Nearpod
Sure to be a great experience!
Getting Started
This app will help you engage students by adding interactive elements to your presentations. You will first go to the app on the iPad (this app is free) to set up your account initially. Once this is complete, go to the Nearpod website on your computer to begin creating a presentation. All student iPads will have the app on them as well. Only teachers need an online account.
Creating a Nearpod Presentation
Click on the create button.
You will see a menu bar. Hover over the icons for an explanation of their function.
After clicking on the "new presentation" icon, you have some options for starting your presentation. A great way to start is to import a pdf from your computer. Remember that slides from presentation softwares like powerpoint, keynote, google presentations, and activinspire all support saving as a pdf - many from the print menu.
After selecting or preparing your pdfs, you can now drag and drop or select the file from your computer to upload. The size limitations are listed.
Once you have your base presentation pdf uploaded, you can then "spice" it up with many kinds of activities. You will select the add icon to begin. (Looks like a piece of paper with a plus sign on the lower right corner).
You can insert as many activities as you would like. You have a few grounds rules though. First, you cannot have an interactive activity slide in the second position of your presentation. This place will be reserved for the students to input their name. A slide for this is automatically added for you. The next rule is that the last slide of your presentation cannot be an activity slide. This will cause an error message when saving.
Once you have finished your presentation, press done. You can still edit the work up until you publish it. Once published, editing can be done if you make a copy of the presentation. Press the up arrow to publish.
Using Nearpod with Students
Now to the iPad. Open your nearpod app. Log in with your nearpod account information.
Once you have logged in you will see your presentations. Select the one you want to use then press launch.
Now, you will see a pin code at the top left of the page. You will share this pin with the students so that they can join you in the presentation. You will also see along the top left part of the screen the number of people that have joined the presentation.
You are now in control of the pace of the presentation. When you switch slides, the student ipads will switch slides. They cannot move forward or backward within your presentation. You will receive data on your teacher iPad when each student responds on your interactive slides. The video and the quiz interactive slides allow students to move at their own pace. Once the presentation is complete, have the student press the home button on the iPad. They will then double click the home button in order to "x" out the app - closing it completely. You always want the login screen to appear when the nearpod icon is tapped.
Pros and Cons
Nearpod presentations are real time for the student. This is not something the student could access on his own without the interaction of the teacher. If a student missed the presentation and you wanted them to have access to that material, then you would share the pdf with them not the nearpod presentation.