Google has finally added sharing functionality to their custom chatbots. This unlocks the ability for teachers to share their favorite Gems with one another, or create specialized chatbots for students to use. Check out this month's AI lesson for an example.

Google's NotebookLM – long known for its podcast feature (Audio Overviews) – has now launched Video Overviews. You can use your uploaded resources to produce an animated slideshow with AI voiceover. It's a great way to produce differentiated video/audio explainers for students who learn best that way. Try it out today at notebooklm.google.com.

OpenAI has released its latest video generation model, named Sora2, with amazing new capabilities to create lifelike video clips. To encourage users to make short videos and share them, they launched a new app, also called Sora. The app generates video clips for users that can include their own likeness and those of connected friends (with permission). By providing a entertaining way to share these clips, it is positioning itself as a new type of social network.

Custom AI chatbots, like ChatGPT's GPTs and Gemini's Gems, offer powerful ways to focus on specific tasks when using AI tools. By uploading resources and pre-writing parts of the prompt, you can streamline your use of chatbots especially when doing the same type of task regularly. Consider making an IEP writer that helps create text for Individualized Education Plans, or a custom chatbot that differentiates documents for students reading at different levels. This kind of AI use can save a lot of time over writing long prompts from scratch every time.

But this month's launch of sharing functionality in Gems really changes the landscape by unlocking tons of new ways to use these tools. Teachers can now create Gems that are programmed to help students on very specific tasks and share them with students directly. Students can jump right in and interact with the chatbots to support their learning immediately.

What’s the Goal? Build student independence and AI literacy by providing opportunities for them to study and practice with customized chatbots

How do I use Gems?

Teachers can log into Google Gemini (gemini.google.com) and click on the "hamburger" menu in the top left. At the top of the pop-out list on the left  is the Gems section. If you can't see it, scroll to the top of the list. Click the line that reads "Explore Gems".

You will then see a list of pre-created Gems to explore and a button that reads "+ New Gem" Clicking on the button will bring up the Gem creation box. Give your gem a name that will make sense for the task it's designed to do. Fill in the description to remind you and others what it is for. In the Instructions section, provide the prompt that will apply to all interactions with the chatbot. Try to be as specific as possible so that the output will be more finely tuned to the goals of the "bot".  The Knowledge section is for related documents. After clicking Save, you will have the option to share it. When you do, you are prompted to make the attached documents visible to others so that the Gem can have full functionality.

When you try out shared Gems with your students, be sure to tell me how it goes!

Last month, Paul worked with the award-winning faculty of Coral Academy of Science - Cadence in the Las Vegas area. At the start of this month, Paul trained the fabulous educators of Noble Public Schools in Noble, Oklahoma. From there he will kick off Solution Tree’s AI for Educators workshop, which he helped create with Bill Ferriter and Eric Twadell, in Stockton, California.

All of these are bespoke learning opportunities designed for the needs of each school or district. By combining current classroom experience with extensive AI knowledge, Paul is well-suited to help your teachers make the best of these amazing tools. Paul’s classroom use of AI was even recently spotlighted by a local news station, exploring how the local school district is using Paul’s protocols as a starting point for it’s AI guidance.

Stay tuned for more examples of lessons from Paul, and from the amazing teachers that he gets to learn with around the USA.

Paul (and the Codium Educational Consulting team)

P.S.

Don’t forget to email Paul with examples of how you’ve used the tools and strategies that he shared with you.