Preferred Partner Highlight: Nearpod
The Vision
Nearpod was started by a group of three friends, Guido Kovalskys, Felipe Sommer, and Emiliano Abramzon, who grew up together in Argentina and eventually all made their way to the United States through school and work. Through their experiences, they developed a strong understanding of what teachers enjoy and need within the educational market.
When it came time to send their own children to school, Guido, Felipe, and Emiliano began touring schools in the Miami area. During one of these tours, they discovered that one school had a room full of iPads that weren’t being used! The administrator had explained how they just received the iPads and were excited to use them, but a month later they found the iPads were still in boxes! These amazing resources were unused because teachers where unsure how to integrate them into their classrooms.
It was at that moment that the idea for Nearpod was born. The three understood that access to devices such as these would change the way teaching was approached in the classroom. Guido, Felipe, and Emiliano began working with that school to build a new application and test a new product every week. They continued to receive teacher feedback and kept rebuilding to improve their product.
The Product
A lot of teachers say that Nearpod is like a “powerpoint on steroids.” You can take existing lessons from all formats and supercharge them with Nearpod’s multimedia and formative assessment activities. Those could be, for example, interactive questions like quizzes and open-ended questions with real-time feedback. In a classroom with limited resources, time is always the most limited. The main goal of Nearpod is to provide immediate, real-time feedback to help educators better improve their practice.
Interactive activities are also used for peer learning. Teachers can share individual student responses with the whole class, and students can comment on their peers’ work. This helps allow teachers to take advantage of and maximize teachable moments. The teacher is able to control and move quickly between different pieces, even when a teachable moment is pursued, to keep everyone on track.
With Nearpod, the teacher controls the student devices, which allows many to feel more confidence with using the technology. When the instructor moves to the next page, so do the students. Teachers tend to feel intimidated with technology because students "know how to use devices better", but now Nearpod is enabling them to feel more confident. This is extremely powerful.
Nearpod was created with the intent to always increase student engagement. About a year ago, Nearpod launched virtual fieldtrips, which allows teachers to take students anywhere they want without leaving the classroom. It makes learning authentic. You can actually go to the pyramids if that’s what you are studying! NearPod also allows you to mix and match devices which is extremely beneficial for BYOD classrooms.
The Future
Nearpod is planning to continue its exploration and expansion of virtual reality, and new products are in production to be released. Nearpod has made the process of including high quality, engaging lessons easier by partnering with teachers and publishers that already have great content, and turning the content into Nearpod lessons that can be downloaded from the Nearpod store. There are plenty of free lessons to choose from, and also extremely affordable lessons that you can even fund with PledgeCents. Nearpod works hard to share new content as education and student needs evolve. They believe that content must continue to change to match the #edtech increasingly made available in classrooms.
The Testimonial
We reached out to Linda Hochstetler, a 5th grade teacher, and asked about her experience using Nearpod in her classroom.
"I love making lessons and using them in my class with Nearpod. The kids are so engaged and we all know the more engaged they are the better they learn! One of the things that I appreciate about it is that I can "drive" a lesson. This is where I present and I control when the pages turn. If later on they have questions or want to go back and rewatch a video or repeat the whole lesson, they have the option of "driving" the lesson themselves. The blessing is that all of the information is at their fingertips! I also use it as a means of reassessment if there are children who don't really understand a concept, I can assign the NPP as practice work, to give them the opportunity to go over the lesson again at their own pace."
How did you learn about NearPod?
"I stumbled across Nearpod on the Internet. (One of the best "accidental" finds that I have encountered!)"
How do you utilize NearPod in your classroom? What are the benefits?
"I use NPP in many ways in my classroom. I use them as:
- New presentations of material - a lesson
- A tool to use to reassess a student on a particular standard
- A tool that the student can use as a resource/reference for a project that they are working on
- As an introduction to prompt a discussion. For example, I recently presented a NPP showing the students three virtual reality slides: one of the boreal forest, one of the tropical rainforest, and one of the temperate forest. After they "toured" each forest, I had them describe what they saw in each: what were the biotic and abiotic factors, what was the same, what was different I used it then to kick off our study of the temperate forest: how it has similarities and differences to the other extremes. I was able to "drop" questions into the discussion as we talked, picking up on what the kids had questions and thoughts about. It also helped me to then plan my lesson around what they already knew or did not know.
- Homework for students who either miss class or need to review things a second time in order to understand it
- When we have snow days we do "virtual school" where I need to be able to "teach" my kiddos online. I am part of a 1:1 program where I teach. NPP are fabulous for this! I can launch a NPP or assign it to be student driven, and know that the kids are getting the same content. It also allows me to see who is participating and who is not. Furthermore, the data is important as I determine concepts that I will need to go over again."
What would you say to another teacher who may be hesitant about trying a new #edtech product in their classroom?
"I would encourage educators to use this tool. It is easy to use, it has many uses, and if educators don't want to create their own lessons there are so many great lessons that are already created at their fingertips. You have the ability to create your own lesson from scratch, perhaps building it upon a standard, or to build a lesson "on the fly" based upon what kids already know or want to know, or use a pre-made lesson. You even have the ability to tweak any pre-made lesson that you purchase to make it fit the exact needs of your students. The company is also very helpful if questions arise. I can recommend this resource with absolutely no reservations. The kids love them! I appreciate the ability to add virtual field trips, slide shows, and especially questions that I can "pop" in there to be sure that students are getting the concepts that I want them to get."
