Use Generative AI for "Hints"! Middle and High School Students Share Smart Ways to Use Gemini
Hello, this is the official note editorial department for Google's AI, "Gemini".
For modern middle and high school students who have grown up with smartphones, generative AI is becoming a familiar presence. However, since some schools restrict the use of AI tools, it seems that many students use them on their own.
Based on this current situation, in this note, we asked middle and high school students in detail about what prompted them to start using generative AI and in what situations they actually use it. We hope this will serve as an opportunity for students, as well as parents and educators, to think about better ways to interact with AI, and that Gemini will help support children's learning and creativity.
The interviewees this time are two middle/high school students and their parents.
In the first part, we will introduce the specific ways these two students use the free"Gemini app", as well as study methods such as "getting hints from Gemini instead of the answers to problems themselves."
Daily life with AI that started with "Let's try it"
—First, could you please introduce yourselves?
Student A:I'm a first-year high school student, and my favorite subjects are math and information. Recently, I've been interested in video editing and am studying it. My hobby is gaming, and I often play FPS (first-person shooter) games while voice chatting with friends.
Student B:I'm a second-year middle school student. I like math and technology. I'm interested in games and design, and I build circuits and structures within games. Besides that, I designed and made my own business cards.
—Today, we will ask in detail about how your interests connect with Gemini. First, please tell us when and why you started using Gemini and other AI tools.
Student A:I started using AI tools because they were a huge topic of conversation around the end of 2023, and I wanted to try them out. There was a chatbot-like service that I could use for free just by registering as a friend on social media, so I started with that.
—What was your first impression after using it?
Student A:My first impression was that it wasn't too difficult to use and felt like a search engine. For example, when I asked it to "tell me about something," it gave me an easy-to-understand answer right away. I also used other services that would answer in the style of a Sengoku-period warlord.
—You tried out various AIs. What kind of things did you ask at first?
Student A:I had it explain English words I heard for the first time in my studies or parts of history class I didn't understand. Also, out of curiosity about "what can AI do?", I asked it various things.
However, after the initial interest settled down, the opportunities to use it gradually decreased, and I stopped using it for a while.
—Student B, what was your reason for starting to use it?
Student B:The first time I used it was because a friend in my club was using it. I saw them asking generative AI to "write something like this" to create a script to introduce our club, and that's how I learned that "you can use it like this in a browser" and started using it.
Until then, I had the image that AI generation was for images, so I was very surprised to learn for the first time that it could also generate text.
—What did you try with Gemini?
Student B:It was a script for a club orientation meeting. It created something very good, so I thought AI was amazing.
“Being able to ask questions with images is just so convenient.”
—Student A, you mentioned you stopped using AI tools for a while, but how about now?
Student A:After a break, I started using them again about six months ago. It started because my mom often uses Gemini at home and told me, "It's really convenient!" During the time I wasn't using it, the features of generative AI itself had increased, so I thought it did look useful and decided to try it again.
I use Gemini to support me when I don't understand something in my studies. Consistently since I started using it, I've mostly used it to help with my schoolwork.
—How do you use it for your studies?
Student A:I ask questions about parts of problems I don't understand, have it translate English, or ask it to think of different ways to solve math problems. Sometimes I have it explain difficult concepts in a way that's easier to understand. For now, I don't feel much need to use it for my hobby of gaming, so I mostly use it for studying.
—Since you started using Gemini again, were there any points you found convenient?
Student A: The thing I thought was best is that you can input with photos. I find writing prompts takes a lot of time and I'm not very good at it, so I find it very convenient that just a photo is enough.
When there's a problem I don't understand, I can take a picture with my smartphone, send it to Gemini, and say, "Tell me about this," and it gives me an answer right away. It processes things so speedily that it's just really easy to use.
When I had an assignment on information studies, after I tried it myself once, I wanted to see methods not taught in class, so I had Gemini teach me other ways to do it.
Gemini also supports my hobby of programming!
—Student B, how do you use Gemini?
Student B:When I was researching things for my hobbies, there were many things not explained in detail on sites like Wikipedia, and many articles were written only in English rather than Japanese, so I had a hard time researching them. Recently, if I want to know something in detail, I ask Gemini first.
Besides that, I have a hobby of creating web pages with HTML, andwhen I'm writing code and have a feature I want to implement, I build it while asking Gemini how to implement it.
