When the early reports post COVID sounded the alarm on the lack of student progress, The Los Angeles Times highlighted that the disparity was greatest among disadvantaged populations. And while the recent news is less promising than hoped for, there are shining examples of learning tools that are making a difference—Nearpod being one of them.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on math and ELA performance

LearnPlatform by Instructure, a third-party edtech efficacy research company, first partnered with Nearpod in 2023 to successfully conduct an ESSA Level III study. LearnPlatform just released a second independent study highlighting that Nearpod has earned an ESSA Evidence Level II rating designating “Moderate Evidence” for impacting student outcomes as shown in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) spring tests. The team looked at a sample of 6,087 students from 25 schools in one California K-12 district during the 2022-2023 school year to determine the impact of Nearpod on student performance. 89% of the students were from low-income backgrounds, 20% were English language learners (ELLs), and 13% had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

What is ESSA Level II Evidence?

ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act signed by President Obama in 2015, is a commitment to equal opportunity for all students. It emphasizes the importance of evidenced-based investment in products proven to make a difference by publishing rigorous research on their efficacy.

The study performed by LearnPlatform satisfied all of the ESSA evidence requirements for Level II: Proper design and implementation, including: 

• Valid and reliable outcome measure that is not overaligned with the intervention 
• Baseline equivalence for treatment and comparison groups 
• Statistical controls through covariates 
• At least 350 students in the analysis sample 
• Representative, multi-site study
• At least one statistically significant, positive finding

Nearpod’s designation as meeting Level II requirements means that the researchers were confident that the increased scores observed during the study were due to an intervention using Nearpod.

The research questions focused on the following:

• What was the impact of Nearpod on students’ ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for English language learners? 
• What was the impact of Nearpod on ELA and math 2022-2023 summative outcomes for students on an IEP?

Nearpod’s ESSA Level II Evidence

Zeroing in on grades 4-8, the quasi-experimental study aimed to better understand the impact of Nearpod on the students’ learning outcomes. Worth noting is that this sample of students was 85% Hispanic and 14% Black or African American—representative of student populations most at risk. The study found that with 83% of the students interacting with Nearpod-created content for an average of just 7.2 weeks (which amounted to an average of 16 sessions launched), there was a statistically significant impact on student learning overall and for those with IEPS.

Key Results: English Language Arts (ELA)

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scale scores for English language arts (ELA) achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2558 v. 2534
• 8th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2469 v 2430
• 5th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2428 v 2404

Key Results: Math

Looking at adjusted CAASPP scores for math achievement, those who used Nearpod compared to students in similar grades who did not use Nearpod had higher scores in the following grades:

• 8th graders had higher scores: 2516 v. 2486
• 6th graders had higher scores: 2501 v. 2483
• 6th graders with IEPs had higher scores: 2424 v 2393

Impact student learning with Nearpod

Nearpod continues to be a “fan favorite” since its introduction more than 10 years ago, due to its rigorous approach to engaging students in active learning. Classroom teachers and school administrators rely on Nearpod’s vast library of expert-created content, intuitive interactive learning activities, and real-time data reports, which have a proven track record of leading to better instructional strategies and better student outcomes.

Educators can tailor their approach to engage students in high-quality, research-backed interactive lessons, whether for the whole class, small groups, or 1:1 instruction. At a time when math and reading scores continue to sound alarms, this impact study and ESSA Level II recognition will continue to bolster educators’ confidence in leveraging Nearpod across the curriculum. Nearpod is dedicated to improving the instructional experience for all kids by making sure that they can make real-world, relevant connections through culturally responsive pedagogy. And these outcomes don’t just address short-term needs—they also enable schools to build positive cultures by looking long-term when it comes to leaning on data-driven methodology to increase motivation, engagement, and retention. Along with better outcomes, such efforts can promote a deeper sense of belonging and dedication to 21st-century skills for students, plus progression growth and job satisfaction for teachers.

Start using Nearpod

Despite the dismal data about reading and math achievement scores nationwide following the COVID shutdown, we are beginning to see a few glimmering examples of schools helping students make strides forward. Early on, Nearpod doubled down on its commitment to help schools modify their instructional plans in order to reengage students into hybrid and in-person instruction. And this most recent recognition of earning the second-highest ranking, ESSA Level II, showcases how Nearpod can be part of a school’s comprehensive solution to helping all students reach higher and achieve more.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Darri Stephens

Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.

The post Research reveals Nearpod’s positive impact on Math and ELA performance appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Addressing the challenge: Nearpod empowers Leo Academy Trust in advancing personalized learning

When a district strives for excellence, it must continuously evolve. In 2020, Graham Macaulay brought Nearpod into Leo Academy Trust schools’ (then virtual) classrooms to ease the shock and panic brought on by the pandemic and to ensure engagement and inclusion. By year-end, the Trust’s 60 teachers across six schools were consistently using Nearpod to support more than 3,500 pupils in learning at their own pace … and loving it.

Well into the new normal, teaching has changed, and tools have changed. Nearpod is now at the heart of the Leo Academy Trust’s learning ecosystem. While the Trust continues to empower educators and enrich its curriculum, new challenges have arisen in balancing expectations, as Graham explains:

“Nearpod has expanded opportunities for our students and improved collaboration among our staff. Now, we aim to take it a step further, leveraging the platform to provide even more, higher-quality education while remaining considerate of staff workloads.”

Engagement through immersive learning experiences

Nearpod has become an essential element of Leo Academy’s teaching approach, motivating educators as they witness students actively engaging with immersive learning experiences. Graham has been delighted to see how the process of delivering engaging lessons has become more intuitive, and less daunting and demanding for staff.

