Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / Gemini in the Classroom: Exploring 2.5 Flash, Pro, and Nano Banana
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Integrate This, your go -to EdTech
- 0:03podcast where curiosity meets classroom innovation.
- 0:07Join your hosts, David Berner and Jeremy Mikla,
- 0:09as we explore the rapidly evolving world of educational
- 0:12technology. From game -changing tools to insightful
- 0:15conversations with today's top EdTech voices,
- 0:18we're here to help educators stay informed, inspired,
- 0:21and ready to innovate. So tune in, level up,
- 0:25and let's integrate this. Hey, welcome to the
- 0:40Integrate This podcast. Today we're going to
- 0:42just talk about some of the things that we did
- 0:45with Google Gemini based on the updates that
- 0:48they had with 2 .5 Flash or 2 .5 Pro. Jeremy
- 0:52and I spent some time with the tool and did a
- 0:54number of different things. And there's tons
- 0:56of new features that they've added that we feel
- 1:00that educators could take advantage of and have
- 1:03great opportunities for. And so Jeremy and I
- 1:06are just going to talk a bit about what that
- 1:08was like and uh Jeremy what you get started what
- 1:12what did you think overall some of the stuff
- 1:13you did yeah uh It definitely is an advance over
- 1:18where I think the Gemini tool overall was. And
- 1:22I think there's been serious gains in the canvas
- 1:26area, which I know we'll touch on here in just
- 1:28a minute. But I think in particular for me, I
- 1:30think that where I saw kind of like the most
- 1:32impressive improvements is in the image creation
- 1:36area. So I'm going to just like start with that
- 1:39because that's where I want to go to here first
- 1:42is, you know, before when I would use Gemini,
- 1:45to try to create images, it would do great things
- 1:48if people were not in the image. But as soon
- 1:51as you ask Gemini to drop in a human being, it
- 1:54seemed to do really weird things. And sometimes
- 1:58it would even tell you, I can't put real people
- 2:00in there. But now with the release of the 2 .5,
- 2:06and I think especially the 2 .5 flash model,
- 2:09I think Gemini does some things that are now
- 2:12superior than what I've seen. and other large
- 2:16language models and stuff that are focusing on
- 2:18image creation. And it has the best name too,
- 2:22right? Nano Banana. Yeah, the nano banana is
- 2:25just kind of like this code name for it, right?
- 2:28And it's just kind of crazy. But some of the
- 2:32things that I think that it does now really,
- 2:35really well, I think the speed of its creation
- 2:37is greatly improved. I think if I would ask,
- 2:41you know, in in data side by side of Gemini and
- 2:44chat GPT, I think Gemini's with the same prompt
- 2:47Gemini would probably come up much quicker than
- 2:50than what the other models are. are currently
- 2:53at. So the speed is definitely, I think, an important
- 2:56thing. It's very intuitive and understanding.
- 2:59I know when we were playing around with this,
- 3:02I took a picture of David and I, and I uploaded
- 3:05it in and said, OK, I want you to take these
- 3:08two characters here and place them in a boat
- 3:12on the Amazon River with the rainforest and everything
- 3:16around it with snakes hanging from the trees,
- 3:20piranha in the river. and even like a jaguar
- 3:23up in the trees. And it knew exactly where to
- 3:26put everything. It knew and it understood what
- 3:29I meant by rainforest. So it kind of definitely
- 3:31had that kind of feel. So, but that was just
- 3:33like the first picture. Then I asked it to kind
- 3:35of step up and to make another, recreate the
- 3:39image, but put us in like rain gear and rain
- 3:42hats with the sky now full of rain. And it totally
- 3:46took that image and it made those additions to
- 3:49it. really needing to go back to the original.
- 3:54So it kind of kept that consistency through the
- 3:56different images that it developed. I think especially
- 3:59when it came to the characters that were in it,
- 4:02like... David and I, we looked the same. We just
- 4:05were wearing different things, or the scenery
- 4:08around us changed a little bit. But that consistency
- 4:11there was, I thought, really, really cool. And
- 4:13it's definitely a huge improvement. And then
- 4:15the other thing that I would point out is with
- 4:18the images that now are being developed within
- 4:20Gemini, they're watermarking it in that lower
- 4:23right -hand corner with that little Gemini icon.
