Title: Nearpod: example of digital tools for class collaboration
Author: Emily Wood & Yu-Ping Hsu
The second source I found was an article that described the basics behind using Nearpod as well as the collaborative capabilities of the application. Wood and Hsu state that “Nearpod can be a collaborative and interactive learning platform which allows students to improve their participation. It also gives a chance to interactive with the teacher”. This statement is basically the basis of using Nearpod in any classroom setting. This application promotes collaboration, participation, and interaction between students and teachers. The article goes on to explain that Nearpod works in collaboration with Google Slides or PowerPoint and you can upload pre-made presentations into Nearpod. Once they are uploaded you can add the formative assessment questions, gamification capabilities, or the collaborative discussions. The article goes on to discuss other applications like Edpuzzle, YouTube, and Flipgrid which can easily be implemented into Nearpod. In addition, the authors explain the flexibility that Nearpod offers by being able to be used in a self paced setting or through live participation. This allows Nearpod to be used in a synchronous or asynchronous classroom. Next, the authors explain that Nearpod can also be linked to various learning management systems like Schoology or Google Classroom to allow for easy sharing for student use. Lastly, the article explains the ability that Nearpod has to encourage student collaboration and provides an example to view.
The example requires students to watch an embedded video in Nearpod and then respond to prompts and review questions on a live discussion board. Students’ responses would appear directly on the screen and students can comment or discuss the responses live in class as well. The other option that was presented was doing a quick draw which seems to be a popular activity on Nearpod and then using the students’ drawings to dive into a deeper discussion or review about a topic. The last part of the article describes how Nearpod increases student engagement. Through the use of formative assessment, gamification, and keeping students on the same screen throughout a lesson, students are able to be more engaged in class content. Teachers are also able to use the formative assessments provided by the students to inform their own practice. A great last point that this article makes is that Nearpod encourages total participation among students in the classroom. It reaches and encourages those quiet students to participate in class even if they would not normally raise their hands to add their thoughts.
This article presented new capabilities of Nearpod that my previous article did not. We use Schoology in my district and having the ability to seamlessly incorporate Nearpod with Schoology is a major bonus. I will be able to put codes and embed presentations directly into Schoology for students to use. In addition, I can take my previously made Google Slides and upload them into Nearpod which also makes this an easy application to use. Instead of having to create all new presentations, I only need to add the formative assessments and interactive activity slides to increase student engagement in my lessons. I could easily implement live discussion boards through Nearpod similarly to what I currently use Schoology discussion for. However, the added bonus would be that I do not have to have my students leave my presentation to go to Schoology to participate in the discussion. Lastly, after discovering that Nearpod has the ability to work with Edpuzzle and Youtube, I can embed Edpuzzle videos directly into Nearpod. Again, the ability to have students stay on one screen at all times and not overwhelm students with transitions helps students stay engaged and focused. I am quickly discovering that Nearpod is a one stop shop as a presentation tool, formative assessment and data collection tool, and finally a discussion tool. Nearpod has extremely diverse capabilities which allow a teacher to adapt it to their curricular needs.
Reference:
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