Maybe this question has already been asked, but my question for you is, what other subjects or concepts do you think are going to see drastic changes over the coming years because of AI’s ability to render some pre-AI skills obsolete in the new Age-Of-AI?

(feel free to also weigh in on whether second language-learning will become obsolete)

🖥️ 5 ideas from my new keynote, “Screens”

Over the past year or so, the dialogue around the place of screens in schools and classrooms has really heated up.

The good news: We’re having productive dialogue about how technology fits into instruction — and where it works and doesn’t.

The frustrating part: Some people are pushing it to extremes, trying to claim that technology in and of itself is harmful and destructive to schools.

I get it. I’m a dad of three and in 15 years of teaching, I’ve seen lots and lots of students. I’ve seen the impact of social media and streaming video and their phones.

But I just don’t think that taking resources away from teachers and students because they’re used in ineffective ways is the complete solution.

(It makes for compelling sound bytes and social media posts in certain parts of the population, but I don’t think it’s solving anything.)

In my new speech — “Screens: Teaching Humans in a Tech-Obsessed, AI-Saturated World” — I talk about the struggle and what we can do.

Oh, by the way … I had a LOT of fun with the theme for this speech! It’s all rooted in 1980’s nostalgia. I was a kid growing up in the 1980’s, so I pull in lots of references to things from that decade — and the slide design is PURE 1980’s.

Here are five ideas from the speech …

Looking back on the 80’s, our screens were big and bulky and stayed in one place — usually a living room. We watched our shows (or rented a movie from Blockbuster) and moved on with our lives.

But now our screens are portable and connected and personal. We rarely go anywhere without them — and it takes a conscious decision to leave them behind.

Years ago, when we started buying our smartphones and signing up for social media, we did it because of what we thought we could do with them. Unfortunately, we weren't thinking about what they would do to us.

And now, we are seeing the effects of what they’re doing to us — and the students we serve in our schools. Cell phone bans keep them out of students’ pockets, but it doesn’t change the impact that social media and streaming media have had on them.

How did we get into the situation we’re in today?

Throughout all of this, we’ve focused on getting more and more technology into schools. We tell teachers that it’s innovative and will be a “game changer” … and we give them tech training about apps and features.

But here’s the question we’re still struggling to answer: What are screens for?

Many times, they’re brought into the classroom with no solid answer on HOW they should be used effectively, WHEN they should be used, WHAT they bring to the table, and WHEN NOT to use them.

We’ve always needed answers to these questions. We need them more than ever now.

I’ve heard so many people address this situation and use the word “balance.” They’ll say, “Oh, we just need a better balance with tech and paper … with digital and analog.”

That creates a false solution. Balance implies 50/50. It implies that we should use tech and NOT use tech in certain proportions.

It’s not a balance issue. It never has been a balance issue. It’s a DECISION issue.

If we truly want to support teachers in getting this right, we need to talk about how to choose whether to use technology. How to make great decisions.

And we need to make the distinction that it’s not really about balance … it’s about making the right choice for the moment.

In my speech, I relate this back to the TV show MacGuyver. (I told you it was very 80’s themed!) In that show, when MacGuyver was on a secret mission, he used whatever was at his disposal — and some creativity to find a solution. But he never said, “Oh, I haven’t used duct tape to get out of a jam lately. I’ll have to incorporate some duct tape next time.” No, he always used the best option in the moment.

In that way, we need less balance and more MacGuyver.

When we decide whether tech will help with teaching, it’s not like there’s a right answer / good answer and a wrong answer / bad answer.

We’re really weighing out the benefits and costs of multiple options — and choosing the best option for our situation.

Another analogy — buying a car from a used car lot. The salesperson might show you a shiny red sportscar with all the best features. Then, he might show you a used economy car with some flaws — and a much lower price tag.

Neither of these options is right or wrong inherently. But if you’re scraping together money and trying to make ends meet? The economy car might be better. If you have some extra cash or are trying to catch people’s eye? The sportscar might be your choice.

It’s the same with instructional decisions related to tech. You look at the pros and cons … you weigh them against each other … then, you make the best decision for you and your students in that situation. Your answer might be different than someone else’s, and that’s OK.

Here’s an issue that the screentime debates don’t seem to cover …

If we remove devices (and the apps we use on them), what will we replace them with?

Sure, there are inefficient ways we use devices in the classrooms. (I’d point to two: using them as a digital pacifier to play movies AND using them as a reward for students who get their worksheets done.)

If we want to actually make things better, we need an alternative that beats what we already have.

It makes me think of a virtual cultural exchange I did with my students years ago. We paired up with a class in Valencia, Spain, We did videoconferences together on Skype (RIP, Skype!). We worked together in shared Google Docs. Students Skyped each other in small groups. It was incredible. These students learned valuable lessons about how alike we truly are even though our cultures are different and we live thousands of miles apart.

It makes me wonder: How would that unit have gone without the technology? In that case, their experience would have been less influential and perspective-changing without the tech. (And we were using tools that didn’t cost us any more than the devices we already had.)

In the end, the problem isn’t about the devices.

It’s about the decisions we make about when and how to use the devices.

If we really want to address the problem, we should start there.

For more than 10 years, I’ve been providing professional development to teachers — through keynote speeches, workshops, breakout session and virtual events.

One unique thing about me: I’m still in the classroom. I teach part-time, so I get the experience of face-to-face time with students — and I can still deliver PD full-time.

If you think that the teachers at your school / district / event could benefit from this, please reach out!

Email Melanie at [email protected] to get details, check availability and get a speaker fee quote.