I run professional development there times a week for the staff at my school and Nearpod has had the greatest take up in classrooms from Kindergarten to Year 6. So I thought it was worth writing about how to use this tool for teaching. Nearpod is tool that allows you to create interactive multimedia presentations that can be shared to a class of students on their individual devices. The teacher controls the pace of the lesson so that students receive content and engage with interactive activities as a whole group. Every time a student responds to an interactive activity the teacher immediately receives feedback on their device. Student work can also be shared on all devices to be discussed in a timely manner.
10 reasons to use Nearpod:
1. Use Present Resources: Teachers can build upon content they already have invested hours into developing. This is because you can import a PDF saved from any PowerPoint, KeyNote or SMART Notebook as the basis for a Nearpod presentation.
2. Immediate Feedback: Teachers receive immediate feedback on what students have learnt. As a class you might discuss a static slide with a key teaching point, which is then followed by a review quiz. As students submit their results the teacher can see immediately what has been understood on an individual level.
3. Share Student Content: When students have submitted their response these can be shared in real time with the class. For example if the presentation included a poll question about an exposition topic, the graph for the responses can be instantly shared to all student devices. If a student has labeled a scientific diagram accurately this can be also be shared to all student devices.
4. Controlled Pace: The teacher drives the Nearpod presentation and so can control the pace and direction of the lesson. Students have to keep up with the rate of the lesson as the teacher controls the progression of slides and activities. The teacher also has the option to jump between slides and activities if they sense a need for revision or acceleration within the lesson.
5. Free Content Available: There are many free Nearpod presentations available that have been created by Nearpod Distinguished Educators. These have very clear lesson objectives that target relevant curriculum areas.
6. Saved Student Results: All the results from every Nearpod session are saved. All you have to do is log in to Nearpod on your laptop or computer and click on the assess tab. This allows you to use the presentation multiple classes and then look back at results for each session for assessment and reporting.
7. Homework Feature: The homework feature allows students who are away to complete the work after the lesson. If there are particular students who need acceleration or extension they can work through a presentation at a faster own pace by emailing. Sharing the presentation using the homework feature is a simple as emailing or hyperlinking the presentation URL.
8. Opportunity For Revision: The homework feature also allows students to revise the content of the lesson at their own pace at a later point in time. This is particularly useful for test revision. In addition if students don’t understand the content the first time, they can have another attempt at their own pace.
9. Cross Platform: The Nearpod app is available in the iPad and Android store and can be used on any browser using the student web app.
10. Sharing Presentations: It is easy to share Nearpod presentations with colleagues using the email link.
The free Silver Edition of Nearpod limits the number of presentations to 500MB and up to thirty students participating in a session. This is a great place to start as it is free and teachers can get a feel for whether they will use this tool in their classrooms. The Gold Edition provides greater storage space of 1GB and up to 50 students participating in a session. Volume discounts are also available to schools. I have created a number of Nearpod presentations, some of which have been hyperlinked below. Enjoy!
