Studying with Gemini Notebook

What is Gemini Notebook?

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is an AI tool powered by Google’s Gemini AI. Google calls it, “a research and thinking partner, grounded in information you trust.”  Essentially, it can serve as an AI study buddy to complement more traditional study methods in helping you understand, synthesize, and retain information.

How does it work?

You upload sources such as PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, and text files into themed “notebooks” based on your classes or projects. From there, you can review the original sources in the sources panel on the left of your screen, ask questions about them in the central chat panel, or generate AI visuals, quizzes, study guides, and other tools in the studio panel on the right side of your screen. It’s important to note that you can always select and unselect the sources you want to use for your chat or studio project. You can pull from all of them, some of them, or just one of them. What makes Gemini Notebook special is that it is entirely grounded in the information you provide, not the entire internet. So, the chances of it hallucinating (making stuff up) are reduced.

What are some key features?

Mind Map

This feature helps you see connections and get a big-picture overview by creating a branching diagram of key concepts in related sources. If you want to learn more about a particular concept, click on that Mind Map node, and Gemini Notebook will create a prompt in the chat panel to the effect of “Discuss what these sources say about Concept X in the Context of Y.”

Create Report

This feature summarizes information into different written report formats. The default options include a briefing document that highlights key themes; a study guide with a short-answer quiz, essay prompts, and a glossary of terms; and an easy-to-read blog post. You can also ask it to create FAQs, timelines, or other relevant formats that it will suggest based on your uploaded sources.

Audio Overview

This feature creates a podcast-style discussion between two AI hosts of the most compelling information from your selected sources. There are several different default styles to choose from, or you can also create a prompt that tells the AI exactly what you would like the audio overview to focus on.

How can it be used to complement traditional study methods?

Here are some ideas on how to use Gemini Notebook to complement traditional study methods:

Previewing a text

Before starting a long and dense text, you could create a slide deck or video overview highlighting the main ideas of your text. These tools can prompt you to think of questions that you hope the full text will answer. Jot down your questions, then read the text to find the answers.

Testing your understanding

Use the chat panel to explain in your own words what you have understood from a text and ask Gemini Notebook for feedback on how accurate your understanding is and what key points you may have missed. Whenever you get a good chat response, you can save that response as a note.

Dual coding

Transform your texts and notes into visuals such as a slide deck, infographic, mind map, or organized data table, so you have more than one way to remember key information.

Self-quizzing

Use the flashcard, multiple-choice quizzes, or study guide features to interact with your course materials through active recall. For more sophisticated self-testing, ask the chat to create questions that you should be able to answer after reading, and then practice answering them.

Learning on the go

Create podcast-style audio overviews in advance that you can play back on the Gemini AI app to listen to while you’re traveling or exercising. These overviews can be used to either preview new material or review material you have already read.

Distributed practice

There’s a lot you can do with Gemini Notebook, and you probably wouldn’t want to do everything all at once, which lends itself well to distributed practice, or spacing your studying out over time. So, on Day 1 you can upload your source material and do a preview to orient yourself. On Day 2, you can do a thorough read on your own. On Day 3, you can create a video or audio overview to review what you read the day before. On Day 4, you can create flashcards and quizzes, and so on. Have fun!