- 4:26I think to help to draw people's attention to
- 4:29that this was created with AI, that they know
- 4:31they're not being duped and that it's not some
- 4:33sort of a deep fake that you're trying to create.
- 4:36So I think there's a lot of different potential
- 4:39here for teachers to use it in their classrooms.
- 4:43I could see it, you know, being used to help
- 4:45create images that maybe place the student in
- 4:48the center of a story, whether it be for something
- 4:51they've written or created, or maybe it's in,
- 4:54like, in a scene from history. I think it could
- 4:58definitely be used to help illustrate a lot of
- 5:00concepts, maybe to focus on some vocabulary building,
- 5:04or, you know, in world languages where you're
- 5:07building vocabulary in that other language that
- 5:09I think, you know, could definitely help bring
- 5:12I think some comprehension to that as well. So
- 5:15that's one of the tools that within Google's
- 5:19Gemini that I really think has taken great leaps
- 5:23forward, you know? Yeah, and that just got added
- 5:26in, like even during the summer I was playing
- 5:29around with it and it was still kind of in that
- 5:30process of it could create humans and stuff at
- 5:32that point, but then the ability to, like you
- 5:36said, put ourselves into it and modify these
- 5:40images. One of the best, I think I saw this on
- 5:43LinkedIn and I don't remember exactly who it
- 5:44was, but now we're, we're in a space where it's,
- 5:48it's like, it's giving Photoshop a run for its
- 5:51money, right? Yeah. That's exactly. So I saw
- 5:54someone post the similar thing. Yeah. So, you
- 5:57know, like in Photoshop, right? You put it in,
- 5:59you do all this editing and stuff. It's crazy
- 6:03how when we were doing our tutorial and you're
- 6:05putting in that example, it's really crazy how
- 6:09quickly you can modify that image and manipulate
- 6:13it and stuff. And I even used it to do one of
- 6:18my trainings that I had. I used the image. thing
- 6:22to put myself into, you know, everybody knows
- 6:25that Travis proposed to Taylor, a very huge event
- 6:29that happened and I used that. You did it, didn't
- 6:32you? I happened to just be in the garden at that
- 6:36time. Pretty exciting. For some reason, I was
- 6:40super close to them and they asked me to back
- 6:42up. But, you know, you get excited. It's what
- 6:45can you do, right? I mean, when when, you know,
- 6:48that couple comes together and you're just so
- 6:50for them, you know, you want to express how exuberant
- 6:54you feel about it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. But
- 6:56it's crazy because, like you said, like now you
- 6:58can you can. Yeah. Like you can even like smash
- 7:03different pictures together. Right. And it's
- 7:05not just one image that you can upload to it
- 7:07at a time. You can put several in it. It will
- 7:10kind of combine them together and put you right
- 7:12in the action. Right. Yep. Yeah, awesome. Yeah,
- 7:17what other things did that you shared with us?
- 7:19Do you want to touch on here? Yeah Well, it's
- 7:22so one of the things that I talked about it and
- 7:25I think this is just huge for for teachers With
- 7:28any with any content that they're making You
- 7:31know, we focus so much early on on oh you can
- 7:35create a lesson plan and one of the best things
- 7:37that Google Gemini has and other platforms have
- 7:41this to like Chad GBT has this to where you You
- 7:43have the space that you're having the conversation
- 7:45on one side. You have the canvas or like the.
- 7:49What's being created on the right hand side of
- 7:52the page and? You can now with Gemini in their
- 7:57canvas feature. They added this create button
- 7:59so it's not just that you can create your initial
- 8:03concept. So say it's a lesson plan. Could be
- 8:06any number of things, but you create that initial
- 8:09creation or concept and then. The create button
- 8:14allows you to take that even further. I would
- 8:16imagine that with this just being released, there's
- 8:20going to be a lot of applications that will be
- 8:23added to it or features that will be added to
- 8:25it as they progress through the next year here.
