Knowledge
An #Edtech presentation and assessment Tool that is changing the way teaching and learning happens in the classroom
With teachers being tasked with more complexity than ever in the classroom, NearPod has been built around their needs. It is an interactive presentation and assessment tool that is changing the way we have been teaching so far
Do you teach in a way that is interactive, engaging and interesting at the same time. Are your students well connected with you all the time? Well, if no then don’t you think it’s the dire need of the hour in today’s digital world. A solution to this is Nearpod. An interactive presentation and assessment tool that is changing the way teachers have been teaching till now.
Founded by former Stanford fellow Guido Kovalskys, former Accenture executive Felipe Sommer and Emiliano Abramzon, Nearpod is multiplatform app that is available on App Store, Google Play, Nearpod web app, Windows Store and is accessible from all devices.
It lets one access available lessons, upload one’s own lesson for class, allows a group of students to join the live session or home work session, lets teachers monitor and measure student’s result by keeping a check on his/her assessments and level of participation.
But, how does it work?
Explore and My Library
For beginners, the easiest way to use the platform is by accessing or downloading the already available content from the content store of the app. For that, click on the Explore option on the home page. By clicking here you’ll be directed to the page that contains thousands of lessons for all the grades and subjects curated by experts. You can filter and find lessons of your choice by categorising what you are looking for. The lessons searched here can be downloaded to your library. And next time when you want to revisit the lesson, all you have to do is click on My Library section.
Create
Click the create tab to create interactive Nearpod lessons out of your teaching resources. Made notes for students? This is almost the same only difference lies in the approach. Now, you can create the notes digitally, making it visually engaging rather than boring for the students.While Nearpod lets you create your stuff in a number of ways, for beginners, we suggest uploading an existing presentation from Powerpoint, Keynote, Google Drive, or any other program created on your personal laptops and then dragging dropping into the Nearpod app. Once the presentation is uploaded on the app, one can begin to edit it with the various interative features of Nearpod which include—
Slide: The slides could either be a PDF or image file and so if one wants to create something complex then the slides should be made somewhere else. Once you become familiar with exporting slides as image files however, this becomes a simple process.
Slide Show: A series of images as a slideshow as opposed to one per slide in the presentation.
Poll: Questions used for survey with no option for correct/incorrect answers
Q&A: Quick way to know how much your students have learnt
Quiz: Instead of a single question, have students answer a series of questions at their own pace.
Video: Insert an MP4 (must be uploaded) to play back on devices.
Draw it: Lets students draw over a blank canvas or over an image
Browse the internet (upgraded feature):Lets the user share web pages with others.
After you are done with the changes, you can publish the presentation, publishing means sharing it with only your students. The presentation then can be viewed in real time on a second device. Click on My Library to see your published presentations.The next step is to launch the presentation, which can be done for teachers through live session and for students through homework. Once a presentation is launched, one can see a PIN code in the upper left, using which students will be able to access your session.
Join
Clicking on live session generates a pin, when students enter this pin they will get connected to teacher’s device and their activity will be synchronized with that of the teacher’s. Clicking on homework also generates a pin, but this option lets students navigate at their own pace and on their own time.
Reports
Clicking on report lets you analyze and assess student’s performance. Class quiz result, students performance, responses from all students can be seen on reports. It offers a way to teachers to reflect on their performance and hence improve them.
Well, this was just a glimpse of Nearpod. The actual usage has a broad spectrum which also includes Nearpod VR that lets you explore different architectures in the world, planets, cultural artefacts, etc. Nearpod’s VR is an amazing product, it not just behaves like Google Street view but also integrates with the company’s other digital learning content.
Talking about it, the company’s co founder Felipe Sommer said, “We’ve been studying the field, and there’s so much traction on new devices. The tech is now ready to deliver those experiences. In the case of Nearpod specifically, we realized that the virtual field trip will increase engagement in the classroom, which is one of our major goals as a company. We’re excited to take people to new places. Traveling is a simple activity that, once we started studying the field and how it would integrate with our products, we saw a huge opportunity to create lessons in virtual reality on core subjects. For example, one of our math lessons is called "Geometry is everywhere.” Students observe buildings around the world and find the geometry in each one. It’s not the whole lesson, but it’s a fun part.”
Nearpod’s VR, real-time feedback, synchronizing of lessons and post session reports are something that can take teaching to some other level while making it exciting at the same time. Such an impacting app it is, that so far 100,000 teachers in 10,000 schools have used the app with 1.6 million accounts are currently on Nearpod app.
Recently Nearpod said it raised $9.2 million of Series A funding in a round led by Reach Capital and joined by Storm Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Marc Benioff, Deborah Quazzo of GSV Advisors, AGP Miami, Arsenal Venture Partners, theJohn S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Krillion Ventures, Intuit co-founderScott Cook and his wife, Signe Ostby, and Stanford’s StartX fund.
About the app, Co-founder and General Partner at Reach Capital, Jennifer Carolan said, “Nearpod embodies the great potential of education technology by amplifying the impact of the teacher, connecting classrooms and facilitating learning that is truly responsive to the student.”
“With personalization, technology integrations and growing populations of students with specific needs, teachers are tasked with managing more complexity than ever in the classroom. The team at Nearpod built a product around educator needs — the result is a platform loved by educators and students that responds to the complexity of the modern classroom,”she added.
What we have talked about so far is only an insight, to completely know how various activities can be incorporated into Nearpod lessons, how advanced technology can make learning fun and how simple presentations can engage students, one has to explore Nearpod oneself and all one needs for it is one tablet or PC/MAC and at least one other device (tablets, smartphones, Chrome books, PC/MAC), both running Nearpod.
So are you ready to use Nearpod? The free or the silver version is a must for all and to satisfy your inquisitiveness about the app try it. Go to https://nearpod.com/ or download it on your mobile from corresponding app store.
Images and pricing information source: Nearpod, TechCrunch