Create with Google Gemini

Google Gemini, like ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, allows you to create text, do research, learn, and more. We use Gemini because it's part of Google for Education, which makes it usable for students and staff of all ages and because we have a SOPPA agreement which means our data is protected.

Recently, Google announced new features in Gemini that can be used to propel creativity: Create Images, Create Video, Learn, and Write.

Create Images

Photoshop is a professional, robust tool for editing images. Gemini 2.5 Flash, the latest free version of Gemini, now performs many tasks normally reserved for tools like Photoshop. For example, I uploaded the Barrington 220 photo of myself, and then asked Gemini to change the background to Bora Bora, give me facial tattoos like Post Malone, and change the color of my shirt from blue to red. Here is the result.

This technology allows teachers across all grade levels and content areas to use photo editing for engaging, contextualized learning. Primary students can use background changes to place self-portraits in new worlds for creative storytelling and descriptive writing. Intermediate students in social studies can apply outfit changes and background shifts to dress themselves or a figure in historically accurate contexts, fostering empathy and an understanding of different eras. For middle school science, students can use the "marking" or "tattoo" feature to visually represent abstract biological concepts like infections or mutations on diagrams, demonstrating their understanding of complex systems. Finally, high school media literacy classes can use all editing features (background, clothing, markings) to create satirical images, helping them analyze and deconstruct the powerful role of visual rhetoric and symbolism in media.

Create Videos

For a Google Veo video example, I wanted to create a video of me running on a track at Barrington High School and suffering a hamstring injury.

In primary science, students could use a simple prompt like "a butterfly flying from a chrysalis to a flower" to visually demonstrate the life cycle, bringing abstract concepts to life in a way they can easily understand. An intermediate social studies class might generate a short clip of "a Roman soldier marching through a busy ancient marketplace" to visualize daily life and setting, making historical periods more tangible than a textbook description. Middle school ELA students could generate a scene, such as "a mysterious, fog-covered forest with a lone figure walking toward a glowing cabin," to create a captivating video trailer for a short story or literary analysis, prompting deeper understanding of mood and plot. Finally, a high school geometry class could use Veo to create a video showing "a three-dimensional cube rotating slowly in space with its net unfolding," which helps visualize complex spatial relationships and solid geometry concepts.

Learn

Guided Learning acts as a personal AI tutor to help build a deep understanding of a subject. It uses step-by-step breakdowns, questions, and interactive elements to actively engage learners.

Write

Canvas in Gemini is an interactive workspace where you collaborate with the AI to draft, refine, and organize documents, code, or other creative projects. It allows for direct text editing, an advantage over Brisk that does not allow students to make edits inside a Boost experience. Teachers can program Canvas similarly to Brisk by creating a Gem.

We hope these exciting updates lead to more guided and supported AI use with students!