- 8:29But even just from right now, I could say create
- 8:34me a lesson plan on World War I, right? And then
- 8:37as soon as it creates the lesson plan, I can
- 8:39now use that create button to go into Oh, make
- 8:42me a web page on this. Make me an infographic
- 8:45on this topic and you can see the coding in real
- 8:49time. So you you'll watch it code this for you
- 8:52and write the code entirely and then preview
- 8:56what it is that you're looking at. So it pulls
- 8:59in like the information and the charts and you
- 9:02could have it add imagery, all sorts of different
- 9:04things. We used a hand washing example in our
- 9:08infographic one in a tutorial that we did on
- 9:10YouTube, but the ability to do that and not only
- 9:15now make the lesson plan, make the infographic
- 9:18or web page, but even when that happens, going
- 9:21back to the conversation on the left -hand side
- 9:24and saying, I don't like this about the infographic
- 9:26or web page, let's change this, let's swap this
- 9:29out and tailor it even more to your liking is
- 9:33massive. And one thing that we pointed out, which
- 9:36is huge and goes along with the advancements
- 9:38in the imagery is It struggled so much early
- 9:43on with creating infographics with accurate,
- 9:46well, anything, whenever it was an image, it
- 9:49really struggled with text in images. And that
- 9:52was a huge downside of any of these large language
- 9:57models. But now you can create these infographics
- 10:01with accurate language and accurate images. It's
- 10:06really impressive because what was a hindrance
- 10:08before and you would almost just ignore it because
- 10:11it's like, well, it's not even worth my time
- 10:12to try to create that. It's impossible to get
- 10:16it to and to repeat words consistently that it
- 10:20would misspell them all the time. Yeah, 100%.
- 10:23It didn't matter if you put it in quotes or whatever.
- 10:26I can think back to like I made this fake image
- 10:29of the Minnesota Timberwolves winning the championship
- 10:32when they lost in the... You're such a dreamer.
- 10:34Yeah, and you know, it's it was like It kind
- 10:39of said Minnesota terrible walls, you know But
- 10:41then it was like so many of the word letters
- 10:43were backwards or messed up and it's just not
- 10:46not good but now The the improvements are really
- 10:50great and it's impressive to watch between the
- 10:53imagery stuff that you talked about and what
- 10:56teachers can now create because Teachers can
- 10:58instantly take that print it, put it above their
- 11:01sink, and now kids have a diagram of what's the
- 11:03procedure for washing your hands, you know, and
- 11:05I know a lot of our sped department really was
- 11:08something that they brought to me multiple times
- 11:11about that would be extremely useful, and now
- 11:13it's here, so it's great. And I think the ways
- 11:17that you can Customize some so much of the content
- 11:21that is going in there that exactly can fit the
- 11:24the style of teaching that you have, or maybe
- 11:27even the types of activities that you want the
- 11:29kids to do. And the canvas can help you create
- 11:32the code for that without having to know anything
- 11:35about coding. I know very little about coding,
- 11:37right? But I can take the code that it develops
- 11:40and then I can publish it to. some sort of a
- 11:43web platform, give the link to that like a Google
- 11:46site and I can give the link of that to my kids
- 11:49and then they can use that site as an opportunity
- 11:52to maybe do some flashcard reviews of vocabulary
- 11:55words or they could you know take some practice
- 11:59quizzes or they could you know engage with a
- 12:03word find activity and you know I don't have
- 12:07to sit there and create it letter by letter but
- 12:10I can have this create that code for me embedded
- 12:15onto that website. And now I've got, you know,
- 12:18a supplemental teaching tool that I can keep
- 12:21going back to year after year. Yeah, yeah, 100
- 12:25% and. Yeah, I think this opens the door a lot
- 12:29for for things that teachers are going to want
- 12:32to do and use within Gemini and so and it will
- 12:36continue to get better. So I really look forward
- 12:39to it. But did you want to talk a little bit
- 12:41about the video that you created? Yeah, sure.
- 12:47One of the differences here between David and
- 12:49I is that I actually have a pro account here.
