Textbooks Reimagined: Google Learn Your Way
I attended and spoke at the Achieve Partners Annual General Meeting yesterday in downtown NYC. It was a really interesting experience and it was great to meet the CEOs of the other companies in their portfolio. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me however, was listening to a presentation by one of the partners on the future of education and AI. He briefly mentioned an experimental product from Google called “Learn Your Way”. When I heard his brief overview of the platform, my jaw hit the floor. When Google introduced it earlier this year, it didn’t come with fanfare or a big advertising campaign. It appeared quietly, as a research experiment from Google’s education and AI teams. After checking it out as soon as I got home yesterday, I believe that Learn Your Way may mark the beginning of a new way of thinking about how students interact with learning materials — not just what they read, but how they experience and internalize information.
Put simply, Learn Your Way is an artificial intelligence system that turns static educational texts into adaptive, multimodal learning experiences. Give it a chapter, article, or set of class notes, and it can automatically adjust the language level, swap in new examples tied to a student’s interests, and reformat the material into narrated slides, mind maps, audio dialogues, or short self-check quizzes. It’s not a digital textbook so much as a living one. I wrote a post about another one of their experimental products, Notebook LM, a few months ago - a product that turns text into realistic and engaging podcasts, but Learn Your Way takes it to a whole new level. While you can’t upload your own materials yet (I signed up for the waitlist), I think that their guided demo is really impressive. Here’s why:
Their pedagogical approach rests on decades of research in learning science — ideas like dual coding (pairing words and visuals), scaffolding (building complexity step by step), and formative feedback (letting learners test and refine their understanding). In Google’s early trials, students who used Learn Your Way scored significantly higher on comprehension tests than those using traditional digital readers. The improvement wasn’t because the AI “taught” them, but because it allowed them to choose the path through which they learned best. That choice is really the key to everything, in my opinion. For more than a century, education has depended on fixed resources: everyone reads the same text, in the same order, at the same difficulty level. This product challenges that assumption. It suggests that a textbook — or any instructional document — could become a flexible, adaptive interface that reshapes itself in real time for each learner. Imagine receiving instructional materials that don’t fit the way you like to learn, and by uploading the materials to this tool, you can create the kind of instructional materials the way you like to learn. I would have loved this back in high school.
When a student opens a Learn Your Way module, the system first asks about their reading level and familiarity with the topic. It then personalizes examples, perhaps framing harmony through pop music analogies for one student or orchestral ones for another. It can also reorganize the structure — starting with a narrated overview, moving to a concept map, inserting a quick quiz, and then returning to the main text. Each learner’s journey looks slightly different, yet all paths lead toward the same conceptual understanding. As an example, I chose one of their learning topics to explore: Astronomy: Earth & Sky (sadly, there’s nothing about music yet). It asked for my grade level and personal interests (there were only two choices so I picked a middle schooler who likes pictures when I learn). It then produced a unit of study based on my selection. Materials included Immersive Text, Slides & Narration, Audio Lesson, and a Mind Map. Interestingly, the Audio Lesson sounds like it is actually from Notebook LM, as well as the narration for the slide deck. Although the demo only provides very short examples, I was really impressed with the results.
For teachers, this product opens fascinating possibilities. Differentiation has always been one of the hardest challenges in education. Even the most skilled instructor can only modify lessons so far for individual students. Learn Your Way demonstrates how AI might handle some of that adaptive work automatically, freeing teachers to focus on coaching, interpretation, and higher-order thinking. The technology doesn’t replace teaching; it amplifies it. It’s important to note that Learn Your Way is still an experiment, not a commercial product. Google’s researchers are testing how far generative AI can go in reconfiguring learning materials. But the early results are promising. The system doesn’t just rewrite text — it changes how content is presented and perceived. That shift — from static delivery to dynamic transformation — may prove to be one of AI’s most constructive contributions to education so far.
Consider what this could mean for any subject that relies on scaffolding — music theory, world musics, score study, or music history. Instead of giving every student the same reading on counterpoint or sonata form, a teacher might feed that text into Learn Your Way and receive versions suited to different levels of readiness. One student might explore a narrated visual map connecting motifs and harmony; another might read an advanced analysis. Both reach the same conceptual endpoint, but through different sensory and cognitive channels. What I like most about this product is that students can use it on their own. If you’re given digital text to study, and you were like me when you were in school (I am an audio/visual learner), you can upload your text and have it reimagined to suit your learning style. Pretty cool.
Of course, no AI system is perfect. The quality of Learn Your Way’s adaptations depends heavily on the quality of the input. A vague or superficial text will produce equally shallow variations. Teachers still need to review everything, ensuring that nuance and accuracy are preserved. There’s also a philosophical question: if each learner’s version of a text is unique, where does the “official” version of knowledge reside? These are not small issues, and they underscore why real teachers in the classroom with the students remain essential.
If Learn Your Way succeeds, it won’t be because it dazzles with AI tricks. It will be because it helps teachers and students rediscover something simple: learning works best when it adapts to the learner, not the other way around. In my opinion, it is a truly powerful tool for differentiated instruction and adaptive learning - addressing the ever-changing learning styles of the students in our classrooms.