11/24 Nearpod
There are different ways to create a Nearpod slide deck. You can import an existing powerpoint and then add Nearpod content or questions to it, or you can create a slide deck directly in Nearpod, or you can insert Nearpod content and questions into google slides. I experimented with all three.
Creating your own slide deck within Nearpod proved to be quite challenging. I was attempting to add content within the deck and couldn’t find as much as I was hoping for specific math lessons. It seems that a lot of content for the younger grades is very vague.
Next, I tried importing a powerpoint slideshow into Nearpod rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. I liked this method a little more as I could use slides I already created and just sort of add Nearpod questions every other slide or so. I wish that I could create a Nearpod question on an exact slide, rather than making that question become its own slide. For math, it's very difficult to ask a math question with just the text box that nearpod provides. I would really need to include a visual for the topic that I am currently on. Open ended questions may be good to see what kids know about a topic before you start and then as like what did you learn today? Maybe I should try that instead of trying to incorporate them throughout the slides. I also was thinking that the poll question might be cool to use to say, how are you feeling about this lesson like a green, yellow, red type of thing?
I also followed the instructions to download nearpod as an add on in google slides so that you could use nearpod activities in pre-existing (or new) google slides that you create. This is the area that I spent the least amount of time on so far. As far as adding in things on a current google slides, it was pretty straightforward and was very similar to the nearpod website in this respect. I guess I was a little more confused on how students would be responding to certain questions if I don’t necessarily give them access to my google slideshows. I think I would have to test this feature out on a class to see how it works out. If you were to create a deck on the Nearpod website and incorporate an open ended question that would work fine when all students are asked to join the slides with a code. But how would this work with google slides? Would I have to share the slides with everyone? What if I don’t want to do this?
Nearpod Library: Nearpod has a really awesome pre-existing set of lessons for many different topics, subjects and grade levels. However, I really struggled with trying to find specific enough lessons and for 6th grade. It seems like there are many Nearpod created lessons for high school level students, but not a whole lot for the middle school level. I also found it difficult to find specific topics within a broader topic. What I mean by this is … I found a Nearpod lesson on converting between fractions decimals and percentages. However, in 6th grade we teach this topic over the course of 3 mini lessons, rather than one sort of big and overwhelming one. I debated testing out this lesson as a sort of overarching review? But I am concerned because it seemed like most of these lessons included what I would teach over three days, in just one nearpod lesson. That being said, I have definitely structured my teaching a little differently with being remotely teaching since the kids can’t handle long lessons anymore, they are really only paying attention for 20 minutes anyways, so I've started doing more mini lessons. It’s possible that a lesson like that could work if I had all 25 kids in front of me at the same time and I was able to get them to focus for a full 40 minutes. Basically, I determined that the pre-made lessons there are probably great for students in advanced math or even high school students, but I don’t think my 6th graders could handle the few that I looked over. I would have to create my own slide decks to get the most out of this tool.
Nearpod had a similar feel to another technology I use called Desmos. You basically import your google classroom roster to the website and you ask all kids to join your lesson and give them a code. From what I know about nearpod, this allows you the ability to sort of lock your students’ screens on the nearpod slides and you are in control of when you switch from slide to slide.
Now that I know the basics of nearpod, I am going to try making a slide deck and test it out on my students!
11/30 Nearpod
Today, I tested Nearpod out on my 6th graders. Needless to say- it could have gone better. I have to keep in mind though, that this was my first attempt of using the tool. The presentation did not really flow as well as I had hoped and the questions sort of seemed to be thrown in, where they were not really expected. I use the presentations created by my school’s textbook and they seem to have a flow that did not really jive with inserting new slides with nearpod questions and activities.
I really wish that nearpod questions could be embedded directly on a slide before or after an animation because that would have really helped the flow of my presentation. It seemed like my textbook’s slide would sort of give away the answer and then on the next slide my nearpod question would come up. This was more of a memorization test rather than an actual math question.
I am thinking that maybe nearpod would work better if I were to create my own slideshow and alter it on nearpod. I am not great at creating presentation slides and that is why I have been using the textbook created ones recently, but I think I should give it a try to test out nearpod for what it really is.
12/5 Nearpod
Today I attempted using nearpod using a slide deck that I created myself. It went really well!
The kids really seemed to enjoy the interactive questions in between the slides to keep them engaged.
I have learned that nearpod is a great way to make PowerPoint slides more engaging and interactive. However, it works best when designing new sets of slides that you will specifically use for nearpod.
For me, I learned that just making an old slide deck into a nearpod was not really a great idea because I did not design them in a nearpod friendly way
Many of my math slide decks have animations where there will be a question and then an answer on the same slide, whereas for nearpod, you would have to make these two different slides so that you can insert a nearpod question slide in between.
By just playing around with nearpod, I have found that it can be a very useful tool for engaging students during remote learning.
I have determined what questions students are having difficulty with and what common mistakes they may be making very easily and on the spot. Typically, I would have to wait until after I see their homework assignments before I would have this type of live feedback. This is a better way to correct students on the spot and help with making remote learning more engaging.
Sam,
I really enjoyed reading this post. You done a terrific job capturing both the uses and benefits (and challenges) of the tool as well as your own learning process. Powerful stuff.