A Universal Design for Learning Strategy: AI Generated Audio Summaries + Spotify for Creators = A Podcast for Your Classroom

Gen Z and Alpha learners practically live with earbuds in their ears. What if you could use this to your advantage by taking your classroom content—curricular materials, articles, websites—and instantly turn them into engaging audio summaries for your students to play in those ever present earbuds? No microphones, no recording sessions, and no extra prep. That's exactly what NotebookLM, Brisk, and Spotify for Creators make possible.

Why AI Audio Summaries Matter: A Universal Design for Learning Perspective

By transforming text-based content into audio format, you're implementing Universal Design for Learning's (UDL) principle of multiple means of representation—ensuring all learners can access information in the format that works best for them. Whether students are multilingual learners or simply prefer to listen to learning content, audio summaries remove barriers to learning and create equitable access to your curriculum. Audio summaries help create inclusive learning environments by:

• Providing Multiple Means of Representation: Converting text to audio ensures content is accessible to students with diverse learning needs, including those with dyslexia, visual processing challenges, or who simply prefer auditory channels.

• Reducing Cognitive Load: Audio summaries allow students to absorb key concepts without the additional cognitive burden of decoding text, freeing up mental resources for deeper understanding.

• Supporting Flexible Learning: Students can engage with content while walking, exercising, completing household activities, riding the bus, or doing other activities, making learning more integrated into their daily lives. This helps enforce the idea that learning is not confined to a classroom! Learning is a lifelong adventure.

• Offering Varying Levels of Detail: Both NotebookLM and Brisk provide summary options at different depths, allowing teachers to scaffold learning and meet students where they are academically.

Example—EdTech in 5: LindyHoc’s Blog Summaries

I've added AI-generated audio summaries to many of my blog posts so readers can choose how to engage with my content. For example, check out the summary for this blog at the top of the page or the audio summary for this blog post: "AI Literacy in Action: The Core Curriculum Connection."

Creating these audio summaries requires just a few extra minutes, and I upload them directly to Spotify for easy access. While uploading to Spotify isn't essential—you can share audio summaries directly with students—this extra step offers some compelling advantages.

Making your content available on Spotify means students can listen directly from their phones through an app they likely already use, eliminating the need to navigate to another website or log into another platform. This removes potential barriers to engagement and makes your class content more accessible. An added bonus: it opens your educational content to parents, caregivers, and community members who might benefit from understanding what's happening in your classroom.

Check out EdTech in 5: LindyHoc’s Blog Summaries for an example Spotify podcast with multiple episodes:

Ideas for Audio Summaries

You don’t have to have your own blog to utilize audio summaries as a UDL-aligned learning strategy:

• Modern Study Guides: Upload class materials and create a new modern “study guide” to engage your Gen Z and Alpha learners.

• Professional Learning: Turn long research papers or articles into digestible podcasts for your teacher team.

• Choice Boards: Add a “listen” option to your content-focused choice boards.

• Newsletters: Just like I've added AI audio versions to my blog posts, you can do the same with your class newsletter or announcements so students and their families can listen to classroom updates.

Compliance: Always Step One to Using EdTech

Step 1: Tool Access and Approval

To generate the audio summaries, you need access to either NotebookLM or Brisk. Both NotebookLM and Brisk are tools designed to help teachers and students interact with content in more flexible ways. NotebookLM is free for educators using Google Workspace for Education, while Brisk is a freemium tool—free to use with the option to upgrade to premium features.

To add the audio summaries to Spotify, you need a Spotify for Creators account, a free website that allows you to publish podcasts to Spotify.

Step one of ensuring compliance before using any of these tools is to check with your school administration to ensure:

• NotebookLM is approved for use with your Google Workspace for Education account.

• Brisk and Spotify for Creators are approved for use with your school email address.

Make sure to create your Spotify for Creators account with your school email, not your personal email. This helps keep classroom content separate from personal playlists and maintains appropriate boundaries.

Step 2: Data Privacy Compliance

Step two is to ensure data privacy compliance. For Brisk and Spotify, students do not need to create accounts or log in to listen to published Spotify podcasts or Brisk audio summaries, which means no personally identifiable information (PII) is shared. 

For NotebookLM, if your school utilizes Google Workspace for Education, you can share audio summaries directly with student’s school-issued Google accounts, in replace of or in addition to Spotify.

Step 3: Copyright

Ensure the material you use to generate the audio summaries is not licensed in a way that would violate copyright law.

