Today I tried out the NearPod App in a PSHE lesson.

I have pretty excited about this for a while and I have finally got around to testing it in the classroom.

For those who don’t know what NearPod is – check out this link.

So before the lesson I created my PowerPoint, converted it to PDF, uploaded it to NearPod and added the interactive elements (polls, quizzes and video). I had enough iPads for each student in class, which was perfect. However, this morning I was asked if I could have another class in my room with me. I only teach PSHE in half classes, but the added students meant I would have one iPad between two. It turns out, this wasn’t a massive problem, although less than ideal.

Once the students came in, I handed out the iPads and explained what would happen in the lesson. The topic I am working on at the moment is the death penalty. NearPod allows you to send a presentation directly to the students iPads.

NearPod was great and the ability to guide students through the presentation, while walking around the classroom was excellent. Of course the power comes from the interactive elements of the presentation. I was able to ask the students if they agreed with the death penalty by sending a poll to their iPads. The results came to my device and I was able to share the overall results with the students at the push of a button.

We then looked at why people do/don’t agree with the death penalty. Once we had done that and had a clash discussion, I then sent a quiz to their iPads. Again, I could share the overall results with each studemt. However, the students can see their own individual results on their iPads.

The ability to do this is great for AFL. You can also export the results and keep them on record.

Finally, I had embedded a video in the presentation.

I shared the video to their iPads. Every student was able to watch the video, on their iPads, at the same time. Excellent!

Apart from a few issues with WiFi on a couple of the iPads, NearPod worked perfectly. The students were engaged and really enjoyed using it. I can really see how great this is for teaching and learning.

The Biology department plan to use NearPod in lessons after half term. I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on.

I will post a video of a NearPod presentation soon, so those who have not seen it can see it in action.