I remember my first haircut. My dad lifted me up onto the barber chair and then onto the booster. I was trying to be brave so I could get my lollipop at the other end of the horrorshow that was my first haircut. I cried a bit, but stopped when I was confronted by the constant recursion of the opposed mirrors, one in front and one behind. I was dumbstruck by the depth of my face ever receding into a vanishing point.
Ever since that time, I have been searching for other versions of this. I just found another one.
I generated this in GoogleNBLM using this text, a reply to the “crickets of no-comment” I often get at the National Writing Project’s Studio website.
The Learner’s Query
Folks are eager to learn about all the adjacencies that AI promises, but the wild dynamics of change in this field makes us devotees of the Red Queen: “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”What is the takeaway? The Red Queen’s idea suggests *that in AI, learning is not a one-time effort but a continuous process. Progress demands not only running twice as fast but also finding smarter ways to run—choosing efficient strategies, focusing on the most impactful developments, and maintaining curiosity and resilience. * Or so ChatGPT says as indicated by the asterisks.
One of my online friends (he was part of NWP’s CLMOOC project) asked me for help in using GoogleNotebookLM to generate a podcast of his latest blog post for his non-profit, the Tutor-Mentor Institute. I did so and reported on it here. I also downloaded the podcast as well. I was shocked at how his cooly analytic text translates into something way “warmer” in tone. His work comes across in the amazed conversation between two AI voices.
Here it is:
The humanizing effect of this is much more than an algorithm turning text to speech. It is the creation of something way larger. It is as +Paul Allison notes, a fully formed “writing partner”.
I am beginning to suspect that as reading and writing teachers this is where we are headed. I want to help other learners like I helped Daniel. Let me know if I can help you catch up to the Red Queen.
It is so bizarre, so uncanny valley to hear the podcasters’ voices ‘pretending’ to talk about the podcasters as if they were not themselves. Fortunately, it is also humanizing. It is exactly the same experience as the barbershop mirrors except through ears and not eyes. Tag this post as “meta af” because it isl
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Thanks again for introducing me to Google NotebookLM. I’ve tested it several more times with different blog articles, in combination, and alone. Here’s some of my thoughts.
First, I’ve a lot to learn.
Second, the podcast is humanizing, as you wrote. It’s also very flattering. I’d love to find hundreds of people creating podcasts and videos describing what’s in my blog articles, PDF essays and website.
Third, they are too long. Mine were 14-18 minutes. The one in your post today was shorter. Only 5 minutes. I wonder how you did that. Part of this was a redundancy, where they recycled ideas described earlier in the podcast. Can these be edited?
Fourth, there was too much exaggeration, and fabrication. The podcast talkers described me doing things I do not do. They added things that were not included in the blog articles they were describing. Not in every podcast, but some. I ended up deleting these, or not using them.
Fifth, and maybe this is most concerning. These are not real people. It’s like a paid PR firm creating a podcast to promote my work. I might use it a few times to demonstrate what I hope real people will do, but don’t think I’ll use it as a regular enhancement to create better understanding.
Like I said, much to learn.
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Very much a better analysis than mine. So helpful. I have a blog post I am working on, but I will circle back to this today.