Creating Audio Summaries with NotebookLM

Features of NotebookLM Audio Summaries

• Audio Style: Polished, natural-sounding voices in a conversational format

• Length: Choose if the audio overview is short, default or longer

• Features: 

  • Add multiple resources in multiple formats

  • Change the language

  • Choose a format such as deep dive, brief, critique, or debate

  • Enter a prompt to indicate any specific instructions for the episode

Creating a NotebookLM Audio Summary

• Access: Log in with your Google Workspace for Education account and navigate to notebooklm.google.com

• Create a Notebook

• Upload Content: Add desired materials by:

  1. Pasting URLs to websites

  2. Uploading PDFs, Google Docs, or other files

• Generate Audio: Select "Audio Overview"

• Customize (Optional): Select edit and choose your customization (such as format, language, and length)

• Share: At this point, you will need to decide how you want to share the audio summary with students. You have two options:

  • Download: To prepare to upload the audio summary into Spotify for Creators, select download

    • This will download an audio file

    • *Note: NotebookLM recently updated their file downloads and you may need to use a file converter tool to convert the downloaded .mp4 file to a .mp3 file before uploading to Spotify for Creators.

  • Share the Notebook: Share the notebook directly with student's school-issued Google accounts. Once the notebook is shared, students will have access to the entire notebook, including the audio summary.

Try it yourself! Download my step-by-step guide:

Getting Started with NotebookLM

Creating Audio Summaries with Brisk

Features of Brisk Audio Summaries

• Audio Style: AI voices change and simulate different styles and names 

• Length: Can choose length as 1-2 minutes, 4-5 minutes, or 9-10 minutes

• Features: 

  1. Select grade level 

  2. Change the language

  3. Add relevant standards

  4. Enter a prompt to give any specific instructions for the episode

Creating a Brisk Audio Summary

1. Install the Brisk Extension: Brisk is a Chrome and Edge browser extension. Add the Brisk extension:

   1. Google Chrome

   2. Edge

2. Sign In: Sign in or create an account 

3. Select resource: Go to any website or Google Doc you want to convert

4. Activate Brisk: Select the Brisk extension icon

5. Select Create

6. Select Podcast

7. Customize: Choose grade level, language, length, standards, and add any details to the prompt

8. Share: A new window will open with the audio summary. At this point, you will need to decide how you want to share with students. You have two options:

   1. Download:

      1. To prepare to upload into Spotify for Creators, select download

      2. This will download an audio file

   2. Share the Link: Once the window with the podcast opens, there is an option to copy a link to the podcast to share with students.

How To Create a Podcast in the Brisk Extension

I partnered with Brisk to get you three months of their premium features for FREE!

3 Months Free of Brisk's Premium Features

How to Share Audio Summaries on Spotify

Once you have the audio file from the NotebookLM or Brisk audio summary, follow these instructions to make available on Spotify:

1. Log in to Spotify for Creators

2. Create a new podcast: Select "Get Started" and set up a podcast title and description. The name of your class would be a great podcast title.

3. Create new episode

4. Upload your audio file: Upload the audio file that was downloaded from NotebookLM or Brisk.

   1. *Note: If you receive an error message when attempting to upload the NotebookLM file to Spotify, NotebookLM recently updated their file downloads and you may need to use a file converter tool to convert the downloaded .mp4 file to a .mp3 file.

5. Add details: Give the episode a title (ex: "Summary of Chapter 5: Cells and Systems") and short description.

6. Publish: Once you hit publish, your summary is live on Spotify! You'll get a link to your Spotify podcast as well as individual episodes you can share with students.

   
   

Pro Tip: Create a podcast for each class. 

Little Time Required, Big Impact

We know there is no single way to learn that works for all students. AI-generated audio summaries take only a few more minutes of your time to work towards UDL’s multiple means of representation. This isn't about replacing the teacher voice—it's about expanding the ways students can engage with your curriculum while building a more inclusive classroom environment.

When we provide content in multiple formats, we're not just helping students with identified learning differences—we're recognizing that all learners benefit from choice and flexibility in how they access information. Some students will discover they prefer learning through auditory means, while others will use audio as a review method to reinforce text-based learning.

Whether you choose NotebookLM's Google Workspace-integrated approach or Brisk's standards-aligned features, you're implementing evidence-based UDL practices that can transform how your students interact with curriculum content.