“It’s a win-win. Teachers save time, and students enjoy even more engaging and enriching lessons. Nearpod bridges the gap between teaching and learning, empowering teachers with the necessary tools to focus on what truly matters.”

Rather than preparing materials, teachers can now quickly share resources through Nearpod, which acts as conduit between teaching and learning, enabling teachers to create and share valuable resources that benefit them, their peers, and ultimately hundreds of students.

Lessons as diverse as their learners

Recognizing that students respond differently to the tools at their disposal, Graham and the educators at Leo Academy Trust value Nearpod’s versatility in offering a wide range of learning experiences. 

“Some students thrive in competitive situations, so they love features like Time to Climb, while others prefer the opportunity to engage repeatedly with the same content on a mini whiteboard,” he explains.

Graham also emphasizes the importance of empowering staff to take risks and embrace a culture of continuous improvement. For him, innovation in education involves risk-taking, self-reflection, and a focus on what truly matters. Rather than replicating traditional practices digitally and doing “what has always been done, but better,” the Trust is now exploring how Nearpod can create truly unique learning experiences, as Graham reflects:

“The minute you change anything in education, there’s an adoption cycle you’ve got to go through. And as you climb that mountain, you make mistakes. As leaders in education, we’ve got to empower our staff to do that, to reflect and even to fail forward.”

Education is asking questions every day

With Nearpod by its side, Leo Academy Trust is more driven than ever to meet the individual needs of its students and teachers today and tomorrow, as Graham concludes: 

“Every day, we ask ourselves how we can empower teachers to support students and deliver the best possible education while fostering innovation. Balancing these goals is a significant challenge, but the rewards are immense.”

Ready to learn more about how to prepare every student for success with Nearpod? Schedule a call with one of our experts and learn how you can empower educators with unlimited access to everything they need to engage learners.

About the trust

The Leo Academy Trust encompasses nine primary schools in South London and Surrey. Forward thinking and fearless, the trust strives to provide outstanding education, while fostering an inclusive environment that ensures the well-being of its 5,000 students. With its sights firmly on innovation, the Trust ensures outstanding teaching and learning experiences while addressing the digital divide through a pioneering one-to-one program, giving each child internet access and a personal Chromebook to support their education—regardless of their background or learning pace. Six years into the program, Leo Trust leads the way in personalized learning in the UK, challenging the notion that education is confined to traditional school hours.

About the educators

Graham Macaulay is director of strategic partnerships at Leo Academy Trust. An edtech leader, Google Certified Innovator, trainer and coach, and seasoned primary school teacher, he spearheads the Trust’s support for edtech through the Department for Education EdTech Demonstrator Schools & Colleges Programme. Graham is relentless in his mission to embrace technology to keep the Trust at the forefront of personalized learning while prioritizing the involvement, inclusion, and well-being of every student and teacher. 

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Multi-academy trust puts student outcomes first: LEO Academy Trust’s story appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

New to Nearpod? Schedule a quick call with one of our experts to learn more about Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program!

The positive impact of digital citizenship instruction in K-12

Julia Maynard: 6th-grade teacher, Willie Brown Middle School, San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco, CA

Julia Maynard is a sixth-grade teacher at Willie Brown Middle School in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. She has been teaching middle school for 10 years as an English, history, and humanities teacher. She currently teaches history and a technology class.

Keep reading to learn from Julia how digital citizenship impacted her classroom.

Overcoming challenges with online behavior

“Most adults don’t know how to protect themselves online, and we’re expected to teach the principles of online safety and responsibility to our students. It’s not something most teachers grew up with, and it’s also something that parents oftentimes don’t know how to talk to kids about. My kids posted inappropriate things on Instagram, students made fake accounts, and, unfortunately, students shared inappropriate pictures and texts with each other. They don’t realize that what they send can’t be taken back and can be hurtful to their classmates. It was a big problem in the school last year, and this year the digital citizenship curriculum has helped our students think about these issues in a new way. 

Additionally, as many middle school teachers know, students can sometimes be mean to each other. They’re not sure how to relate to each other, and when they don’t have face-to-face interaction, it’s a lot easier to be mean. Kids don’t really think about their actions online the same way they think about their actions in person, and this curriculum has helped bridge that gap. 

In general, the most challenging part of my job is finding ways to get kids engaged and keep them motivated to learn. Finding things that pique their interest while trying to compete with cell phones and video games is a challenging task. Most of my students come to school with devices that are unlocked and interconnected, yet we (school staff) expect them to do exactly what we want them to do, not what they normally do when they have those devices.”

How Julia used Nearpod to teach digital citizenship

“I’ve used Nearpod for a long time and was excited when we found out that we had access to extra features and curriculum through the SFUSD license. Nearpod is awesome because it delivers the lesson to the student’s hands. I don’t have to worry about the kids who are sitting in the back or kids who are shy, everyone is on the same playing field. There’s instant engagement when kids can share their work, I can share their answers back to the class, and I can poll the class to see how they’re feeling. All of the kids answer all of the questions, and I get to see what they know and how they’re progressing with new information in real-time.

Digital citizenship is such an important topic to cover with students, and with Nearpod, it’s easy to teach. The Nearpod and Common Sense Digital Citizenship lessons that come with the 21st Century Readiness Program are high-quality resources. There are a lot of topics that I wouldn’t have thought to discuss with my students, but the curriculum is comprehensive. On Nearpod, the lessons are great because I can download, review, and teach immediately! There’s minimal prep work, I don’t have to spend a lot of time researching and curating resources, and the lessons are easy to use with students. Additionally, kids have multiple ways to answer questions and demonstrate an understanding of key concepts.”

