NotebookLM shows how AI can be used right now in learning. The automatic podcasts will blow your mind.
This is a monumental achievement, as anyone can now take a motherlode of documents and get AI to extract summaries, answer questions, give a timeline, even create a podcast.
We have worked on note taking software adding AI features, and seen it work in practice. This really is an area that is ripe for application, as note taking is an established practice, the bridge between the teacher and learner, the active learning that allows the learner to move forward.
With NotebookLM, I uploaded a large book on learning theorists, at 300,000 words, saved as a 700+ page PDF. It covers 2500 years, with 300 learning theorists and has taken me years to write. Here's the list of Learning theorists and topics covered:
Chat
It gives a pretty good summary, briefing and timeline, century by century, across 2500 years.
Then, I started to ask it questions, using the chjat function, engaging in dialogue with my own work. It is superb. If every teacher, department, course had its curated content in this context, this would be a boon for students. If you want to know some specifics about a particular learning theorists or more geneal view of a group, it does a credible job.
Learners can ask general questions, then, when engaging in a class or assignment, specific questions, getting carefully considered answers. I asked it some general questions about historical trends, why so few women in learning and so on. Pretty good…
What is impressive are the provenance numbers that link to the source text in hte document for most components in the answer.
Podcast
But the big hit comes at the end. I asked it to do an ‘Audio overview’ of all 300 learning theorists in 700 pages. This was way beyond my expectations. A dialogue podcast, at around 11.5 minutes, was amazingly realistic, with a male and female commentator bounding off each other. The language was informal and sounded like real dialogue. I have since asked people to listen – they ALL thought these were real people.
It covered the material well, pulling out relevant theorists and making insightful observations as they took us through 2500 years of learning theory. For novice learners who want a friendly introduction, those with poor literacy skills, English as a second language, but also dyslexic learners, this is a wondrous feature. I can see this being a great introduction to any topic, subject, course or assignment.
Fronting a learning journey with an introductory podcasts seems like a fine idea to me. A brief and accessible introduction to a subject, super quick to produce and prepares the learners for deeper learning.
I can see this getting real traction with learners at school and college.
Take notes
You can also create and manage notes. You select the box in the upper-right corner of one or more notes, and NotebookLM displays text-buttons with actions to take on the notes. These include:
Summarise the selected notes.
Suggest related ideas.
Create a study guide.
Create an outline.
Combine the selected notes into a single note.
I am always astonished at how many learning professionals do not take notes at conference talks I give. It's almost endemic. Yet, notes, especially in school and college are the bedrock for subsequent learning. It is not the notes in themselves but what you do with the notes afterwards that matter. That's why the debate over handwriting v typing is irrelevant - the learning takes place largely in what follows the act of writing - the retrieval process, reflection, manipulation, subsequent analysis and expansion of those notes. Notes launch good learning journeys. This encourages a more structured approach to notes, with more tools and help.
Sharing notebooks
You can share notebooks by opening a notebook and clicking the Share icon in the top-right corner of the screen. You can grant either Viewer or Editor access to another user by adding their email address.
A viewer will have read-only access to all the source documents and notes you shared with them in the shared notebook. An editor will be able to view, add, or remove sources and notes in your shared notebook as well as share it further with other users. Personal gmail accounts can share a notebook with up to 50 other individual users
PS
If you want REAL podcasts and deep dives into specific topics in this this content, there are 36 1 hour podcasts in the 'Great Minds on Learning' series here…
https://greatmindsonlearning.libsyn.com/
Further experiment
Experimenting further, here's the NotebookLM AI-generate summary and 10 min podcast from four large articles I wrote on Heidegger, Foucault, Lyotard and Derrida. Just one small section from the huge 700 pager.
I loved how it created jokes, even analogies. Absolutely brilliant. Who said AI couldn't be innovative!
And here's the AI generated summary
Summary
This text provides an overview of the philosophical and educational theories of four prominent figures in the 20th century: Heidegger, Foucault, Lyotard, and Derrida. While exploring their individual contributions to areas such as ontology, power relations, and language, the text also criticizes their theories, particularly their tendencies towards relativism, cynicism, and obscurity, arguing that these thinkers often detached their ideas from the real world. The text highlights the influence these figures have had on critical pedagogy, postmodernism, and contemporary educational practices.
Now here's the real long-form podcast by myself and John Helmer...
https://greatmindsonlearning.libsyn.com/gmols6e36-continental-theorists-with-donald-clark