We hope you have been enjoying our Rising Resources blog series so far and we’re back with a new installment today! Each week, we will take a look at an online STEM resource teachers can use to better their instruction with hands-on opportunities. In this article, we’re exploring the wonders of Nearpod. Keep reading to find out why Nearpod is a useful resource and how its evolution since its introduction has allowed it to become a go-to classroom resource for teachers of many different grade levels!
Nearpod was founded in 2012, by Emiliano Abramzon, Felipe Sommer, and Guido Kovalskys. It is an interactive presentation and assessment tool that can be used in a classroom to enhance learning. The simplistic technology associated with Nearpod allows a teacher to create presentations that can contain quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, Web content, and so on. It also allows teachers to spend more time teaching than they do planning—perhaps its biggest selling point.
Nearpod offers an array of different features and benefits for teachers and students. One of the coolest things about it is that it allows users to create interactive lessons in a matter of minutes. It saves prep time as it allows educators to import existing lessons in pdf, jpegs, and ppt formats. It also offers interactive features, such as virtual field trips, 3D objects, quizzes, polls, open-ended questions, and more! Another benefit that users tend to like is the thousands of free and paid lessons from expert educators and education partners, which they can customize to fit the needs of specific students!
Besides those features that really stood out to me, Nearpod also allows teachers to share a live session, which prompts students to enter a code on their device and participate in the lesson virtually. After each session, teachers are able to evaluate students’ answers individually or as a class and generate post-session reports with one simple click. For students who use devices as part of their everyday learning, Nearpod is great for transforming those devices into truly interactive learning tools!
Overall, the site is very eye-catching with simple navigation features and a design that gets educators excited about using a new kind of tool in their teaching. Nearpod‘s simplistic, user-friendly aspects allow the technology side of things to help teachers reach their students rather than intimidating or overwhelming them—something that should never be overlooked in an online educational resource.
The Nearpod software allows every student to have a voice in the classroom. It also creates learning experiences that are inclusive and productive since students are free to actively participate in every lesson. Nearpod also empowers students to take ownership of their learning in a way that’s entirely their own. Overall, Nearpod helps increase access to information, ideas, and interactions with technology in the classroom and is a great tool for helping teachers create successful learning environments.
Using Nearpod in the classroom provides a great learning opportunity for teachers and students to increase engagement and productivity at the same time. If you’re on the lookout for an online tool to help change the way you teach, Nearpod is a great place to start! Check it out and look out every Tuesday for more Rising Resources on our blog!