—What do you feel are the good points of Gemini?
Student B:The fact that I can use it with peace of mind because it's a well-known company called Google, and as Student A mentioned earlier, I think being able to ask questions with images is really convenient.
“Getting hints to reach the correct answer with Gemini”
—Do you two have moments when you feel, "This is beneficial for me," while using Gemini?
Student A:Yes, I do. When I use Gemini while studying, I want to avoid going out of my way to write long prompts while solving problems. Part of it is that I'm not good at it and it takes time, but there's another reason: if I write a prompt carefully and get an accurate answer, I feel like looking at that answer isn't much different from looking at the answer key in a workbook.
—I see, so if the answer itself comes out, your ability to think for yourself won't be nurtured.
Student A:Yes. Even with math problems, you remember them better if you solve them while struggling, even if it takes time, rather than just looking at the answer and copying it, so I think it's best to get hints from Gemini with the goal of "solving it yourself."
Therefore, if you ask Gemini a pinpoint question like "Just tell me this part of this problem," it won't give you a perfect answer for everything, but only a partial hint. I use this as a hint when I get stuck.It doesn't just give you a 100-point answer, but you can use it as a reference for an 80-point "here's another way to do it" approach, so I feel it's also good that you can adjust the accuracy of such answers yourself.
- "Using it as a hint" is a wonderful perspective. Do you have a specific way of asking questions?
Student A:For example, when asking about a math problem, I think you would get a more accurate answer if you wrote a long prompt like, "You are a high school teacher. Please follow the conditions below when teaching students." But I don't use it that way; I take a picture of the problem and narrow down the scope by asking, "Explain only this part of this problem." Other than that, I also often ask things like "Give me a hint."
Challenges and possibilities of generative AI felt at school
- Do your classmates around you also use AI tools, or do the two of you use generative AI on a daily basis?
Student A:Some classmates use it, but I think there are still few people who have mastered it. It seems some people even asked generative AI to "write this essay" for a Japanese language assignment and submitted it as is.
Student B:At my school, too, there were people who submitted things written by generative AI as is for Japanese language essays.
Student A:Looking around, I feel that only a small fraction of people are using it well, and many people are using it not because they are interested in generative AI, but because "it makes assignments easier."
But if they realize that "it can also be used for studying!", I think more people will use it in different ways. In fact, when I taught a friend who wasn't using generative AI at all about the convenient features of Gemini before an exam, they started using it for studying.
- Have you ever been impressed by seeing your friends' use of it, thinking "This way of using it was good!"?
Student A:What I thought was good that a friend was doing is English translation. The translation accuracy is quite high, and I heard that Gemini has almost never been wrong while they've been using it, so I started using it for English too.
I use it as a confirmation when I can't check the answer after solving the problem myself first. It also explains grammar, so I sometimes have it explain in detail, "This grammar is used in this English sentence."
Student B:At my school, there were people using it to get hints for field trips. In a class where we had to "decide on a theme and tour Tokyo," we first needed to find spots in Tokyo that fit the theme. At that time, there were people asking generative AI for candidates for locations, and I thought that was a clever way to use it.
Student A:Recently, the number of people using it has been increasing little by little, so I want to continue to steadily promote that I am using it to those around me and increase the number of friends who use it (laughs).
- Thank you very much.
The "now" and "future" of Gemini and middle and high school students revealed in the interview
In this interview, while the use of generative AI is spreading among middle and high school students, we also saw the challenge of relying too much on AI for parts that should originally be thought about by oneself. However, like the two people we spoke with this time, there are middle and high school students who are beginning to effectively use Gemini as a tool for improving their own abilities and creative activities, such as using it for study support or for their hobby of programming.
By knowing various ways to use it, such as "Oh, you can use it this way too!", it is expected that more constructive ways of using it, rather than just leaving it entirely to AI, will spread.
Middle and high school students, first of all, please try experiencing the free"Gemini app" and start by enjoying conversations with generative AI! And if you think, "I want to use it more" or "I wonder what kind of ways there are to use it," it would also be good to refer to the articles on the official Gemini note and look for your own way of using it.
In the second part, we will delve deeper into the use of generative AI at home, better ways to interact with it, and expectations for the future, from the perspective of parents with middle and high school children.