Nearpod: A Tool for Both Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning

Lately, I have been feeling frustrated with the limitations that are in place in my classroom due to COVID-19 protocols, and I have found that I am having to adapt many of my teaching strategies for engaging students in their learning, particularly when trying to collaborate with their peers.

An example of limitation to my instruction that I was not anticipating was the difficulty having students work in either partners or small groups. With the six feet distance between students, as well as the inability to share materials, I have found myself struggling to create instructional activities that allow students to work together, beyond turning and talking to a peer. While our teacher librarian introduced the Google Suite to my third grade students, there is still coaching that will need to occur before my students are ready to use the Google platform effectively and efficiently. We are still focusing on teaching keyboarding skills, so the idea of incorporating the skills necessary to use the Google platform is still a bit daunting. The students are also still continuing to practice using SeeSaw independently, as many students received help from adults at home when they were using the SeeSaw platform at home through remote learning. As I have transitioned into my new role teaching third grade, I have been eagerly looking for an internet platform that would allow my students to collaborate, show their learning, and practice computer skills in a developmentally appropriate and accessible platform. The platform I found that I believe fits these criteria? Nearpod: a virtual way to make all lessons interactive.

What is Nearpod? Glad you asked! Nearpod is a tool that allows educators to make pre-existing, as well as new, digital instructional tools interactive and engaging. Teachers are able to either designate their activities to be “self-paced” or “live lessons”. A live lesson can either be used in a face-to-face classroom setting, or a virtual synchronous setting. This feature allows students to follow along with the teacher as they are teaching, and engage with the material from their own computers as the teacher is instructing. A self-paced lesson can either be used in a face-to-face setting for independent work, or it can be used for virtual asynchronous work. This feature allows students to work at their own pace, as well as begin their work and come back at a later time. Nearpod also has pre-created lessons for teachers to access so they are not always having to create their own content to use with students. Check out the Youtube video below by Nearpod to view a quick synopsis of it’s features and functions.

My initial exploration with Nearpod resulted in a promising verdict that this technology platform will create engaging and interactive learning, particularly in a remote environment. Personally, I find the “content” and “activity” tools on Nearpod more engaging and versatile than the SeeSaw platform, although I appreciate how SeeSaw can be shared with students’ families more readily. Another aspect of Nearpod that I find more effective than SeeSaw is the ability to adjust already created lessons and making them more engaging, such as adding the Nearpod features to a preexisting Google Document. Another benefit to Nearpod is that it can be easily accessible from any type of device, so for schools that are requiring students to provide their own devices, accessibility should not be a problem if a child is using a tablet rather than a laptop. Another benefit of this program is that teachers can have more control over students’ devices and engagement for the material. In my classroom, I have many students who get a bit over-excited with exploring on their devices, and often skip ahead if we are working through an assignment together. A benefit to Nearpod is that the teacher is able to control through their device which slide or objective the students are seeing during a live session, which can help ensure students are on-task and promote a strong sense of classroom management. In addition, the information that students share on Nearpod is saved so the teacher can go back and review students’ responses later from their devices, helping both with providing students with appropriate feedback, as well as allowing teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching.

I am sure you are thinking that Nearpod is too good to be true, and wondering about the downfalls of this platform! Surely this website cannot be free! Good news and bad news… Nearpod is mostly free. The Silver Plan of Nearpod is free, and will stay free. If teachers are looking for additional interactive features and formative assessment, that will come at a membership cost. In my opinion, the Silver Plan has plenty of resources and offerings that make it unnecessary to upgrade, unless you are planning on using Nearpod exclusively or at a larger level. In summary, Nearpod is a fantastic tool for engaging students in digital collaboration and interactive engagement, particularly in the current age of remote teaching and learning. Give your first Nearpod lesson a try, and let me know in the comments what you think about this learning tool!