Building a positive community through digital citizenship

“One of the things that surprised me about this curriculum was the strong community-building aspect. Not simply building a digital community but building community in the classroom, too. We continue to teach even more digital citizenship lessons because it’s a great way to build a positive community. We have a brand-new school, so at the same time, we’re building a curriculum for the year, and we’re building school culture and community, too. Finding ways to facilitate serious conversations has made a noticeable difference in how my kids talk to and interact with each other.”

“We continue to teach even more digital citizenship lessons because it’s a great way to build a positive community.”

Julia Maynard

Alex Springer-Post: K-5 Instructional Technology Coach, Seldens Landing Elementary School, Loudoun County, Virginia

Alex is a K-5 instructional technology coach in Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia. She previously taught in North Carolina and West Virginia, where she was the first teacher in a computer lab at her school.

Keep reading to learn what Alex has to say about teaching digital citizenship.

Teaching students the importance of digital citizenship

“Our students are on the Internet every day. When I talk to younger students, even my K-2 students, they’re playing games, and a lot of games have the ability to chat. I asked my second graders, “Have you seen anyone write a mean comment to someone else online?” Unfortunately, I’ve started to skip over that question because the answer is nearly 100% yes. Some of them were scared, some of them didn’t know what to do in that situation, and they didn’t want to tell their parents because oftentimes they’d lose their devices.

The concept of a “digital footprint” is great to introduce younger students to because many of them already share their words online and are leaving a footprint behind. It may not be attached to them because they usually don’t share their private information, but they have to know that future employers, colleagues, friends, and loved ones have the ability to find things you said or did when you were younger, and what they do or say now has the ability to impact their future.”

How I use Nearpod to teach digital citizenship

“Before I used the Nearpod Digital Citizenship curriculum, I had students sit in a circle on the floor to complete pencil and paper digital citizenship activities, and a few students raised their hands to add to the discussion. With Nearpod, more kids participate, and more of them feel comfortable contributing to the lesson.

There’s safety in Nearpod, and my class has been impacted in a positive way. I have a student with selective mutism who can now participate and share his thoughts in the lesson! I share student responses, but I keep the responses anonymous so we’re able to stay on topic and keep the discussion focused. Lots of students are excited when I share their answers, so they aren’t afraid to take credit. In my classroom, I set the expectation that students don’t call each other out, and Nearpod helps to encourage that expectation.

When we’re dealing with topics like media literacy, digital drama, self-identity, and cyberbullying, Nearpod is especially helpful because students are more comfortable sharing answers that are personal or scary to them. My students don’t have to raise their hands and broadcast their answers to everybody, but they also don’t have to search for me afterward if they need to explain something. They can share their thoughts and feelings without feeling self-conscious. Some of the topics are especially sensitive because kids don’t want to seem “uncool,” admit that they were hurt, or that someone made fun of them.”

The impactful results

“In my 5th-grade class, we completed a “Power of Words” lesson, and it was interesting to see the way students reacted to cyberbullying and the difference between each class. I had one class last year that was a challenging group. In one of the Digital Citizenship lessons, students were asked to agree or disagree with the statement, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt me.” 65% of the class thought that this was a true statement, and many of these kids had no idea the impact their words could have on others!”

“It sparked an interesting and productive conversation and also enlightened the rest of my colleagues about the importance of being attentive and intentional regarding students’ choice of language. Our class discussion about the impact words can have on others hit home with many students, who realized that they have been hurt by the words of others, and then made the connection to what they were saying and posting online. The connections they were making between in-person and online interactions were so productive for how they treated each other moving forward.

No one wanted the lesson to end. When it was over, many questioned, “Class is over already!?” How often does that happen as a teacher? After my students left class, they treated each other with a higher level of respect, and they were more likely to take each other’s feelings into consideration when choosing what to say online or off.”

“No one wanted the lesson to end. When it was over, many questioned “class is over already!?” How often does that happen as a teacher?”

Alex Springer-Post

Harmony Cano: Educational technology coach. Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena, CA

Harmony is one of two education technology coaches in Pasadena Unified School District, serving 30 school sites and 1000+ teachers across the district. She previously taught middle school social studies and ELA in Pasadena.

Keep reading to learn about the impact digital citizenship instruction had on Harmony’s students.

District-wide benefits of using Nearpod’s 21st Century Program

“I’m one of two education technology coaches in Pasadena Unified School District. My colleague and I help 1000+ teachers at 30 school sites with classroom technology integration. Since we have so many school sites and there are only two of us in the district, it’s challenging to get out to all the sites to create a curriculum and assist with hands-on technology integration. We used the Common Sense Digital Citizenship curriculum before we used the Nearpod & Common Sense curriculum. Before the Nearpod curriculum launched, it was overwhelming for teachers to use the curriculum and challenging for us to coordinate. Common Sense & Nearpod’s partnership has been a huge asset to our district.

The curriculum is delivered in a way that’s student and teacher-friendly. There is minimal prep time for teachers, the lesson plans are easy to follow, teachers can preview the lessons, and there are interactive activities and links to other resources that teachers can use.”

The Nearpod platform has helped our small technology team deploy digital citizenship lessons to teachers around the district, whereas beforehand, distributing the lessons to 1000+ teachers every year was a difficult task! With this curriculum, it was easy to build a library of digital citizenship lessons in our district Nearpod account, where teachers accessed and downloaded the lessons in a ready-to-teach format. Additionally, we now have reports in Nearpod that we can send to the state, and Nearpod has helped tremendously with the paperwork we have to complete for e-rate compliance.

It has made life easier for everyone, and the digital citizenship roll-out in our district has been a success. The way this curriculum is built makes it easy for everyone involved.

