Nearpod

What is it? How can it be used in the classroom?
     Nearpod  is an online tool/app that allows you to create interactive and engaging presentations for lessons. Think of a powerpoint but with interactive activities added in to it. This instructional technology allows you to assess your students while you are teaching them. You can include response boxes, questions, and games to assess students throughout the lesson. This can be used to increase participation during lessons, enhance student learning, motivate students, and creates a positive sense of digital citizenship. The great thing about this tool is that students cannot get off task while using it. If they open up another browser, it will notify you which student is not on the page anymore. This really teaches the students to be responsibility and accountability. While you are teaching the lesson, the same screen will appear on the students screen. They will all be on the same thing at one time. This is just a great way to help your students learn in a fun and exciting way.
                                   
What is the impact on student learning?
     Nearpod is a great tool to use in the classroom because it promotes active and interactive learning. This allows students to collaborate and learn in real time. This increases their engagement in learning which leads to better performance on assessments. Students are paying better attention to the details and being more proactive with their learning. Also, this is great for teachers to use in assessment. This is a very easy way to see where your students are and if they are paying close attention to instructions. This is also great for students because it takes away some of the pressure of pencil and paper tests. They are being assessed without even realizing it, and they are having fun while doing so.
What is the cost?
     There are different levels of Nearpod and with each level comes a different price. You can use Nearpod for free and do a LOT with the free version. You can still create interactive lessons with the free version. There are gold and platinum levels that cost money and come with more benefits like storage, activities, and games. However, many school systems will purchase this and share it with the teachers for free. So before you buy anything, check with your administrators and fellow teachers to see if your system has this paid program.
Bonus Info: 
You can use Nearpod for a virtual reality field trip to take your students out of the country. You can show them places all over the world right on their screen. The possibilities for Nearpod are endless!
Also, there are already pre-made lessons that you can use! This is what they would look like.
                      
Final Thoughts:
     Nearpod is an excellent tool to use in your classroom. I had heard of Nearpod before, but I have never actually used it before to teach a lesson. I would love to incorporate this into my lessons if my school has the resources to do so. I think it would be great to use this the first week of school for a get to know me presentation. This would allow the students to learn about me but also share about themselves. One new thing that I learned is that there are games for Nearpod that you can add into the presentation. For example, Time to Climb is an interactive game by Nearpod that the students can play during the lesson. This is a great tool for assessment but it is a game and race for the students. I would love to use this for a review game in my own classroom.

Check out this video to see Nearpod in use!