Exploring Google Notebook and Gemini Part 2 - Effective use in Computer Science Grade 6 Pakistan

[Sheebaajmal03]

Hi All,

Hope your doing well, had time so thought of exploring how we can use both Google Notebook and Gemini to create interactive learning experiences for our learner studying in grade 6 schools in Pakistan. The textbooks taught in these grades are approved by the government of Pakistan and fall under the Single National Curriculum. Both are valuable education resources developed by Google for educators. The interactive nature of the new version of Gemini 2.5 Pro lets you create interactive quizzes based on the text you provide it. The text can be about any topic or grade. Google Notebook lets you upload PDF textbooks and it can create summaries of the chapters. It can also create multiple choice questions with answer key but its not interactive, its text based answers.

I uploaded the Computer Science textbook for grade 6 on the Google Notebook. The best thing about the Google Notebook is that it can quickly create summaries of the chapters in a text book and give you a gist of the topics introduced in various chapters of the book. Now I was thinking of scenario like the following:

Scenario: a school with around 2000 learners, grades from kindergarten till grade 10, has 3 sections of grade 6 , mixed ability students in each class, class strength roughly 30 to 35 learners in each class, have access to computers around 15 in the computer labs, with around 15 tablets. Learners are good users of technology, have knowledge of the Google Notebook and Gemini, and have ben introduced to both tools. There is one teacher who teaches computer science to all three grades and she has to ensure that all 90- 100 learners know the concepts well starting from chapter 1 to 5. How can both these two tools ensure effective learning ? how can these two tools be used for assessment? how can these two tools provide differentiated learning experiences?

Idea 1: The teacher demonstrates to the class using multimedia projectors how to create interactive quiz in Gemini and how to upload textbook in Google Notebook. Then she shares instructions: Every learner will work on both tools. Every learner will upload the textbook PDF saved in their Google drive to Google Notebook. Every learner will create 5 summaries chapter 1 to 5. Every learner should create at least 2 different quiz consisting of 5 multiple choice questions from each chapter - 1 to 5 using the summary text created in Google Notebook. And then attempt the quiz in Gemini. Analyse their scores. All learners will be able to gauge their understanding of the topic taught.

Idea 2: The teacher demonstrates to the class using multimedia projectors how to create interactive quiz in Gemini and how to upload textbook in Google Notebook. Then she shares instructions: Every learner will work on both tools. Every learner will upload the textbook PDF saved in their Google drive to Google Notebook. Every learner will summarise the key points of first 5 chapters in the textbook. Instead of using these summaries for creating interactive questions in Gemini, learners would be encouraged to create quiz in Gemini based on the topic. They can share the link of the quiz with each other and try solving each others quiz. This will lead to extension of knowledge and enhanced confidence of solving the quiz. Quick learners or learners who accept challenging tasks would benefit by creating their own quiz instead of using summary text.

In both cases teacher can circle around the class while the learners are seated on their computers in a computer lab. The teacher can see the quiz results and encourage learners to create more quiz to practice. The teacher can then ask a few questions in the end of the class to see the overall understanding of the whole class. The teacher can also ask the learners to summarise their learning after attempting the quiz in 50 to 100 words and save it in their Google Notebook as notes. Overall reflection on the whole process, working on two google resources, creating content, solving the quiz, sharing with peers, the content itself, ease of use, support from teacher etc.

Instead of printing and photocopying tons of assessments which eventually end up in bins after years of being placed in files or folders or shared with parents. Using Google Notebook and Gemini for formative assessments and checking learners understanding about a topic could save a lot of time and printing costs for the school. The data would be saved in the Notebooks and Gemini Pro 2.5. Learners could always open their notebooks and revise the content before the final exams. Also this gives the teacher a quick insight into learners knowledge and understanding of the taught content. Also its creative and empowering! instead of the teacher creating multiple quizzes, the learners create different quiz themselves, they can practice at own pace and try as many times they want too. Then it also enhances sharing and collaboration. The schools though would need to have policies and procedures in place to ensure effective use of both Google resources whether on school computers in the computer labor on BYOAD.

Happy reading and exploring till my next post soon.

Regards and prayers