Harmony Cano

Efficient lesson prep

“The teachers’ favorite aspect of the lessons is how age-appropriate they are. Teachers don’t have to plan the lessons and consider how to approach the principles of digital citizenship for different age groups. The students are really engaged, and developmentally the lessons catch the students’ attention. They can easily access and interact with the curriculum, and they feel like they’re learning from their peers because there are videos from kids their age, and teachers can easily share responses from their classmates. We love the curriculum, and we’re excited and blessed to have it. I look forward to continuing to use this great resource from Nearpod & Common Sense!”

Amy Klabunde: School technology lead & computer lab teacher, Baltimore City Public Schools

Amy is a 15-year veteran educator in Baltimore City Public Schools. She is currently a school technology leader and a computer lab teacher for a Title 1 school in Baltimore.

Keep reading to learn how Amy used Nearpod to teach digital citizenship.

How I use Nearpod to teach digital citizenship

“With the digital citizenship curriculum, I rarely need to supplement or modify the lessons. Even my eighth graders, who often think they’re “too cool for school,” get excited about the next activity in the lesson. They look forward to learning the key concepts, and they’re excited about how much they get to participate and voice their opinions. Before I found the Nearpod & Common Sense digital citizenship curriculum, it took me at least an hour to plan for each digital citizenship lesson because I had to make sure every website worked, think through the flow and timing of the lesson, and build in procedural time for directing students to online resources. But with the Nearpod and Common Sense curriculum, everything is packaged together, and it’s easy for my kids to understand. The curriculum developers definitely understand how to be age-appropriate and sensitive to the developmental stages of my students.“

Leveraging student-paced Nearpod digital citizenship lessons

A lot of the curriculum in my technology class is related to digital citizenship. My district wants our kids to understand that the Internet can be very helpful, but it’s a place where they have to be thoughtful, careful, and responsible. Nearpod’s student-paced option for teaching digital citizenship lessons is amazing, especially because I teach students who have vastly different reading levels and writing skills. Initially, with the live participation option, it was challenging to keep everyone on the same page. Now students can complete activities at a pace where they feel comfortable. Other students can take extra time and ask clarifying questions, while the rest of the class can progress without frustration or too much idle time. The student-paced option has made this school year so much better because my kids feel more in control of their learning.

Digital Footprint lessons

“With the Nearpod and Common Sense digital citizenship curriculum, I’ve seen a lot of changes in my students. The curriculum itself encourages students to think about their presence on the internet. I recently completed the “Who’s Looking at Your Digital Footprint?” lesson with my 8th graders. We started the lesson with the prompt, “Google your name and see what appears.” Some of the students were very upset about what they found publicly available about themselves. They asked, “Why did my Facebook page pop up? Why did my Twitter profile pop up? Anyone can see this?!” Many were not aware of privacy settings or what data could be accessed by billions of people around the world on the internet.

Before I led the digital footprint lesson, a lot of my students didn’t understand what it meant to have a digital footprint. They didn’t grasp that their comments, posts, and pictures on the Internet could last forever. The curriculum is great because it makes kids think and reflect on their actions online and offline. During the digital footprint lesson, students reflected on the question, “Am I the person I see on the Internet when I Google my name? Is this how I want to present myself to the world?”

After the lesson, my students began to understand that there’s a difference between making themselves look “cool” and purposefully sharing what they post on the internet. That made me happy because a lot of kids think that the purpose of Facebook and Instagram is to show off and put on a facade, but that’s not necessarily the best representation of themselves.

The next step for my class was to create a “digital footprint,” where we each made a physical footprint that doubled as an infographic to hang outside of my classroom. The footprint included how my kids wanted to represent themselves to others online.”

Reducing cyberbullying

“We had cyberbullying occur a lot last year. Kids wrote negative comments about other students online and thought it was private or that teachers and parents wouldn’t discover it. The cyberbullying spilled into the school building, causing fights in the hallway after school. When we investigated what caused the problems, it often stemmed from comments or posts on social media.

Once we discussed the specifics of cyberbullying, digital identity, and digital footprint, my students realized that their words online could have a negative impact on their classmates. They understood the permanence of their comments and built up empathy for what it would be like on the other side of the bullying situation. Having these conversations as a class has made a big difference in how the kids think and act when they’re online.”

“A lot of our social media drama has declined since we made an effort to teach digital citizenship.”

Amy Klabunde

Impact on school culture

“Discussing digital citizenship makes our lives as teachers a lot less complicated as we’re not trying to mediate issues that we don’t even know about. We’re not friends with our kids on Facebook or Snapchat, so we don’t know about problems that start online, and we’re taken by surprise when the problems enter the building.

Since we’re now proactive about these topics, kids can identify and solve problems online before they escalate. Now, it’s impossible to know if all of the students are behaving appropriately online all the time, but online issues have not spilled over into the school building this year, which creates a safer environment for our kids. Teaching digital citizenship on Nearpod makes my students feel like they can express themselves honestly and not feel embarrassed or scared of the reactions of others. That makes Nearpod lessons much more powerful than paper-based lessons because the kids have an added sense of security to be themselves because their answers will be shared anonymously.”

Start teaching digital citizenship with Nearpod

As these educators have highlighted, Nearpod’s interactive curriculum has not only made teaching digital citizenship more effective but has also empowered students to think critically about their online presence and interactions. In a world where technology is an integral part of daily life, nurturing responsible digital citizens is not just an educational imperative but a societal one. Through innovative tools like Nearpod and dedicated teachers, we can pave the way for a safer, more respectful, and ethically sound digital future for our students.

New to Nearpod? Schedule a quick call with one of our experts to learn more about Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program!