- 12:53And so I'm able to do some things with Gemini
- 12:55that aren't available on the free platform. And
- 12:58right now they have released to those of us that
- 13:03have the pro version. You can create like eight
- 13:08second videos or have AI create eight second
- 13:10videos. of whatever you need to, you know, like
- 13:15David was talking about the hand washing thing.
- 13:17So I gave. veal within Gemini, a prompt to here's
- 13:23what I would like to see in this eight second
- 13:25video with a little bit of a script and a little
- 13:27bit of description of actions that are taking
- 13:30place. And it created that it was this little
- 13:33girl, she puts soap on her hand, she gets the
- 13:37soap rinsed off, and she's drying her hands in
- 13:39that eight seconds. So I mean, again, that's
- 13:42something to just kind of reinforce some of that
- 13:44stuff that's taking place. But there's a lot
- 13:47of fun things I think you could do with that.
- 13:48too in that time period. But it's a really cool
- 13:53feature. It's nice to know that I think AI video
- 13:57generation is starting to make some advancements
- 14:00there as well, at least to some of us. Maybe
- 14:04more of us will get that in the future. But yeah,
- 14:08we have to let Google know that that's what we
- 14:09want. Maybe they'll listen. Yeah. And there's
- 14:12limitations, like you said, there's limitations
- 14:15to how much you can use it even with the the
- 14:17pro version but the pro yeah i only made three
- 14:21videos in a day yeah and and that's we've seen
- 14:24a lot too where eventually i feel like who knows
- 14:27what might happen but you know eventually a lot
- 14:30of the things that were features that were paid
- 14:32for features with these tools they start to kind
- 14:35of make their way into the free versions of things
- 14:38but i think one thing that's nice is obviously
- 14:41with like the video you created is These are
- 14:44more accessible to everybody now. Whereas before,
- 14:49I remember early on, Brady, who I used to present
- 14:52with, did a video. But it required he had to
- 14:57do a bunch of work on getting that made and paying
- 15:00for it and all sorts of stuff. And so you can
- 15:03definitely see the progression of accessibility
- 15:06for everybody to be able to use these tools.
- 15:09So that's really cool. Yeah, and I know another
- 15:12one of those. You talk about accessibility of
- 15:14the tools and if you want to think about what
- 15:17can make learning more accessible to our students.
- 15:20I know you talked about when we did the tutorial
- 15:24recording the guided learning tool, which I think
- 15:28is super amazing here to help spark. kind of
- 15:33that curiosity for a student to kind of engage
- 15:35with learning what they want to learn about or
- 15:38or to do so in such a way that they don't just
- 15:41become you know we've talked about the cognitive
- 15:43offloading and stuff that occurs you know when
- 15:46students can just press an easy button but guided
- 15:48learning doesn't seem to allow the student to
- 15:50just do that either from a teacher directive
- 15:53perspective. Can you explain a little bit about
- 15:56you know what the guided learning is and does?
- 15:59Yeah, so I don't think I mean whether you're
- 16:02a professional trying to learn something or if
- 16:04you're trying to learn something on the side
- 16:05or like we talked about Students could really
- 16:09utilize this tool for any given topic and when
- 16:12you're working with Gemini What guided learning
- 16:16differentiates itself in where you start your
- 16:19prompt? It just changes kind of the approach
- 16:21So rather than just going to it and writing a
- 16:24prompt when you choose that guided learning tool
- 16:27it will actually say in the kind of grayed -out
- 16:30text there, what do you want to learn about?
- 16:32What is the topic you want to learn about, right?
- 16:34And you put that in, and if you go and check
- 16:39out the YouTube version, you'll see that this
- 16:41is so much more of a conversational thing that
- 16:44goes on, where I'll tell it the topic I want
- 16:47to learn about, and it will give me some follow
- 16:50-up questions to narrow it down. And then I'll
- 16:52say, OK, this is the direction I want to go.
