Title: A Critical Evaluation of Nearpod’s Usefulness in Teaching K-12 Biology Science Online Classroom
Author: Junhua Xian
Location: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211220.156
The first article I found was a study completed by Junhua Xian and was completed during the COVID pandemic. This study focused on the effects that the implementation of Nearpod had in a synchronous online biology classroom. The study focuses on the positive impacts that Nearpod had on the synchronous learning environment and the students. First, Nearpod helped boost a sense of belonging and classroom community in a synchronous setting by increasing participation and interaction among students. Students were able to interact with Nearpod through live discussions, formative assessments, and quickdraws and writes. These activities helped not only engage the students but also build a stronger sense of normalcy in an online classroom.
Next the article describes the positive impact that formative assessment feedback provided by Nearpod had. Teachers were able to use Nearpod to create formative assessments using some of the strategies listed above and plan lessons and reteaching opportunities for students in the future. The data that was collected could be stored and tracked to also measure student growth over time. Lastly, the author cited that Nearpod increases student motivation, participation, and engagement in classroom activities. Students are encouraged and held accountable by the participation measures included in Nearpod and also encourages students to have fun as well. Nearpod includes a gamification option where students can compete with each other while participating in a formative assessment. Finally, the article describes the flexibility that Nearpod possesses and explains the ability to use in a synchronous and asynchronous classroom. The study uses interviews and surveys to come to the conclusion that Nearpod used in a synchronous classroom is far more effective for the reasons explained above.
I could easily apply the use of Nearpod into my in person classroom as well as a synchronous classroom based on the information presented in this article. The benefits of Nearpod are clearly numerous and the flexibility that comes with it is a major advantage. After beginning this project, I have started to create my own Nearpods to eventually use in my classroom, and the tools mentioned above will definitely increase student engagement. Students are held accountable for their participation because their answers will be shared with the class on their own personal devices screen. In addition, I plan to use this feature to kickstart discussions and debates on course content. In addition, I plan to utilize the formative assessment features of Nearpod to create short checks for understanding, quick writes, and quickdraws throughout my direct instruction. These should give me a great gauge to understand where my students are and if I can move on or need to cover more. Next, I was not aware, but you can use a feature on Nearpod to create live discussions similar to a discussion board or post on Schoology or Canvas. Students can respond to a question and click “post” and their responses will pop up on the main screen and all student devices as well. Students can then interact and comment based on each other’s posting. The capabilities and benefits of Nearpod to increase student engagement and participation through these strategies is apparent. In my own professional practice, I believe increased student engagement and participation during my direct instruction is a skill I need to develop. I plan to utilize Nearpod as an application to help facilitate my growth in this area of need.
References:
Xian, J. (2021). A Critical Evaluation of Nearpod’s Usefulness in Teaching K-12 Biology Science Online Classroom. Atlantis Press, 615. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211220.156
Hi Eric! This is a great review of NearPod. NearPod is a tool that I use really frequently in my classroom. I love that in this study, it stated that NearPod created a feeling of community amongst the students in the class. Hopefully this is what’s happening when we use it in my classroom as well. The formative assessment piece is great which is why I use it as much as I do. My students love the games that can be embedded into the NearPods, and they get super competitive with one another. It’s great that you are deciding to start incorporating it into your classroom- I’m sure your students will enjoy it.
An advantage to using NearPod is that it’s really engaging. Students can post discussion “post-its” and then “like” each other’s replies. This can be done both anonymously and with names shown, so depending on the topic, I will sometimes switch to anonymous in order to get the most honest answers. I also like making matching activities for my math classes where there will be problems in red and answers in blue. They have to solve the problems and find the matching answer. It shows you how many tries each student attempted, so we make it into a game where if they can get it in a perfect amount of tries then they get a piece of candy. A downside to this is that some students will just click on the squares a ton of times until they get all of the matches.
One disadvantage of NearPod is the way the reports are sent. You have to request a report which is then emailed to you. If you have a variety of activities in your NearPod, which I always do, then it’s a little messy to read the report. It seems kind of all over the place and it’s difficult to tell whether a student completed the whole NearPod without having to scroll from each activity and keep track of their progress throughout the entire lesson. Then I have to go back to the start and check the next student. There could be a different way to get reports, but this is the only way that I’ve been able to find.
Eric,
Per your blog’s subtitle, thanks for inviting me along on this journey. I am sure it will be educational. I really like the articles that you selected for your project. I have used Nearpod and I have found it a helpful resource, however, I never had the time to really dig down into the capabilities of this tool. The articles that you chose do a great job of articulating these capabilities while also giving practical classroom applications.
I really enjoyed reading about the formative assessment capabilities of Nearpod. The article written by Xian does a great job of explaining how Nearpod can be used to create and track these formative assessments and the data created by them. As you mentioned, I have also used Nearpod to create short “check-ins” with students as a real-time gauge for student understanding. In this application, Nearpod does lack, at least a little, the ability to assess more complex concepts and skills quickly.
I appreciated the last article that you listed as well. I have had little experience working with the premade lessons offered by Nearpod but it seems that they have partnered with some interesting companies such as iCivics to create learning activities for students. Also, I have never used Nearpod 3D but that also sounds very interesting.
Wood, E., & Hsu, Y.-P. (2020, December 10). Nearpod: An example of digital tools for class collaboration. C2C Digital Magazine. https://scalar.usc.edu/works/c2c-digital-magazine-fall-2020–winter-2021/nearpod-tool-class-collaboration
Vambaketes, A. (2022, August 1). 5 tips for teaching Social Studies in any classroom. Nearpod Blog. https://nearpod.com/blog/5-tips-for-teaching-social-studies-in-any-classroom/