What is NotebookLM?

Google's NotebookLM (http://notebooklm.google) summarizes the sources that you provide. It turns them into text -- and even audio! -- resources to help you understand it better. Google calls it "your personalized AI research assistant." Click "Try NotebookLM" to open it and see all of your notebooks.

Once you're in, you can browse featured notebooks -- notebooks created by Google with pre-loaded sources. You can load your own notebooks, or you can create a new notebook. 

• Free version: 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 500,000 words per source, 50 chat queries per day, 3 audio generations per day
• Plus (paid) version: 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, 500 chat queries per day, 20 audio generations per day, customizable response styles, interactive audio overviews, collaborative notebooks

You might have the "plus (paid) version" in your school Google domain already! Just go to notebooklm.google while logged into your school account.

AN EASY WAY TO CHECK: Open one of the pre-made "featured notebooks" and look in the studio. If the audio overview has a waving hand icon (for interactive mode), you probably have the plus version.

1. Upload a variety of sources for NotebookLM to use. 

You can use ...

• websites
• PDF files
• links to websites
• any text you've copied
• Google Docs and Slides
• even Markdown

You can't link it to YouTube videos, but you can copy/paste the transcript (and maybe type a little context about the YouTube video before pasting the transcript). 

What if I don't have sources yet? No problem. NotebookLM has a "Discover" button that lets you search for sources to add to your notebook. Below, I searched for guidance documents for K-12 AI in education from state departments of education and other organizations.

You can choose what you want to include -- and uncheck the ones you don't want to include.

2. Chat with your sources. 

Next to the sources window is the chat. The chat is like having a conversation with an expert about your sources. You can ask it for anything. Here's just a quick brainstorm ...

• Ask it for answers to quick questions.
• Ask it to summarize, prioritize, or rank.
• Ask it to identify gaps or missing elements.
• Ask it for next steps.

The chat box (where you type your question or prompt) will suggest questions you might want to ask. You can click on those -- or just type your own questions.

Here's what's really nice about the chat. It displays answers to your questions (on the right side in the image below) ... but it also footnotes the responses. If you click on a footnote, you'll see the source where it pulled the information -- and you can click the footnote to see it in context. 

3. Create resources in the Studio. 

This is where NotebookLM gets REALLY incredible. It can use your sources to create:

• audio overviews (like custom podcasts about your sources)
• video overviews (like slide deck videos with voiceover)
• mind maps (expandable custom-created word webs about your sources)
• reports (briefing docs, study guides, FAQs, or timelines)

Let's take a look at each one ...

Studio resource #1: Audio overviews

When you create an audio overview, it sounds like two podcast co-hosts are having an organic conversation about your sources. It's as if you handed them all of your sources (or specific ones you've selected) and said, "Here, read through these and create a show where you discuss them and explain them in a way that's understandable."

Once you have created an audio overview, you can play it, download it as an .mp3 file, and share it as a link.

CUSTOMIZE: Want to give the hosts some guidance on what to discuss? In the audio overview button, click the three dots and choose "Customize."

Think of it like this: the audio overview hosts are getting ready to record a show, but beforehand, you slip them a little sheet of paper asking them to do a few special things for you. That could include focusing on a specific source, a specific topic, a specific audience. You can also ask it to include something special, like the name of someone who's going to be listening.

It gets really interesting when you enter Interactive Mode.

INTERACTIVE MODE: In Interactive Mode, you can play the audio overview like usual ... but there's a "Join" button. Click "Join" to ask the hosts a question. They'll stop their conversation and listen to your question ... and then respond to it ... then return back to their discussion. 

Studio resource #2: Video overview

NotebookLM won't just create a podcast episode for you to listen to.

It'll create a video -- complete with a voiceover and a set of slides -- all wrapped into a polished, finished video file. Play it. Change the playback speed. Full screen it. Download it. Or share it as a link.

ADD TO YOUR LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: It's easy to download the video and throw it into your learning management system (LMS) like Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, or Microsoft Teams. Just add the video file directly to your LMS -- or add it to your Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive and then link to it in your LMS. This makes creating these resources and sharing them with your students quick and easy.

Studio resource #3: Mind maps

NotebookLM will analyze your sources and turn them into an organized mind map to help you see how topics are connected and interrelated. It's fascinating to see how NotebookLM organizes and sorts out the content in your sources.

Each mind map includes collapsable and expandable sections. Zoom in and out. Collapse and expand. Download it exactly as you have it zoomed in our out as an image file. 

FIND MIND MAP MATERIAL IN A SOURCE: If you click on any part of the mind map, it displays where it found that information in your source. This is really helpful if you have lots of sources and you want to drill down to a particular part in one source quickly.