- 16:55So, you know, if we take an example like I want
- 16:58to learn about the scientific method, you know,
- 17:00it might come back with, okay, what specifically,
- 17:03you know, give you three options maybe and say,
- 17:05what do you want to learn about the scientific
- 17:06method? Let's break it down a little further
- 17:08so we can narrow in on something. Depending on
- 17:12how broad the category is or the topic is, right,
- 17:14it will ask you to narrow things down so it can
- 17:18get you to focus on one piece. So you can give
- 17:23it that answer and then, What you'll find is
- 17:25when you engage with the guided learning is that
- 17:28it's this back and forth of, let's start at the
- 17:31very basic. Here's the first concept you should
- 17:34be aware of when it comes to the scientific method.
- 17:37Maybe it gives you the overall process that you
- 17:42go through with the scientific method. And then
- 17:45it will give you some initial information and
- 17:47then say, it'll inquire of you like, what would
- 17:53you say to this or what would be your answer
- 17:55to this question? So it actually prompts you
- 17:59back, right? And it says, what do you know about
- 18:03this? And so you have to kind of put in your
- 18:05answer and it leaves space for the person who's
- 18:09engaging with the guided learning to be able
- 18:12to give their response. And then once the response
- 18:16is in, it's going to evaluate the accuracy of
- 18:20the human response and their knowledge of the
- 18:22topic, and then give a follow -up and say, oh,
- 18:26excellent, you got that exactly right. Or maybe
- 18:30you need to consider this first and give you
- 18:32more information and then add in another follow
- 18:35-up question. And so that's where the back and
- 18:37forth comes in because you're learning from it
- 18:42and it's constantly assessing what you know and
- 18:44what you don't know. providing follow -up information
- 18:48follow -up questions based on the engagement.
- 18:51Which makes it really really accessible to learners
- 18:54at different levels because I mean it's going
- 18:57to constantly kind of assess what you're knowing
- 19:00and then try to make you take one more small
- 19:04incremental step forward in your learning as
- 19:06you go through. And so you and I could both be
- 19:10doing something about the scientific method,
- 19:13right? But it's going to ask you different questions
- 19:15than it does me because one of us may have a
- 19:18more advanced understanding than the other one.
- 19:21But we're still going to be able to bring our
- 19:23knowledge to bring our understanding further
- 19:29than where it was, right? Yeah, yeah, it's the
- 19:33whole idea behind it is to get you learning more
- 19:36and more about a topic and You kind of set that
- 19:40initial path and then it will You know, basically
- 19:46you'll have kind of this partnership going on
- 19:49of learning and reassessing and learning and
- 19:52and yeah, it's great and then you can always
- 19:55come back to it to like with the conversations
- 19:58being saved on the left -hand side it's like
- 20:00Come back to it again, especially if it's something
- 20:03where it requires you to do hands -on things.
- 20:07We gave the example of the car engine. Maybe
- 20:10it's something where you put in that and it gives
- 20:13you some information, and then maybe you go try
- 20:16some things hands -on and come back to it. Yeah,
- 20:21because you can always go back into that history
- 20:23and pick up your conversation wherever you left
- 20:25it off. Like if you get tired of learning about
- 20:28karma, you know, how to maintain an automobile,
- 20:31but you want to jump into something about sharks,
- 20:34you know, you could quickly jump over to sharks
- 20:36or something, you know. Right. Yeah. Or piranhas,
- 20:39as we're found in. Or piranhas. Yeah. And I think
- 20:44one more tool that we want to touch on here that
- 20:47is part of that is the deep research. tool that
- 20:50is available within Gemini now. And David, you
- 20:53want to spend a little bit of time talking about
- 20:56the tool itself and how it can be used? Yeah,
- 20:59I would just think of the deep research as a
- 21:01way for anyone to start with a topic. But what
- 21:07you're asking it to do is to go out and find
- 21:10actual sources. So it pulls in sources from outside
- 21:15once you start your research. When you give it
- 21:18a topic, it will kind of give you a breakdown
- 21:20of steps of what it thinks you expect from it.
- 21:24And then once you accept those steps, you can
- 21:26edit them if you want. But once you accept the
- 21:28research steps and you hit start research, what
- 21:31will happen is it will start to funnel in all
- 21:33these different research articles based on your
- 21:36initial prompt. I would say it's pretty important
- 21:39to include as much information as you can so
- 21:43that you're somewhat being So many times I think
- 21:48when I've done research, like you'll do an initial
- 21:51search, but it's so broad that you end up maybe
- 21:55spending too much time getting rid of sources.