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post The positive impact of digital citizenship instruction in K-12 using Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Look across the multitude of surveys and studies asking teachers about the obstacles they face in delivering quality instruction, and often the underlying issue is related to the lack of time. Time is such a precious commodity in teaching. Educators don’t have the time to assess and address individuals’ learning needs by having quality content and programming on hand. Too often, they find themselves scrambling to identify high-quality resources or modify a lesson for a student during a new school year. At the same time—or lack thereof—educators are also trying to keep up with the changing landscape of education by staying abreast of the latest and greatest teaching practices themselves, whether it’s new tools, technology, research, or pedagogy.

The power of Nearpod

Since its inception more than 10 years ago, Nearpod has aimed to optimize teachers’ instructional time by promoting student motivation, engagement, and achievement. It supports educators with intuitive tools, real-time data, and a plethora of curated content resulting in effective instruction. Nearpod’s core principles focus on:

• Transforming students’ educational experiences through active learning
• Providing rigorous, scaffolded content that appeals to students while aligning to core standards
• Illustrating real-time data to highlight individual and group insights to guide meaningful instruction and feedback

Nearpod makes it easy for teachers to source high-quality, research-backed, interactive lessons for whole class, small groups, and 1:1 instruction to accelerate learning for every student at a time when math and reading scores are lower than ever. A new LearnPlatform by Instructure research study explores the relationship between Nearpod usage and student outcomes, and shows that Nearpod satisfies ESSA Level III (Promising Evidence) standards.

What are the ESSA Tiers of Evidence?

The ESSA Tiers of Evidence provide districts and schools with a framework for determining which programs, practices, strategies, and interventions work in which contexts and for which students.” This framework helps school leaders and administrators confidently choose evidence-based interventions since the ratings are related to five factors:

• Study design
• Results of the study
• Finding from related studies
• Sample size and setting
• Match

To achieve a rating, the research studies’ methodologies should thus point to interventions bettering student outcomes. With LearnPlatform’s most recent findings, Nearpod earned a Tier III rating of “Promising Evidence.”

Nearpod ESSA Evidence Level III

Background

Nearpod collaborated with LearnPlatform by Instructure, a reputable edtech research company, to conduct the recent 2021-2022 study. LearnPlatform analyzed the top 100 most-used edtech platforms from August 1-December 31, 2022, and found that of the 100 tools, only 26 had published research aligned to ESSA. With the release of this report, Nearpod is one of few tools featured in the LearnPlatform Top 100 to have studies that satisfy ESSA Evidence Level III or better.

Overview

The study focused on an extensive sample size of 28,968 students and 4,020 teachers from various grade levels within a large, urban school district in Texas and sought to answer if Nearpod implementation was associated with better student performance at the end of the year. According to LearnPlatform, researchers used descriptive and correlational analytic approaches, including student-level covariates (including prior achievement when available), to control selection bias.

• Was Nearpod implementation associated with higher student scores on end-of-year ELA and math STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness)?
• Did the relationship between the average weekly frequency of Nearpod sessions and student STAAR scores differ by the consistency of usage?
• Did the relationship between the average weekly frequency of Nearpod sessions and student STAAR scores differ for English learner students?

Summary of research findings

Based on the strong results, Nearpod meets ESSA Level III evidence standards. LearnPlatform’s research findings highlight three key takeaways for classrooms that used Nearpod on average 4 times per week for a duration of 10-15 weeks. First, Nearpod positively impacts students’ end-of-year State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), with students scoring higher in ELA and math. Educators and administrators can rely on Nearpod to deliver on its goal of efficacy when it comes to improving student performance throughout the school year. Second, a direct correlation exists between increased Nearpod sessions and higher student STAAR scores. This positive relationship underscores frequent and consistent usage of Nearpod boosts student performance. Third, Nearpod was able to support English language learners. Nearpod’s interactive digital content and learning activities support language learners in a more personalized approach, and thus, the frequency of Nearpod sessions also impacts English learners’ STAAR scores.

Impact student learning with Nearpod

This latest study from LearnPlatform augments a prior study conducted in 2019 by MBZ Labs in Hendry County, Florida that indicated Nearpod satisfied ESSA Level II requirements. As classroom teachers and school leaders seek to optimize each and every minute of the school day, high-quality and evidence-based tools like Nearpod provide educators with the confidence to identify a quality edtech solution for diverse school communities. They need to rely on edtech platforms that are truly research-based to transform teaching and learning practices. With an evidence standards rating like ESSA Level II and Level III, educators can continue to rely on Nearpod with confidence in its impact on student outcomes (also named the top-ranked Supplemental Platform in the most recent LearnPlatform Top 40 most widely used edtech tools report).

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Elevate student outcomes: Unveiling the research-backed impact of Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Its dedicated team of educators and administrators strive to cultivate 21st-century success skills in each and every student – as well as in themselves. In 2017, five years before the pandemic hit, the principal and division directors launched the International Schoo (I.S.) Distance Learning Journey campaign. It was designed to leverage technology to build creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication into their curriculum – in alignment with their values and methodology.

The campaign focused on ambitious goals to blend onsite and online learning long before “hybrid” was a popular term. How and where would they find the right tool to help support their goa? How would they ensure acceptance of cutting-edge innovation in a highly accustomed culture of face-to-face communication? A culture where many parents—and some teachers—were not yet ready for such digital transformation.

Key statistics about Al-Koura’s experience with Nearpod

• Has been using Nearpod since June in 2020 with Silver accounts and then upgraded to Nearpod Premium Plus in January 2022 till present time.
• Nearpod key usage stats: 57 engaged teachers, 4,967 sessions launched, 89,189 student joins, and 246,707 activity submissions
• Having access to Nearpod’s Lesson Library was the most appealing feature initially, and since the beginning of 2023, they officially started using the 21st Century Readiness Program

New to Nearpod? Learn more about international school and district licenses.

