Nearpod Exploration

Set-up

- I tried to create a Nearpod account by simply visiting the Nearpod website and creating an account with my work email. This signed me up for a “Silver” account which I thought was useful, until the Nearpod storage quickly filled to capacity before I could even create a 10 minute lesson.

- After lots of searching on the Scarsdale website and technology pages, I did not find any information about creating a Nearpod account. Talya uses Nearpod, but the paid version automatically loaded for her. I decided to email the head of the Technology Department at my school. He was super helpful and created a Nearpod account for me on the spot. I think it was not automatic with my school email because I am an aide, accounts were likely only set up for faculty. Either way, I’m excited to see what will happen with full access.

First Impressions

- You can explore the Nearpod Library by subject, grade, NYS standard.

- There are pre-made lessons and there are videos that have stop checkpoints for student interaction.

- There are timely lessons like Thanksgiving or COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates.

- There is Nearpod VR!! Virtual Reality! I’m excited to try this.

- There are research workshops, assessments, just so many different aspects of the tool to explore.

Toying with Nearpod

- Exploring Traits - VR was disappointing because the VR was really just a picture of a tiger at the zoo that you could see 360 degrees. It was not like we were exploring the Siberian Tiger’s habitat in Northeastern Asia. The VR component did not help this lesson.

- Next I completed the Embryonic Connections VR and it was another disappointment. Literally just a picture of a chicken farm. I felt like I may have been missing some information because the lesson asked students to compare 8 animals but the animals and characteristics were not stated during the presentation. I wondered if this lesson built off another one that I didn’t preview. Either way, it did not feel very user-friendly.

- Feeding Frenzy VR was a pretty cool VR lesson because it mixed great short answer questions and space for creating models with a useful visual to illustrate energy flow.

- It is interesting that you can view student engagement with the lesson. I know we spoke about this after Alexa’s presentation and whether student engagement can really be measured in Nearpod Reports. I think if an educator is relying on this data for information about student engagement then the educator is doing something wrong. Educators need better assessments than this nearpod data, although the data may have some uses for educators. I haven't used a lesson with students yet so I don’t know too much about the benefits of the data portion yet.

- There is a school library tool that I can preview. If teachers create a Nearpod lesson that they want to share, they simply upload it to the school library. The library is organized by subject and accessible to all district users. This is a nice shared resource!

- I previewed the Ecosystems: Explore the Ocean VR Nearpod and there were certain aspects that I loved and others that turned me off. Using Nearpod as a vehicle to throw paragraphs of content at a student is a sad excuse for educational technology. In some places, it seems like Nearpod added a VR portion to make the lesson “cool” or “trendy” and “interactive” but it really doesn’t make the lesson student centered and it doesn’t fit my educational philosophy. However, this may be my reaction to the premade lessons, rather than the tool itself. I can use the tool to make my own lessons which might be better.

- I created my own lesson on Nearpod. This was created as part of an Interdisciplinary Unit Plan in another class. I may choose to demo part of this lesson during our final class meeting. At first, I did not use Nearpod in an especially different way than I would use a Google Slides presentation. I simply added interactive spots to the video. After entering Nearpod as a student, I realized there are a lot of great tools. Students can take their own notes right on the document! It is also pretty cool that an instructor can choose to make a lesson student-paced or ask for live-participation from students. I can see how student-paced would be useful for hybrid learning.

Takeaways

- Many of the lessons created by Nearpod are inauthentic and boring, even though they are marketed to be interactive. I almost fell asleep during one of the “interactive” videos and I couldn’t even answer a question that was checking understanding because I was so zoned out.

- Nearpod is more useful when I use the tool to create my own lessons, rather than using pre-made lessons. The tool is great and has many applications, practice will help me to take advantage of these applications.

- I like that students can take their own notes on the Nearpod. I also like that an instructor can choose to make a lesson student-paced or ask for live-participation from students, which is helpful in our current hybrid setting.

- I like that Nearpod lets me place short answer or multiple choice questions directly into videos so that I can check student understanding in the same place that I am giving a presentation/ lesson. This makes formative assessment easier from a technology standpoint.