As AI continues to advance, both inside and outside of the school system, many of us find ourselves wondering two big things: Should we be using this incredible new technology, regardless of where it may end up in the next few years, and if so, how? If we integrate AI into learning, are we unintentionally trading away essential skills or experiences we might later wish we’d preserved? Are any of you in the same place?
That is a place I find myself in constantly, especially as an IT Director for a K-8 private school in Greenwood Village, Colorado, with a main focus on leadership and entrepreneurship. For our students, we know that AI will be here to stay in some capacity and will affect what we teach them to do out in the world. However, we are working diligently to ensure that the integration of new technologies does not diminish the essential skills and developmental experiences that are foundational to students.
We’ve found that NotebookLM has been an incredible tool that lets us move forward with AI in education while still keeping our faculty’s and families’ learning priorities front and center. It supports what we value without replacing it. Right now, we’re using several NotebookLM “chatbots” to help our faculty and families with questions and workflows, and we’ve also built some clear use cases for students in our middle school.
‘Benny’ the benefits chatbot
- This chatbot we created with the intention of giving our HR department some of their time back, and giving our faculty the opportunity to answer many of the questions they have on their own. This chatbot is not intended to remove human connection, but is meant to be a great introduction, or explanation of more complex HR documentation. It greatly understands PTO, Health insurance options, and things of that type. Our staff are all encouraged to use this as a first step when they need assistance with benefits and have general questions about HR matters, then reach out to our HR team if more information, explanation, or problem solving is needed.
How it’s done
- We filled the Notebook ‘Sources’ with all of the documentation we have regarding benefits, PTO, wellness, coaching, emotional well-being and more. (this sometimes includes documents, videos, links to websites, etc.)
- Then we made sure that the tone and the focus of responses fit the tone we wanted for our faculty - Focused on assisting our faculty to understand the content represented in the notebook
- Once we had what we felt we wanted, we created a few other sources in the ‘studio’ mode such as audio overviews of specific sections of the notebook like health or dental insurance, and made sure to save those so that the faculty could use them as well.
- Once we were ready, we made sure to ‘Share’ the notebook with our entire faculty. It is important to note that you can either share the ‘Full Notebook’ which includes the sources and studio creations, or the ‘Chat only’ which gives them just the chat and nothing further. We elected to give our faculty the ‘Full Notebook’ so that they could see where all of the answers are coming from for further research purposes.
Digital Mental Health for your Students
- This chatbot we have created specifically around supporting parents looking to limit their child’s technology use - specifically around smartphones and social media. We have a group at the school called ‘Think First, Phone Later’ that encourages parents to sign a pledge keeping their students from smartphones before 8th grade. This is founded on principles outlined by authors and researchers such as Jonathan Haidt and Clare Morell amongst others.
- We have built this chatbot as a support for parents in the midst of that battle with their kiddos. It provides information for those decisions and conversations, as well as non-tech activity ideas, research to back up tough decisions, etc. As of this moment, we have roughly 75 different sources powering this Notebook from YouTube links, articles, google docs, audio recordings, and pdfs. There is incredible versatility for what these notebooks can take in for the creation of these chatbots.
- The process was similar to the process above with a few small differences.
- We elected to share this as ‘Chat Only’ just for the sake of our parents using the bot. We may shift this change later, but felt it was right at the time of implementing last year.
- When we create awesome resources within the bot (video presentations, podcasts, infographics, etc) we simply share it out through our communication instead of expecting them to find it within the notebook.
- Sharing is a challenge, and has become more so of a challenge in recent updates. At one point, we created a school group email that parents were connected to and that gave them access to this notebook. In recent updates that no longer works. The best way to share information is to have podcasts, videos, infographics, etc created, downloaded and then shared out.
In-Class Plan (By Unit)
- We have a plan for middle school usage that we have had teachers do some testing on with great success. The idea was to create a tutor for students that’s completely tied to the content the teacher selects. That way, the teacher stays in full control of the pacing and sequence. This way the teacher is still in control of how the content is taught, and when.
- Then as part of review, students can interact with the content the teacher has loaded when they make it available to the students. This works because the teacher can upload all documents for their entire unit into the Notebook, but only click the checkmarks next to the content that has already been covered in class. As new material is taught, the teacher simply makes that content available in the Notebook. Students can then use the built-in tools such as flashcards, practice quizzes, and other supports to review, practice, and reinforce what they’re learning at the right moment.
- First teachers need to load their course content for the unit into the Notebook. It is best to label it in a way that makes it easy to find. (Week 1 WWII, Week 2 WWII, etc)
- When ‘Configuring the chat’, make sure to set the style to ‘Custom’ and write something to the effect of ‘Personal Tutor’ so that the bot knows what its primary purpose is.
- There is great opportunity here to use the options in ‘Studio’ mode over in the right panel. You can create slide decks, podcasts for specific sections of your unit for them to listen to, flashcards for things they need to focus on, practice tests and quizzes, etc. There are so many awesome options to apply to learning!
- When it comes to sharing these Notebooks for class use, it will be best to simply put the students email addresses from your class into it with whatever access you’d like them to have. Make sure not to give them any edit access!
In this new world of artificial intelligence which is exciting and full of possibility, but also a little overwhelming at times, schools can feel unsure about where to start. For us, this has been a really helpful middle ground for people who want to explore AI but don’t want to change everything they’re doing. It gives faculty, parents, and students a safe, manageable way to begin using the technology without feeling like they’re suddenly expected to dive into the deep end.
So why not give it a try? Start by creating your first NotebookLM and see how it can support your faculty, parents, and students!