- 21:58So I think the more narrow you can be in your
- 22:01request and the more specific you can be, the
- 22:04better. Not that it won't pull good sources.
- 22:06Like we saw it still pulled things that were
- 22:09relative to the topic that I was asking for,
- 22:12but. you put in your initial topic and you hit
- 22:15start research and then it pulls in all these
- 22:17resources and basically generates a what would
- 22:20be like a research paper and then there are tie
- 22:23-ins with that where you can like export that
- 22:25to google docs you can if there's tables you
- 22:28can export it to sheets if there's a detail within
- 22:31the research and stuff like that so it's pulling
- 22:34in these different applications google applications
- 22:37that are tied to it and Yeah, and then you still
- 22:41have your create buttons available too, like
- 22:44we talked about with Canvas. You can still do
- 22:47like infographics or web pages or whatever. And
- 22:49when you're talking about sources, you're able
- 22:51to go through and actually vet those sources
- 22:54as it's sharing its research that it finds with
- 22:57you because it will give you the link to the
- 23:01spot where it was found and where it's pulling
- 23:03some of that research information from, and you
- 23:06can go through and actually bet that source and
- 23:08make sure that it's quality and legit, and it's
- 23:11not something that AI is just hallucinating or
- 23:13making up. Yeah, and it tries to footnote stuff
- 23:17too, like within the text, it will try to indicate
- 23:20what that source is. Maybe it could get a little
- 23:22bit better at that in the future. Hopefully it's
- 23:27there's definitely some improvements that could
- 23:29happen within that part of it where you can actually
- 23:32tell like what specific sources but yeah but
- 23:36the fact that it's doing that and generating
- 23:38that research and then tying in the sources is
- 23:40great because as we know too you could then still
- 23:44say like I don't actually want these sources
- 23:47included please remove these sources and let's
- 23:49just focus on good point you know a given number
- 23:52so If you had some that you could tell were much
- 23:56more academic in nature that you wanted to focus,
- 23:58you could really hone in on those particular
- 24:00sources and ignore some of the other ones that
- 24:04maybe aren't coming from as reputable of a location.
- 24:07Yeah, and I think so much of when you start with
- 24:10your prompting, that's why that's important because
- 24:12as I mentioned, then you can start the narrowing
- 24:15process a bit earlier because what you'll find
- 24:18is if you don't do that, you're going to probably
- 24:21spend a lot more time looking through a bunch
- 24:25of sources that you already know you don't need
- 24:28because they're not in line with what your topic
- 24:31is. But yeah, I think all these are really great
- 24:34to check out and I would say we would encourage
- 24:38anybody to go and watch the YouTube videos so
- 24:41you can see some examples, but try these out
- 24:42for yourself too. Yeah, and we will make sure
- 24:45to link the YouTube. videos that we created,
- 24:49the Gemini part one and part two, that kind of
- 24:51go along with some of the things that we're talking
- 24:53about here. But give you just a little bit more
- 24:56of a tutorial style step by step. Here's how
- 24:59we did some of those things. So I encourage you
- 25:01to check that out. And also, you know, we've
- 25:04had a lot of great interviews this summer with
- 25:07a lot of fantastic educators and people in the
- 25:10educational technology world that if you're looking
- 25:13for a little bit of a podcast to listen to, while
- 25:17you're commuting or working out or whatever it
- 25:19happens to be, then please check us out and make
- 25:23sure you're listening to those as well. So thanks
- 25:27for joining us and we look forward to bringing
- 25:29you more great things to integrate into your
- 25:33classroom in the rest of the school year. Thanks
- 25:37everyone. Thanks for listening to Integrate This.
- 25:41Want to take your learning further? Head over
- 25:44to our YouTube channel for quick tutorials, deep
- 25:46dives, and more edtech tips you can use right
- 25:49away. Don't forget to subscribe and catch new
- 25:53podcast episodes every Thursday on Apple, Spotify,
- 25:57or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next
- 26:00time, keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep
- 26:04integrating this.