The
students will be assessed in three ways. First during the lecture portion of
the lesson, they will participate in Nearpod polls and quizzes to assess for
understanding. Second, their ability to create a presentation and use Nearpod
as a presentation tool will be assessed via a rubric of their group
presentation. Finally, an in-class observation will occur when the teacher uses
Nearpod for the first time on live material with their own students. Feedback
will be given to the teacher and a summary to the administration.
I
was not able to present this lesson to my faculty as there was no Professional
Development days scheduled for this time of year due to the holidays. As a result, I had to test my lesson on
family members, who are educators, over the holiday. To set a foundation, I had each of the 6
family members watch the Nearpod orientation video that I created earlier this
semester. My intention is to present to
my full faculty in January, 2014.
Each
family member was given an iPad and a brief primer on Nearpod. All were familiar with iPad operations. I started with a presentation that included a
brief description and overview of each of the Nearpod modules (polls, quizzes,
videos, web pages). This was followed by
a step by step presentation of the Nearpod Creation suite, a web based portal
for creating Nearpod presentations. We
created a mock presentation about baking chocolate chip cookies, inserted two
polls, and created a quiz. We then went
out and found a YouTube video about baking chocolate chip cookies and inserted
it into the presentation. Finally, we
went out to Google and found a webpage all about baking and inserted the
resource into the presentation. I then
loaded the new presentation into the Nearpod app and launched it and synced up
all of the student iPads. We were able
to walk through the presentation together and experience how the information
looked from the student perspective.
Once
everyone was comfortable with the process and some questions were answered, we
split them into two groups for the collaborative exercise. The goal of the collaborative time was to
reinforce the new knowledge by hands on practice. Each group was tasked with choosing a topic
and creating a simple presentation that included at least one poll, one quiz
and one external web reference. I gave
the groups 30 minutes to create their presentations and provided a laptop
computer for access to the Nearpod Creator site. A few questions came up that I addressed but
for the most part it went well. Each
group was then given five minutes to present their materials while the rest of
us followed along, answered the poll and completed the quiz. Each group was able to successfully create
and present their materials. I assessed
the presentation with a rubric.
My lesson was designed to instruct teachers on the proper steps
to create a Nearpod presentation. All teachers have previously viewed a Nearpod
orientation digital video which provided no overview of the Apple IOS
application and some examples of its use as a presentation media. This lesson
was focused on the actual creation of presentations inside the Nearpod
platform, starting with a lecture and presentation on the step-by-step creation
process, followed by a collaborative exercise where teachers were broken into
groups of three and instructed to pick a topic, create a Nearpod presentation
with a minimum of three information slides, one poll, one quiz, and at least
one external Web reference. The groups then had an opportunity to give a
five-minute presentation back to the entire class to demonstrate their ability
to use the Nearpod presentation they just created. The underlying assumptions
were that a teacher already had a basic pedagogy and ability to create a
lesson, and an understanding of how to use not only their iPad device, but a PC
for the creation process.
There
were many affordances available in this lesson. The visual presentation of
materials, the presentation via the students iPads, the step-by-step explanation
of the steps for creating content within Nearpod, and the collaborative
exercises that were presented to the groups.
There
were also some constraints present. The first constraint was obviously
technology fear which keeps some faculty members from embracing the content.
Next was general resistance to change, as most teachers are settled in their
way and are not looking to change their pedagogy. The other constraint present
was the lack of familiarity with their devices (iPads). Some students stumbled
and got frustrated by simple navigation issues.
The lesson was designed to teach a new set of competencies to
our teachers. Learning to use the Nearpod application as a presentation tool,
and specifically, how to create presentations to show through Nearpod on the
student iPads. The goal is for teachers to begin modifying their existing
curriculum and existing presentations (typically PowerPoint presentations) into
Nearpod presentations with the addition of Nearpod modules such as real-time
polls, quizzes, videos, and searchable resources. While teachers have an
understanding of iPad usage, and PC usage for creating curriculum, the Nearpod
application is new knowledge.
There is a large disparity in technical ability among my
faculty. There is also a great resistance to change. This is why I chose a
collaborative exercise, which combines teachers of different learning levels
into groups for hands on practice with this application. Supplementing the
collaborative work with monitoring and scaffolding created a learning
environment which accommodated all learners.
Technology is central to this lesson, as the lesson is primarily
about a technical application. Our intention is to replace static PowerPoint
presentations being used school-wide with Nearpod presentations that are not
only more engaging for students, but provide real-time feedback and assessment
for teachers of student understanding. Nearpod is a unique presentation medium
that integrates real-time feedback modules within a curriculum presentation.
For the most part I was pleasantly surprised by the success of
the lesson. I have been teaching about technology for two years and have found
teachers mostly resistant and often frustrated by technology. On the whole, the
students were excited about this application and its possibilities within the
context of their classrooms.
I found most of the students worked well in the collaborative
environment and those that struggled were helped by those who were stronger.
All groups were able to prepare a short presentation, and all integrated the
Nearpod modules successfully. Use of Nearpod on the iPads was straightforward
and easily accommodated. There were some struggles in getting their contents into
the Nearpod creation suite, but all groups were able to conquer this obstacle.