Nearpod inspires and empowers educators in Lebanon

With empowering students through technology top of mind, School Principal Rima Nasr seized the opportunity presented in the 2020 lockdown to redesign lessons and methodologies. All of which helped to bringAl-Koura a giant leap closer to meeting its cutting-edge teaching and learning goals.

For Rima, it was a question of the right tool at the right time. Browsing Twitter with the pandemic in full swing, she discovered Nearpod through the online education community and never looked back.

“Everything we were forced to do during the pandemic aligned with what we had laid out three years earlier: to conduct live, online, student-paced lessons. The lockdown sped everything up, and I found Nearpod: which became our lifeline.”

Nearpod’s impact on the classroom

Today, every new teacher who comes into the school gets access to the school library, with a wealth of teaching resources at their fingertips, through the virtual school library. Nicole Ghobril, Elementary Division Director, explains:

“We have all the lessons ready, and it’s making everyone’s life easier. New teachers to get on track. Parents and students have gotten so used to Nearpod that they can’t live without it.”

Nicole explains that Nearpod continues to represent a true game-changer in creating a more inclusive learning environment for students of all levels in the post-pandemic period. Teachers regularly send assignments home with the peace of mind that in addition to students using Nearpod for lessons in class, they can review slides while listening to the teacher’s voice by simply clicking a link.

For Nicole, empowering students towards personalized self-paced learning reflects the beating heart of the school’s approach.

“No two students are alike. Some take ten minutes to internalize a concept, some half an hour, and some an hour. With Nearpod, they go through the lesson in class and take it home with them. It helps students learn at their own pace, to grasp the needed skills, when they might have listened in class and forgotten the traditional lesson.”

From vision to action

Rima fondly recalls how she began experimenting with Nearpod with a small group of teachers who were accustomed to using PowerPoint in class and getting to grips with Google Classroom—which had been activated in 2017 as part of IS 2020.

“When we actually started using Nearpod, it was remarkably simple and self-explanatory. We started off with the free version, and when we upgraded to premium, it was even better.”

For Rima, technology goes far beyond devices and software. She knew it was essential to introduce an effective virtual learning platform that would maintain the face-to-face interaction that is so central to the culture in Lebanon and at Al-Koura. “We wanted to find the balance, and we can do both, and we can do them really well if you have the right content and the right training and the right platform.”

Olga Sarkis, Ed Tech Adviser,  also saw the potential Nearpod offered to continue with “live” teaching in a forced online environment, making lessons more engaging and interactive without overwhelming teachers, parents, or students.

“My mission was to explore Nearpod as one of the platforms we could integrate with the ​​[Google] suite and our existing Alma learning management system. We literally switched all the flip charts we were using to Nearpod.“

Olga recalls how teachers were relieved and motivated by being able to present lessons, make formative assessments, and integrate other tools that parents and students could use easily, regardless of their location, such as Google Meet. “Instead of jumping between different apps and sharing multiple links with the students, Nearpod enabled us to deliver one interactive and engaging lesson. It includes all the applications, presentations, features, and assessment tools we could possibly need.”

Supporting teachers to support learners

In order to streamline implementation in a time when nobody was in the same physical room, the initial core team using Nearpod prepared step-by-step guides, shared videos, and developed a collaborative process for teachers to experiment, share, and compare ideas and best practices with the tool. Nicole Ghobril recalls it as a learning adventure among the division directors:

“We created lessons, samples, using all the tools across subjects, and then teachers started creating their lessons. We would check them one by one via Google Classroom to see how they could get better. Everything fell into place from there.”

For Olga, there was no doubt that Nearpod was the solution the school needed, and her instinct was soon confirmed.

“We didn’t need to convince our teachers. They all accepted it. They loved it from the get-go as much as we did, and even the process of practice and fine-tuning was incredibly positive.”

The ability to integrate Nearpod with other tools continues to streamline lesson planning and assessment now everyone is back in the classroom. Rima received positive feedback from parents, students, and teachers alike, who have found Nearpod to be a reassuring constant in lessons—onsite or online—despite the pandemic and the ongoing political unrest in Lebanon. It supports her mission as a principal and as a mother to “prioritize students’ mental health and wellbeing.”

Aligning with core values

While students and parents alike love the user-friendly interface and interactivity of their lessons through Nearpod, for Olga, it’s also strengthened the school’s commitment to empowering students through skills like critical thinking, creativity, and digital citizenship.

“We believe that the best learning experiences must be effective, engaging, and inclusive. Nearpod’s best practices help us to achieve our educational goals and objectives all the way.”

Al-Koura is an inclusive school with around 50 students with special needs, and Rima explains that teachers now rely on Nearpod to personalize and prepare activities so each student progresses at his or her own pace and level—without exception.

“It’s been a great help for the special programs and education departments in our school. Nearpod really came to the rescue during the lockdown with students with special needs.”

Nayla Saadeh, Intermediate and Secondary Division Director, highlights how Nearpod has also strengthened the school’s focus on critical thinking.

“I believe that a lot of learning takes place by students on their own, and this is what sticks in their mind and helps them to think critically. They actively try to find solutions for the problems they are facing. Time to Climb is a prime example of a feature that our students of all ages love and that gives them a sense of progress and achievement.”

Implementing Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program

The four division directors at Al Koura are keen to embrace the future with Nearpod. January 2023 will see the school roll out the 21st Century Readiness Program. The educators for each cycle are already choosing relevant topics for their grade levels. Nicole explains:

“There is something for every cycle, and we’re really looking forward to assigning the tops. In Elementary, we will go mostly with SEL and digital citizenship. At the same time, high school students will focus on college prep and budgeting – which I’m sure Nayla is looking forward to.”

