Nearpod: Benefits, Limitations, and Applications for Teachers

Nearpod keeps students engaged with teaching tools like adding questions throughout presentations and collecting feedback. This not only keeps students focused but provides teachers with a measure of how well students are understanding the content. Another highlight of Nearpod is that it is compatible with Google Slides, PowerPoint, and YouTube which are tools that most teachers are already familiar with. This saves time and encourages teachers to use Nearpod since they only have a small amount of new technology to learn within the app of Nearpod itself. Quite possibly the biggest benefit of Nearpod is that its’ base package is free to use. This is major for teachers as they already spend a lot on their classrooms, so free tools are always a big plus.

However, although the base package of Nearpod is free, it only includes three teaching modes and a limited amount of storage and features. Depending on what teachers intend to use Nearpod for, they may need to upgrade for a fee of $120 or $349 per year- depending on which package they choose. This is pretty pricey when considering that a number of other websites and applications have similar features for less of a fee, or even free. In my opinion, another drawback to Nearpod is that it encourages virtual communication rather than face-to-face interaction. While this can be great for some situations, like online classes, face-to-face communication is crucial for students to build social skills. Additionally, using Nearpod requires each student to have their own device to participate. For instances of limited access to technology, this can make it literally impossible to use Nearpod.

Many teachers in my high school actually used Nearpod in a variety of ways. A lot of them used it for test-prep days as an interactive study guide to see what students were struggling with and what they needed to review with the class before the exam. This was super helpful for me because it meant that my teachers would spend extra time on the content that we were struggling with, to ensure that we would do better on test day. Nearpod can also be a valuable tool for VR experiences including virtual field trips to many places around the world. Since Nearpod allows teachers to control the content as it’s being presented to students, teachers can do guided field trips with the whole class, rather than self-exploration through Google Maps or an equivalent. With Nearpod, there are many applications for nearly every topic to be taught and it encourages teachers to be creative in their curriculum delivery depending on the unique situations of their learners.

VR Tools in the Classroom

The RobotLAB VR Expeditions tool is a classroom kit of VR devices and technologies allowing learners to “visit” various and engage in experiences that they would not have access to in a traditional classroom environment. The RobotLAB experiences include embedded Encyclopedia Brittanica content to help answer questions that may arise while students explore these experiences. The RobotLAB system is meant to extend the features of a previously popular educational VR platform, Google Expeditions. The premise of RobotLAB VR is to create engaging and immersive experiences for students to learn about culturally rich destinations paired with the Encyclopedia Brittanica information to build knowledge and meaning for these “trips”. This creates a well-rounded learning experience that promotes deeper cognitions about the world around us, from right within the classroom.

This technology could be super helpful in history, geography, or culture classes, as well as world language classes. In my high school Spanish classes, we would frequently use Google Earth to “explore” culturally rich places in Spanish-speaking regions. However, I always found myself wanting to know exactly what each piece of scenery meant to the overall culture of that location. With the Encyclopedia Brittanica extensions of RobotLAB, students are encouraged to seek answers to any question that may arise throughout their experience, promoting exploration that can be especially helpful in World Studies classes. Additionally, RobotLAB VR could even be beneficial in English, art, or music classes to explore where a writer or artist lived and dive further into how their geographic region may have impacted their creative process and life experiences. With many applications like these, RobotLAB VR technologies can be impactful in so many aspects of a student’s education.

When a student engages in culturally rich experiences like what this VR system can provide, they learn to question themselves and the world around them in a productive manner. Once a student’s mind gets used to these types of cognitions in one context (such as when they are using this technology), their mind will crave these immersive and cultural bits of knowledge in many other aspects of their lives. This creates a love of learning both in and out of the classroom, which can be amazing to help shape young minds into passionate and lifelong learners. Teachers could also benefit from using VR tools such as these in order to teach lessons about places that they were previously unfamiliar with in greater detail. This knowledge for teachers would be reflected in their lessons, and in turn, impacts their students’ learning experiences. The only downside to the RobotLAB system is that it can be quite expensive. However, if a school district bought just a few of these systems, they could share them among teachers at different times to ensure that a large number of students can experience it, making it a more valuable tool for the amount of money spent.

My Bitmoji Classroom

 This is my Bitmoji classroom for 2nd grade gen-ed! 

Unfortunately, for this post I had to upload the Bitmoji classroom as a JPG so you cannot click the dogs, however, clicking the dogs in a PDF or other format will take you to YouTube videos for a break. This can be super helpful to young learners who need to refocus or feel overwhelmed.