Nearpod

Nearpod is a free iPad app (and website) that has been around awhile.  It basically “sends” presentation to multiple devices at the same time.  I’ve been reading about it on lots of blogs, and thinking, “Well, that’s nice, but it doesn’t really suit my needs.”  One reason that I haven’t felt the urge to use it is that we don’t have a 1 to 1 program in our school.  And the other reason is because it appealed just a bit too much to the control freaky side of me.  I’ve been working for 20 years to let go of some of my control so my classroom would be more student-centered.  Nearpod seemed like it might tempt me to regress.

“Pshaw,” I said whenever I read the articles praising Nearpod.  (Can you tell I’m a Little House on the Prairie fan?)  Presentations are what my projector and screen are for.  Plus, I do as few lectures/presentations as possible in my classroom, preferring to exist in a controlled chaos as the students work on ten thousand different projects at once.

That’s all well and good until you can’t use your projector, and you are scheduled to give a staff development to 50 teachers on a tech tool most of them have never used, and you are sure as soon as they take out their laptops they will be paying attention to anything but you.  (I only base that on my own failure to pay attention at staff developments; perhaps you are more focused than I am at 3:00 in the afternoon…)

I vaguely remembered Nearpod, and thought it could serve my purpose since all of our teachers now have iPads.

After downloading the app, and visiting the website, I realized I had way misjudged Nearpod.  Because this is not about having control (okay, maybe it’s a little about control), but it also allows for interactivity and ongoing assessment – two things I love.

Let’s say you have a Powerpoint presentation.  Save it as a PDF, and import it into Nearpod.  Each slide is, well, a slide.  But, then you can add video, polls, quizzes, and websites into the presentation.  All of which each iPad bearer can participate in LIVE.  And, each person’s responses for any of the assessments are recorded and preserved for the teacher’s viewing pleasure later.

Complete confession – I haven’t actually used Nearpod with the faculty yet.  I practiced in my classroom with two iPads – one student and one teacher – to see how it worked.  But, according to my multiple personalities, it seemed quite engaging.

And, with my students, I still don’t plan to be doing a lot of my own presentations.  We have a few more iPads this year, but they are still sharing.  However, I can definitely foresee this being an option for the kids who are making their own presentations.  Another great possibility for Genius Hour.

You can see for itself how it works in the video embedded here.