Whatever tomorrow brings, Al Koura’s administrators, educators, and students are ready. The experience with Nearpod has dissipated fears of what might happen if their children are absent from school because there is a system where teachers and technology collaborate to ensure engaging, interactive, and inclusive education.

“Nearpod helped us convince parents that education can continue, even though we’re not always in a face-to.face environment. Technology can strengthen the human connection, and learning doesn’t necessarily have to stop. The pandemic helped us prove that point, and Nearpod continues to do so daily.”

Two years after introducing Nearpod, Rima is excited to introduce the 21st Century Readiness Program in the coming year.

Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, available with Premium Plus, offers educators a unified approach to integrating 21st-century learning into their day-to-day teaching practices.

Ready to bring Nearpod to your school?

We’re honored to support the 2 million Nearpod teachers in +160 countries. Interested in learning more about how you can bring Nearpod to your school? Schedule a demo with one of our Nearpod Experts and learn how you can empower teachers with unlimited access to everything they need to engage students.

New to Nearpod? Learn more about international school and district licenses.

About the school

Al-Koura International School in Lebanon is an independent institution that forms part of the AMSI school management umbrella, which includes three sister schools in the UAE. Committed to preparing its 750+ K-12 students for tomorrow’s world, wherever they come from, Al-Koura prides itself on cultivating values such as responsibility, courage, empathy, tolerance, and integrity. The school’s 70+ teachers and 20+ administrational staff work day in, and day-out to provide a curriculum and Project-Based Learning approach that nurtures critical thinking, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency while ensuring academic excellence. The school is currently pursuing a NEASC accreditation, which recognizes holistic educational best practices and a focus on impactful personalized learning.

Vitoria Mendes Rogers

Vitoria is currently the marketing coordinator for the Nearpod Emerging Markets team. She is always seeking new and creative ways to communicate the value of education technology to a global audience and promote educational equity.

Do you want to share your Nearpod story? Let’s connect: Vitoria.rogers@nearpod.com

The post Nearpod inspires and empowers educators in Lebanon appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Lincoln International Academy is a K-12 private international school based in Chile that offers students a fully bilingual education. The Academy consists of two schools – one in Santiago and one in Golina – that work as one. Lincoln also has a high rate of special needs students.

The last three years have been unimaginably hard for students and teachers at LINTAC. After the pandemic-induced school shutdown was finally over, they were again challenged to create valuable learning experiences while adapting to a new reality.

Nearpod supported LINTAC’s transition back to onsite learning and helped teachers engage with their students in new and effective ways, reducing their workload and activating their creativity.

New to Nearpod? Learn more about international school and district licenses by clicking below.

How Nearpod helped students transition back to onsite learning in Chile

Implementing Nearpod at Lincoln International Academy

During the lockdown period, education suddenly turned from formal to fragmented. With students from her international school scattered around different cities, sometimes different countries, and a high percentage of special needs students who couldn’t just turn on, tune in and keep up. Valentina and her colleagues tried various tools and platforms to boost engagement and participation among students who were used to a traditional school with very high standards.

Some solutions worked, others didn’t, and the gap widened. The teachers needed a platform that could deliver a comprehensive solution that would work equally as well in the classroom as in a remote setting – Valentina knew the pandemic wouldn’t last forever. Still, the challenge of engaging students in the new normal would remain.

Looking back, Valentina recalls the turning point clearly, in the midst of the pandemic, when she and a group of her fellow teachers were doing a course – they shared their challenges and frustrations, and a participant mentioned this about Nearpod: “It blew my mind. It was exactly what we needed.”

Interactive learning experiences for the special education classroom

She decided to test Nearpod with the class of special needs students she was teaching remotely at the time. After seeing their response to the activities, especially drawing assessments using Draw It, Valentina went straight to the headmaster. She insisted that Lincoln officially use Nearpod to engage students, help teachers reach their objectives, and nix the frustration both teachers and students were feeling from using scattered platforms and methodologies.

Valentina gathered a group of interested colleagues who began implementing the free version in their virtual classrooms. By mid-2020, Valentina had presented Nearpod to the whole school.

In March 2021, the school decided to move forward with a Premium Plus license and have access to all features and functionalities. The Nearpod team partnered up with teachers and admins. It provided training sessions, dedicated assistance, onboarding, and all the support they needed to immediately start using Nearpod as a part of their regular instruction. Since then, Nearpod has saved teachers at LINTAC countless hours and enhanced the interactivity of daily lessons and activities.

Transitioning back to onsite learning with Nearpod

Because of Nearpod, the transition back to onsite learning was smoother than Valentina expected. “Nearpod was made before the pandemic as a classroom tool, and it was actually a huge support to us in coming back to school.”

Lincoln has a strict lesson planning protocol – enter, and exit tickets must respond to certain learning objectives. The results were practically instant: “the teachers were thrilled to see the students achieving the objectives we gave them and monitor their progress. With Nearpod, they were able to look at and see in real-time if their students were doing well or if they needed a little extra help.”

Amazed by the high uptake of Nearpod, Valentina constantly monitors usage and recognizes teachers who use it consistently. In collaboration with Nearpod, she invites them to different workshops. This year, all Lincoln’s exit tickets are done officially through Nearpod.

High School: From teacher-centered to student-centered classrooms

Valentina is now the coordinator of all K-12 English students at Lincoln and supports teachers across all levels. One of the things that surprised her most was high school students and teachers’ love of Nearpod.

While middle school and elementary school teachers love features like Time to Climb and Matching Pairs, Valentina feels that high school is where Nearpod has been most effective: “It’s something that high school teachers did not have. It has made lessons easier for them and more exciting for the students because it puts the student in a central, much more active role.”

