Google Gemini is the tech giant’s flagship generative AI model. When I first wrote about it back in 2023, Google was struggling to catch up to its generative AI rivals. At that point I felt Gemini was impressive but was falling behind ChatGPT in the world of chatbot supremacy overall and as a teaching tool in particular.
After exploring a number of education-related exercises with the free version of Gemini, I think that gap has closed. And if anything, in my usage, Gemini seems faster and has a smoother interface than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Gemini also powers a number of education-specific AI tools for Google, including LearnLM, which recently left me very impressed, and a suite of Gemini for Education tools available through Google Education. For this review, however, I focused exclusively on the out-of-the-box version of Gemini 2.0 Flash.
Here’s how Gemini performed on a variety of tasks related to my work as a college professor and education in general.
Gemini and Class Prep
Class prep is a common use case for AI in education, so I started by asking Gemini to create an outline for a freshman composition class. I wrote: I am a college teacher. Teaching an introduction to college composition course for freshmen. I want to teach students how to write an argumentative essay with a strong thesis that makes a stance. I also want them to learn the basics of citation. Can you create a lesson plan, prompt for a 4-5 page argumentative writing assignment, and slideshow that I can discuss?
Gemini created a quick response that provided every element I asked for other than the slideshow. The prompt for the writing assignment was a good start and the bullet points it shared for a presentation were solid broadstroke outlines of what I often teach when I teach these classes. I don’t think this presentation is ready to go, but it could be a good starting point, especially for a new teacher looking to get started with how they might organize this type of class.
Gemini’s Writing Advice
To see how a student might interact with Gemini, I asked it to help me eliminate the opinion elements from a piece I had written that was full of opinion statements and therefore not a good traditional news story.
Gemini offered helpful tips on the difference between opinion and news writing, and some solid rewrites of my opinion writing into a more neutral news story. In a perfect world, when working with students, Gemini wouldn’t rewrite the work but would suggest ways to rewrite it, yet on the whole, I think Gemini could help a student struggling to grasp news writing get back on track.
However, like all AI writing tools I’ve tested so far, I’m not impressed with its broader rewriting attempts. For instance, I thought its suggested rewrite for the opening of this story was lifeless and not really appropriate for a magazine story. Here’s the comparison:
My original: Google Gemini is the tech giant’s flagship generative AI model. When I first wrote about it back in 2023, Google was struggling to catch up to its generative AI rival. At that point I felt Gemini was impressive but was falling behind ChatGPT in the world of chatbot supremacy overall and as a teaching tool in particular.
Gemini’s rewrite: Google Gemini, the company’s advanced generative AI model, has undergone significant evolution since its initial release in 2023. While early assessments highlighted areas for development, particularly in educational applications, recent advancements demonstrate its growing potential as a powerful tool for learning and teaching.
Gemini’s Tutoring Ability
I asked Gemini to help me understand news writing (a topic I teach) and the Born rule of quantum mechanics (a topic I’m vaguely familiar with but trying to better understand).
In both cases, the information Gemini provided was helpful, and I did not see any inaccuracies. However, criticism of AI tutors in general is that these can act as answer machines for students and don’t engage in critical thinking to help them grasp topics — and that criticism applies here.
Without elaborate prompting, Gemini acted as an on-demand search engine, quickly providing answers to various questions, which was still helpful and might be desirable in non-education settings but isn’t perfect for teaching and deeper learning.
Some of the education-specific AI tools I’ve tried will engage in more of a dialogue, providing quizzes and questions that could force a student to put the concepts they are learning into action. The best example of this I have seen is actually the Gemini-powered LearnLM from Google, which I mentioned previously.
Gemini’s Writing Ability
One of the ways many educators interact with AI tools is when their students use any to submit a piece of writing.
To see what Gemini is capable of in this regard, I put one of my prompts into the tool and asked it to write a response. The response was good but didn’t sound like a student wrote it. AI is often lifeless, but Gemini sounded particular text-book and not student-like.
I also gave Gemini a creative writing prompt, which generated a result that was characteristically cliche-riddled corniness. For now, with the free version of Gemini, I’m confident I can still spot student AI-generated work and that my work as a writer isn’t in immediate peril.
Bottom Line
Gemini is a great, free AI tool that answers questions with speed, access to the internet, and an easy interface. Given Google’s prominence in the technology field, it’s a tool with which teachers will likely want to familiarize themselves. It serves as a nice alternative to some paid options out there, and has an easier-to-navigate website than some AI chatbot competitors.
Google and others offer more education-focused tools that are probably better in the classroom, but for educators just looking for a quick AI tool to use for activities such as class prep and brainstorming, Gemini is a great option.