Technology Lesson Reflection

            My technology lesson was designed to teach faculty members how to create presentations using an Apple IOS application called Nearpod. A previous video was created to provide an orientation and overview of the Nearpod application. This session is designed to give a step-by-step process for creating presentations and inserting Nearpod modules. In addition students will be broken into groups of three to participate in a collaborative exercise designed to reinforce the skills acquired during the lecture. Each group will choose a topic and create a simple presentation with a minimum of three information slides, one poll, one quiz, and at least one external web resource. They will then have opportunity to give a five-minute presentation of their material to the entire class.

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.ntation that included the modations.  I started with a presentation that included the moduleays scheduled for this time of ye

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.