Gemini Education with Learners Pilot

Summary

The pilot will explore how Gemini Education and Gemini Notebook can be used responsibly, safely and effectively by learners in classroom settings to support learning, assessment and the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy. The findings will help inform future decisions on learner access to AI tools within Glow.

The pilot will also provide Education Scotland with valuable first-hand insights and evidence from real classroom practice, while enabling exploration of a number of identified educational challenges and key problem statements.

This pilot:

Builds on the successful 2024 Gemini pilot for educators, which is now embedded as a Google Workspace Core Service for staff
Responds to the rapid pace of change in AI within education, helping to build the evidence base needed to inform future decisions on learner access to AI tools and ensure alignment with the principles set out in the Scottish Government’s AI in Schools: Guidelines and Guardrails
Aligns with learner voice and national priorities, reflecting Children’s Parliament research in which children called for learning about AI to form part of the curriculum
Supports Scotland in taking a deliberate, responsible and evidence-informed approach to learner access to AI technologies

Background

As awareness and use of generative AI have grown, alongside increasing public and media debate about its use and impact, particularly in relation to education, there has been growing demand for information about AI within Glow. These requests have ranged from seeking clarity on the use of AI technologies within Glow to enquiries about enabling specific AI- and machine learning-enabled tools and features across the platform.

GTCS Engaging online, AI and expression of views_a guide for teachers

Gemini Journey in Glow

2024 Phase 1 – Staff Pilot: Education Scotland undertook a 6 month action research pilot using Gemini Education and Gemini Notebook with practitioners from Argyll and Bute and Clackmannanshire Councils. The 2 councils volunteered to be part of the pilot and understood they would have to join monthly Champion sessions, including professional development webinars, and provide regular user feedback. The project Pilot Report can be found here.

2025 Phase 2 – Adoption: After the successful pilot, Education Scotland went through internal governance to gain approval for Gemini Education to be made a core service for all staff who have access to Google Workspace within Glow. Education Scotland supported adoption of this new service by updating Glow Connect with latest news regarding Gemini Education and Gemini Notebook, sharing use cases and feedback, hosting national professional development webinars and delivering live lessons directly into Scottish classrooms.

2026 Phase 3 – Learner Pilot: In response to requests from local authorities and as a natural progression to the existing work, Education Scotland offered the opportunity to local authorities to participate in a further action research pilot that would include learner access. Aberdeenshire and South Lanarkshire Councils volunteered to take part. The pilot would follow the same processes and expectations as the staff pilot and run for a period of six months.

What problems are we trying to solve?

Learning & Efficiency:
How might learners use AI to support learning, revision, and organisation without replacing their own thinking?

Skills & Appropriate Use:
How might learners develop critical thinking, prompting and evaluation skills when engaging with AI outputs?

Safety, Ethics & Policy:
How might we develop and reinforce learners’ understanding, confidence and capability to use AI safely, ethically and responsibly, aligned with the principles set out in the Scottish Government’s AI in Schools: Guidelines and Guardrails?

Reaching All Learners:
How might we design learning experiences that empower ASN learners to engage with the curriculum in ways that work for them?

Learner Voice & Sharing:
How might we capture and share learner‑led examples of effective and ethical AI use?

Streamlining Administrative Tasks for Educators:
How might AI reduce planning and administrative workload, freeing time for personalised learner support?

Pilot Structure

Gemini Education is Google’s generative AI solution designed specifically for schools and educational institutions. It provides access to AI-powered tools that can support learning, teaching, assessment and the development of AI literacy, while operating within an environment that includes enhanced educational safeguards, privacy protections and security controls. Gemini Education integrates with Google Workspace for Education and enables users to access advanced AI capabilities in a way that is designed to be safe, responsible and appropriate for use in educational settings.

Gemini Notebook is Google’s AI-powered research and learning assistant that helps learners and educators work with their own materials, such as documents, PDFs, presentations, websites and notes. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Gemini Notebook grounds its responses in the sources provided by the user, making it easier to explore information, generate summaries, identify key themes, create study materials and deepen understanding of complex topics. In education, it can support independent learning, research, revision and critical thinking by helping learners engage more effectively with their learning resources while maintaining clear links back to the original sources.

Data Privacy and Safeguarding

Gemini Education includes enhanced privacy, security and safety protections designed specifically for educational environments, providing additional guardrails to support responsible use by learners and educators. Unlike consumer AI services, Google does not use any information from Gemini Education to build advertising profiles, and there are no advertisements within the platform. In addition, prompts entered by users and the responses generated by the AI are not used to train Google’s AI models. Google also does not use human reviewers to examine what learners or staff type into Gemini Education; all interactions are processed through secure, automated systems. These education-specific protections help ensure that learner and staff data remains private, secure and appropriately managed, while providing schools with a trusted environment in which to explore the educational benefits of generative AI.

Support

Education Scotland will work closely with Google for Education throughout the pilot to ensure participating local authorities and schools are well supported, with access to relevant guidance, resources and learning materials. In addition, Education Scotland will draw on the expertise of key partners, including the Centre for Teaching Excellence and the Scottish Government, to provide informed support, share emerging insights and help maximise the impact of the pilot.

Get in touch

Please reach out via Glow.Engagement@educationscotland.gov.scot if you have any questions regarding the pilot.

FAQs

What is this pilot project?

This is a six-month pilot exploring the use of Google Gemini Education, a generative AI tool, within the Glow digital learning platform. The pilot aims to explore how AI can support learning in safe, responsible and effective ways, while gathering evidence to support informed decision-making.

Why is this pilot being run now?

AI tools are increasingly part of everyday life. This pilot allows schools to explore both the opportunities and risks of AI in a structured, evidence-based way, helping learners develop the skills they need to use these technologies safely and responsibly.

Who is involved?

A small number of teachers and learners in two local authorities are directly participating in classroom activities. All learners in those authorities have access to Gemini Education through Glow.

Is Gemini Education safe for children and young people?

A range of safeguards are in place to reduce risks and support safe use. However, no online system is completely risk-free.
Effective support, guidance and digital literacy education are central to the pilot.

What data is collected?

Use of Gemini Education and Gemini Notebook through Glow follows data protection and privacy requirements. Personal data is minimised and handled in line with legislation.

Is learner data used to train AI models?

Learner interactions through Glow are not used to train public AI models. Data use is governed by contractual and legal safeguards.

How do Google manage my data within Gemini Education and Gemini Notebook?

Gemini Education Apps Privacy Hub – Gemini Education Apps Help

As a teacher, what do I need to be aware of?

AI is your assistant not your replacement.
Teachers should:
– Verify the accuracy of AI-generated content before using it, as AI systems can make mistakes or reflect bias.
– Ensure content is appropriate for the curriculum and assessment context.
– Never enter personal, sensitive or confidential information into AI tools.
– Review all AI-generated content before sharing it.

What do learners need to be aware of?

Learners should understand that:
– AI can sometimes provide inaccurate or misleading responses and may reflect bias found in online content.
– Personal, sensitive or confidential information should never be entered into AI tools.
– AI-generated content should be checked against reliable sources.

Appropriate Use: Generative AI

Be aware that these Generative AI tools contain functionality which allows the upload of pictures and files. It is the responsibility of the user not to upload content or enter prompts which may generate inappropriate or concerning text or imagery, or which contains any personal, sensitive or confidential information.

Please also refer to the Scottish Government’s AI Guidance for Schools when using any kind of AI tool within education.

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