Recap: "Teaching World Languages with AI" Workshop

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio held a workshop on "Teaching World Languages with Artificial Intelligence (AI)." Led by Maria Comsa, teaching assistant professor of French and interim director of the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio, this workshop centered on using Google Gemini for Education and Google NotebookLM as resources for supplementing in-class instruction and enhancing target-language speaking assignments. 

To start the workshop, Comsa shared with participants a digital bulletin board containing links to various AI resources, including the university's AI guidelines, as well as prompt templates designed specifically for the world language pedagogical context. Comsa then showed participants how to access Google Gemini for Education and Google NotebookLM using their UARK credentials and demonstrated the functionality of a custom speaking practice, "Gem," that she created in Gemini. She also shared the Copilot equivalent of the Gem, a persona-based agent designed to help users converse in the target language of their choice.    

Comsa then showcased how faculty can generate supplementary practice materials and class resources using Google NotebookLM. She focused on creating customized flashcards, quizzes, audio or video overviews, as well as infographics based on instructor-uploaded sources, which can include PDFs, YouTube links, websites, Google Docs or audio files. She briefly showed how to set parameters and customize materials created in the NotebookLM Studio. Comsa was enthusiastic about testing and sharing the customized materials with students.  

"The ability to create and share level-appropriate AI conversation 'partners' that students can use beyond the classroom is an exciting feature of the new university-approved AI tools," Comsa said.  

IT Services launched Google Gemini for Education and NotebookLM on Feb. 2 as university-approved AI tools. Google Gemini for Education is a generative AI tool available as a Chrome add-on, web application or mobile application that can create personalized learning experiences. Google NotebookLM is an AI-powered, Gemini-driven research tool and "thinking partner" that can analyze sources a user uploads and transform content into different formats, from infographics to audio overviews (podcasts) and quizzes.  

Google Gemini for Education and Google NotebookLM are the newest university-approved AI tools available for no additional cost, alongside Copilot Chat. Visit ai.uark.edu to see the full list of approved AI tools. 

Google NotebookLM, as well as other innovative pedagogical tools, will be explored and demonstrated at the Innovative Pedagogy Expo. The expo will be held March 19 at 3:30 p.m. in the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio (JBHT 207) and is open to the campus community.