Nearpod

Whilst doing some research to support the iPad trial today I came across Nearpod - a way of creating and sharing interactive presentations (which you can create yourself). Nearpod enables the synchronised use of iPads, iPhones, ipod touches etc.. within the classroom; students ‘join’ the presentation on their individual device and the teacher can control the pace of the activity as they work through the presentation. You can include interactive content such as polls and quizzes and multimedia content such as videos and slideshows can be included as well as searching online content within the presentation itself. Student responses to polls and quizzes etc.. are all shown on the teachers iPad to assess student knowledge and understanding throughout the activity. Nearpod is a free download which in itself has a great deal of functionality, however this needs to be upgraded to a paid version for some features such as adding slideshows and browsing the web within the presentation. The free version also limits the number of presentations you can have in your library and the size whilst the paid for versions remove this restriction. Nevertheless the free version enables you to produce some great presentations with interactivity for use in the classroom.

The video below gives a brief overview of how it works and more information can be found on the Nearpod website.

I am not in a position to try this with a class as we are not a 1:1 iPad school and we are only in the midst of a small scale iPad trial with a small group of staff to look at the potential; however, I can already envisage how this could be put to use if students had access to devices which could link to the presentation and I look forward to trying this out further and keeping an eye on how it develops. I am intending to try it out with a small group of staff at our next iPad trial meeting. One of the pitfalls is that all students have to work through the presentation at the same pace as the teacher controls the change of slides / activity so it doesn’t enable personalised learning for students who prefer working at different pace or want to return to content for consolidation. Nevertheless this certainly has potential for use with certain groups of students.

Using a SMART Document camera

I am very interested at the moment in the use of the SMART Document camera in various curriculum areas. In the first of what hopefully will be a number of posts over the next term related to the use of the SMART Document camera (essentially a visualiser which integrates with ease with SMART Notebook on the SMART IWB range),  I will start by looking at what a SMART Document Camera is and think about just some of the possible uses of one in a classroom situation.

What is a SMART Document Camera?
The SMART document camera is basically a visualiser – it will show anything that is put underneath it. Unlike an old style OHP, the document camera provides a digital image and therefore anything put under it can be seen, including 3D objects, it can also be used for demonstrations.

How does it work and how simple is it to use?

Very simple and integrates easily with SMART notebook, whilst I don’t have experience of other visualisers, I know that one of the benefits of the SMART document camera is its ‘plug and play’ ease! As long as the computer has SMART notebook installed the camera, which connects via a USB port can quickly and easily be set up, making it very user friendly in lessons and for sharing between classrooms / departments.

The camera has a good zoom and an auto-focus function, giving a good quality image for using in teaching and learning opportunities. When used in conjunction with the many SMART notebook tools, such as the magic pen, highlighter, pen tools, camera tools etc.. it has great potential as an interactive teaching and learning tool.

Incorporating the SMART Document Camera in lessons:

There is a useful little video clip here from SMART Training and Professional Development with lots of little examples:

Some other ideas….

Excellent opportunities for AFL, including:

• modelling exam answers / technique; including the ability to de-construct / annotate answers clearly in front of a class
• share student work – student work can be put under the camera and peer assessment undertaken (been successfully used during exam time) – good for promoting collaborative learning.
• share good work / used to show examples of good presentation / re-work draft answer / comment on student answers.
• manipulate and reposition sentences / paragraphs / objects from a variety of manuscripts / documents / students work using the SMART notebook camera tools.

Other uses:

• projecting worksheets
• projecting images that can be captured and re-arranged using the board – e.g. for composition work in art and design
• can be used in conjunction with microscopes in science to project images for the whole class
• used to show demonstrations to the whole class, e.g. scientific experiments (enabling stills to be captured which can then be analysed and annotated (and used in revision!)
• project resources – e.g. textbooks for whole class scrutiny.

Some useful links and documents related to the use of visualisers in the classroom:

Visualisers – Secondary, Further and Higher Education Case Studies (Visualiser Forum)

Whiteboard Blog – Visualiser Presentation

Why would I use a classroom document camera? (many ideas for using a document camera in school settings)

Using the Pull Tabs in SMART notebook

I have had some people express experience interest in using the Pull Tabs in SMART notebook which can be found in the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0.

They are great for a variety of purposes such as aims and objectives, homework, notes for cover supervisors etc.. and can easily be tucked away so that only the tabs shows and displayed only when required. Great for example for reminding students about aims and objectives or even as an AFL tool to reveal assessment criteria when looking at question/answer analysis.

I have written a brief guide to using the Pull Tabs which can be downloaded here: Using Pull Tabs in SMART notebook.