Chapter 33: Exploring the Wonder of Google Gemini
Date/Time: 22nd April 2025 - Tuesday, 1:04 am
This is yet another interesting post on the wonders of Google Gemini based on my recent online training sessions with educators from all across the country - Pakistan. In a 2 - 3 hour session online the participants had a great learning opportunity to explore the immense potential of Gemini in education. It was awe inspiring to see participants creating innovative content using Gemini.
The session was created in Google Sites with lesson checks, feedback forms and attendance forms all created in Google Sites. Participants had view only access to the Google site. They were added as collaborators in Google docs for collaboration activities. The session started with gauging participants' prior knowledge about Gemini. Some had used it and for most of the participants it was a new resource. Participants knew that it can be used for searching information and creating content. They knew they could type in instructions and Gemini would create the content for them. They understood it was a chat assistant which used generative AI to respond to queries or prompts. And we all know prompts are a way to talk or communicate with Gemini, the more refined and detailed the prompt, the more refined response would be generated by Gemini.
It was totally a new thing for participants to explore the multimodal nature of Gemini. They were intrigued and wanted to explore the multimodal nature of Gemini. I had to demonstrate practically how we can communicate to Gemini in different ways. For example we can verbally talk to Gemini using the microphone option and give detailed instructions. We can also use the speaker option to let Gemini read the responses for us. We can also upload an image in any language and ask Gemini to read for us or create comprehension questions from the passage in the image. Participants practice the various option of communicating with Gemini. It was inspiring to see participants being able to create lesson plans in different local Pakistani languages. An experienced master trainer was able to create a lesson plan in Siraiki language , Urdu language and even in Pushto language. Now these could be very useful for teachers and trainers working in rural areas in different provinces of Pakistan. Converting lessons into local languages can ensure consistency at all levels in all schools whether in rural areas or urban areas. It's not just the lesson plans, teachers can create different kinds of formative and summative assessments for their learners along with the anwer keys. Gemini has a feature where the content could be directly imported to Google docs. With gemini advanced, gemini is built within the Google ecosystem. And gemini in Google docs could do wonders. It can be used to rephrase or summarise or rewrite content. It can help you write more professionally.
Participants also practiced writing detailed prompts to gemini including describing their persona, their learners, their classroom/context , the tasks (what is they want gemini to create) , the format of questions and sharing some examples. They could see the difference in the outcome of their prompts - with more details the outcome was more thorough, more relevant and in context.
Participants also created imaginary stories and asked Gemini to create comprehension questions based on the passage. The questions were based on the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Learners could create different passages and create questions enhancing creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills. They also created different assessments with the answer key in Gemini.
In the next task the participants were asked to complete a short quiz on pronouns created in Google Forms, the results were imported in Google sheets. With builtin Gemini participants could use Gemini in extraordinary ways to analyse data. I gave instructions to Gemini to analyse the quiz results, identify common errors and suggest a way forward. Within seconds Gemini was able to identify the common errors and suggest a detailed way forward. If this was 100s of rows of data, it would have been impossible for the teacher to analyse data and usually this task takes hours and hours, but with builtin Gemini in the google ecosystem it took hardly a few seconds.
Furthermore the participants created a new quiz based on the results of the previous quiz. They also used gemini to create an extended lesson plan based on the quiz results. This was actual and authentic data from participants. Educators can use Gemini within Google Sheets to analyse 1000s of rows of data, this could be related to monthly assessments or mid term exams or even final term exams. I remember filters or functions to get insight into trends and patterns in data. Now gemini can do all this work in seconds. It even suggests prompts to further explore your data. A lot of participants found this very useful for their classrooms.
In another activity the participant learned how to use gemini to identify errors and mistakes in text. They give instructions to gemini to write a passage of 150 words on independence day with spelling errors , grammar and incorrect sentence structure. They imported this to Google docs and asked gemini in docs to identify errors in text and rewrite the passage with corrections. This could be a very useful exercise to build and extend the vocabulary of learners. In another interesting activity they tried to create levelled texts for their classrooms. For example they gave prompts to gemini to rewrite the same passage on independence day for grade 3 and 6, with simple vocabulary for grade 3 and difficult vocabulary for grade 6. It was amazing to see gemini produce different pieces of text. Now if a teacher had to do this in a traditional setup and come up with different passages, it would be a tough and challenging task, but Gemini just took seconds to create two different passages on the same topic.
Overall the online sessions were very active and engaging. The participants' feedback was very positive and they enjoyed the sessions. We had a lot of master trainers from a well known government organisation PEF Pakistan Education Foundation joining online and found the session very informative and useful. The session was able to empower participants and equip them with the skills /abilities to use Gemini to create innovative content for their learners in the classroom. Details on advanced gemini features soon.
Happy reading :) till my next post soon InnShaaAllah.
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
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