NotebookLM now provides video overviews
And they are pretty good!
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A year ago, I wrote about how NotebookLM from Google was my favourite AI tool. I use it each week to help me write my weekly Tips for Teachers newsletter, where I take a deep dive into a piece of research and extract the key insights for teachers.
An early feature of NotebokLM was its ability to generate an audio podcast, featuring two incredibly enthusiastic American hosts, discussing whatever document (or documents - you can upload up to 50 each time) you have uploaded. I once uploaded all of White Rose Maths Small Steps for a project I was working on, and the way the hosts talked about them, you would think I had just uploaded Fifty Shades of Grey. I use these podcast overviews primarily to digest research papers when I am on a run or coming back from the school drop-off. I can then read up on the ones that interest me when I get home.
Anyway, over the summer, NotebookLM rolled out another feature that I absolutely love: Video overviews.
Yes, not content with audio summaries, you can now get a visual breakdown of the documents you have shared at the click of a button. These tend to be a lot shorter than the audio podcasts, and you get supporting images to help make sense of the content.
I thought I would give it a go for three of my favourite research papers.
Paper 1: Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work by Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller, Richard E. Clarke
The original paper is available here.
Paper 2: Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork
The original paper is available here.
Paper 3: The components of direct instruction by Watkins and Slocum
The original paper is available here.
Not bad, hey?
Of course, you don’t have to use the video overviews exclusively for research papers. Share your departmental handbook with new starters, or digest Ofsted reports and calculation policies. And remember, you are not confined to a single source. Upload multiple documents, and the video overview will identify trends and differences between them.
Usual word of caution: These AI summaries can hallucinate, so their word should not be taken as gospel. However, if you use these as a gateway into a paper or series of documents, I have found that it then really helps me know what to focus on when I return to the original source.
I will add video overviewss to all my Tips for Teachers newsletters from now on, so make sure you subscribe if you haven’t already.
What do you think of the video overviews?
What might you use these for?
Let me know in the comments below!
🏃🏻♂️ Before you go, have you…🏃🏻♂️
… signed up for my free online workshop: 25 Tips for Teachers?
… read my latest Tips for Teachers newsletter about students ignoring feedback?
… listened to my most recent podcast about Atomisation?
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Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!
Craig
thanks Craig, yes that tool looks useful, I tried it on Anderson 1977 one of the official summary reports for Project Follow Through and DI-
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/0e6affd9-7f41-4455-82ee-824e856702ce?artifactId=ff078f5f-3d57-403a-8ee0-35be0f3665f4
I've used it. Sometimes it's helpful, but the insipid speech patterns and disfluencies grate my nerves. In a 12 minute discussion, maybe 8 minutes is useful.