Planning
Liz and I created a presentation on Apps for Education. Our objectives for the lesson are:
- Students will understand the effective use of apps in the classroom setting
- Students will become familiar with Nearpod and Educreations
- Students will interact with activities using Nearpod
- Students will create a recorded white board session using Educreations
Liz and I used the following Creative Commons license for our presentation, which can be downloaded here.
We also acknowledged the following credits:
Assessments
Liz and I used a variety of assessments via the activities provided by Nearpod. We used polls, open ended answers, and draw it (as pictured below). Each of these assessments allowed us to engage the students to type, click, and draw their answers to various questions. By using Nearpod, we are able to share results with everyone as well as track each student’s individual responses to have a bigger picture of their understanding of the topic.
Liz and I also used the app Educreations for students to create a video recording of an interactive white board discussion the made up. The final video shows us if they were able to follow the directions and understand the subject matter completely.
Integration of Technology
Liz and I created a Nearpod presentation which used PowerPoint slides as well as additional Nearpod activity inserts. We were also able to insert a video we created which can be viewed here. Since Nearpod and Educreations are apps, we brought in iPads so that students could engage the material off the browser if they did not have a mobile device to use.
Lesson Delivery
One of the great features of Nearpod is that it keeps everyone on the same page and allows the teacher to keep a steady pace. Time limits are placed on each activity (especially the draw it and Educreations activities). We kept our video short because we knew we only had 15-20 minutes for entire presentation.
Individualization
The draw it and Educreations activities allowed each student to hone in on a content area or topic that was of interest to them. We also integrated various poll questions throughout the lesson so that we could gauge what students already knew about certain topics, which allowed us to focus our further instruction on areas that students were not as familiar with.
Feedback
Liz and I received some great feedback from this lesson. Everyone thought that the lesson was organized well, even considering that we did not have iPads for everyone to use. They seemed to enjoy learning about an app through a lesson using the app itself. I think that many students were not familiar with Nearpod, so they enjoyed experiencing the app and learning more about how it can be used in classroom settings. Everyone seemed to enjoy the variety of activities the apps offer and the potential to engage students through a variety of techniques, and many want to explore Nearpod further.
One point of interest was the lack of group activities. We had planned on using the Educreations app as more of a group experience, however time did not permit this to fully come to life. Some commented that even though there were no group activities, they felt the sharing option on Nearpod made up for that and they still felt involved in the exploration and discussion through more independent activities.