Studio resource #4: Reports

When you create a report in NotebookLM, you can choose from the four pre-created report types:

• Briefing doc (detailed executive summary of the material in outline format)
• Study guide (outline, quiz with answer key, essay questions, glossary of key terms)
• FAQ (commonly expected questions -- with answers)
• Timeline (important information organized by dates/times from the source material)

These reports are view-only, so you can't really download them as documents or share them as links. However, you can easily copy/paste the text into a document and do whatever you want with it from there.

10 important things about NotebookLM for educators and students

1. Students can now use NotebookLM.

According to Google's help page, NotebookLM is available to all users 13+ through the browser (regardless if they're using it through a Workspace for Education organization). Content policies are stricter for users under 18 years old.

NotebookLM is available to users of all ages with a Workspace for Education account -- even for students. 

Here's more info about using NotebookLM with a school Google account.

Also important to note: Google says NotebookLM won't use your personal data to train its AI models. If you're an enterprise (paid) user or an EDU user, it won't use your uploads or queries -- or the model's responses -- to train AI models (and they won't be reviewed by human reviewers).

2. Audio summary?? WOW. Use it to reinforce and summarize. 

The audio summary feature is INCREDIBLE. It turns your source materials into a podcast-style interview you can listen to. 

The audio summary can be a FANTASTIC way to review and reinforce, though. Students could listen to it during a commute or while doing any sort of routine task. Or, as a teacher, this could be a MUCH less painful way to get acquainted with a long document.

Click to listen.

3. Create audio summaries and share them with students through Google Drive.

If you love this audio summary feature as much as me, don't let terms of use stand in the way of your students benefitting from it. 

• Upload sources to NotebookLM. Create an audio summary. Click the three dots and download it.
• Upload that audio summary file to Google Drive (or OneDrive or Dropbox or whatever).
• Share the audio file with students with a link -- or through your learning management system (Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, etc.).

Again, the audio file itself isn't subject to the terms of use ... just the use of the NotebookLM tool itself.

4. Create study guides for students -- and throw them in Quizlet.

Take your sources that students are supposed to learn from -- PDF files, documents, chapters from a textbook, etc. (You can even copy/paste the transcript of YouTube videos as a "copied text" source.

Then, under "Notebook Guide" at the bottom, choose "Study Guide." It'll create short-answer questions (with an answer key) and a glossary of important terms.

What do you do with that study guide? You might go to Quizlet (quizlet.com) and create a study guide (and related flashcards) with it. 

5. NotebookLM is available in 50+ languages.

This is huge. If you want to create resources for students whose first language isn't English, you can just change the output language in the settings for the notebook in NotebookLM. (Then change it back if you want it to go back to English.) 

Also, if you're teaching world languages as a subject, creating resources in the target language could be a great language learning opportunity.

6. Use this to help your human brain -- not to replace it.

Be careful. Use this as a tool just like you should with anything else powered by AI -- to accomplish what you want. If you (or your students) need to be well-acquainted with the details of the source material, don't use it to substitute your brain work.

For students, this could be a great way to reinforce and review material.

For teachers, it shouldn't be used to make decisions for us by bypassing our valuable human teacher brain.

7. Find keywords and a summary for your sources.

If you click on one of the sources you uploaded (in the top left), you'll get the "Source Guide." It summarizes your source. It gives the full text of it. Plus, it identifies key topics. Click any of the topics and it'll start a chat saying "Discuss (key topic you just clicked" to summarize that key topic based on the source.

8. Get exactly what you want from sources in the chat. 

The chat answers your questions and fulfills your requests within the confines of the sources you provided.

The sky's the limit here, and you can ...

• Get answers to quick questions
• Ask what the sources don't cover (what the gaps are)
• Ask for the hardest parts to understand
• Get an explanation a 10 year old would understand

The chat is powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google's most capable model (as of publication of this post). So you can do a lot more than answer simple questions and get simple summaries. 

Get creative and fun with it. Here are a few I've tried:

• Ask it to write the script for a viral TikTok video about your sources.
• Ask it to create a script for the kids TV show Bluey about your sources.
• Ask it to write a haiku about your sources.

9. Save anything you need and go back to it. 

Whenever you load NotebookLM (http://notebooklm.google), it shows you the notebooks you've created. A notebook is the planning space where you have your sources, your notes, and your notebook guide. You can save it like a Google Doc with a filename and revisit it any time. 

10. Share your notebooks with others (for shared lesson planning). 

Notebooks are shareable! Click the "Share" button to share a notebook with an individual -- and give them viewer rights or editor rights.

Imagine this as an AI-powered collaborative lesson planning space ...

• Create a notebook for a chapter or unit you're teaching
• Upload all of the sources you'll need to it
• Share it with colleagues
• Create resources that any of your colleagues can access
• Type and create notes -- and edit resources created by NotebookLM -- to co-create plans