Open-Ended Questions have been particularly cherished as it gives the teachers full insight into what students are thinking and has them all organized into one single document that can be downloaded and printed to review each students’ answers and offer a truly personalized learning experience.

Make videos into interactive learning experiences

Valentina also feels that Nearpod’s integrations with existing tools like Google Slides, their own PowerPoint presentations, and YouTube has been central to the natural uptake.

“The ability for teachers to ask questions before the video or in the middle of the video, to see answers, share answers, and review again at home really helps us to see where students’ passion points are and support those who need help in a non-invasive way.”

Supporting all teachers

Time management has been a struggle for teachers at Lincoln. Lessons are typically 45 minutes long and consist of an intro and outro of about five minutes, with 40 minutes in the middle. Teachers would typically set phone alarms or just try to feel it out. The Nearpod timing and freeze feature has been extremely useful in helping them to time and pace their lessons accurately.

“I haven’t met a single person who I’ve shown Nearpod to who believes that it will not work for them.” For Valentina, the results speak for themselves. When it comes to advising anyone interested in bringing Nearpod into their school or district, she recalls the first time she knocked on the principal’s door and insisted that educators really need to know how their students are doing in terms of formative assessment for everyone to progress. Since then, neither Valentina nor Lincoln has ever looked back.

It’s also a way to embrace the future for teachers and students alike: “Our students don’t write on their copybooks [or notebooks]. They use computers.” Faced with this reality, it’s essential for Valentina that students use tech in positive ways toward their learning.

“Our goal is to make sure that all of our students can learn, want to learn, and love learning.”

Going beyond grades and tickets

Now in its third year with Nearpod and with over 300 active teachers, Lincoln has switched almost entirely to student-paced learning and has woven Nearpod firmly into the fabric of daily life at the school.

This year, the Academy has transitioned from using it strictly for academic purposes to incorporating Nearpod into its large special needs and psychology department. Students, especially 12^th graders in the run-up to their exams, have found it to be a great support in providing relaxation techniques and breathing and meditation exercises. “From Yoga poses to posing questions about ourselves.”

Valentina’s aim is that during the upcoming academic year, all teachers at Lincoln will be using Nearpod. All new teachers coming in will be introduced immediately to the platform and guided in how to use it for formative assessments.

She feels that Nearpod has been a powerful ally in propelling professional development among educators – enabling them to improve the quality of their teaching, share feedback, and inspire each other. She is delighted to see how teachers share their lessons with each other through the Nearpod Library or create a drive, which makes them more organized and gives them the peace of mind that they know where everything is.

Ready to bring Nearpod to your school?

We’re honored to support the 2 million Nearpod teachers in +160 countries.

Are you Interested in learning more about how you can bring Nearpod to your school? Schedule a demo with one of our Nearpod Experts and learn how you can empower teachers with unlimited access to everything they need to engage students.

New to Nearpod? Learn more about international school and district licenses by clicking below.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post How Nearpod helped students transition to onsite learning in Chile appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Throughout this process, massive deficits and issues were quickly uncovered. Parents and guardians were not necessarily capable or available to help students navigate programs, curriculums, or concepts. Students were not engaged in the online software and struggled to find the motivation necessary for self-directed learning. Also, the critical motor skills of students were stagnant or declining as they were no longer forced to write or use other hands-on skills.

The goal of the virtual program shifted so that teachers could meet with the students virtually to build relationships and help students navigate the software, learn the concepts, and hold them accountable. Teachers began using Nearpod’s free Silver version to present material in a hybrid learning setting. Implementing Nearpod allowed students to show personality and assess their understanding of the material. An uptick in the improvement and virtual attendance proved that students still needed that personal relationship with teachers for a better chance at success despite learning virtually.

Implementing a hybrid learning model

In-person learning

Considering the decline in motor and social skills, the Livingston Parish Public School district shifted the elementary program to become the first hybrid learning program of its kind in the state of Louisiana. This program became the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center Virtual Hybrid 3-5 Program (LPLTC). The LPLTC hybrid learning program removed the third-party curriculum and hired full-time, certified teachers to teach using the district and state curriculums. Students are educated using in-person, asynchronous, and synchronous learning. They also had “Charge Time,” a flexible learning time dictated by the teacher according to need.

For the in-person portion of hybrid learning, students attend campus from 7:00-11:30 am on Mondays and Wednesdays. They engage in hands-on education in Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Math, Art, and P.E. with their grade cohorts. In-person hybrid learning includes recess, nature walks, science experiments, monthly visits from the public library bookmobile to check out books, and holiday social gatherings.

Online learning

Online synchronous learning occurs from 8:00-11:30 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students log in with their cohort for live, remote learning. Students must have a “learning guide” present in the home so if issues arise, an adult nearby to assist. A typical synchronous lesson involves students logging into the day’s Zoom meeting. They are greeted with the teacher’s ClassroomScreen, which has an introduction question or problem for students to begin working on. It also includes a list of materials, a countdown to the start of class, and the Nearpod lesson code. Teachers still use the free version of Nearpod weekly (both synchronously and asynchronously), with the paid version being on the school’s wish list with hopes of being funded.

How Nearpod helped our hybrid learning model

At the start of the school year, students and teachers were trained on how to use Nearpod. Teachers were initially required to use the free, Silver version of Nearpod, along with other online programs, in order to get a firm grasp on different ways to deliver content. After using the required programs, teachers were then allowed to choose which program(s) worked best for their teaching methods.

Teachers fell in love with Nearpod and relied heavily on it for lesson delivery. Teachers love that students are forced to remain on-task during presentations and cannot get left behind or skip ahead. They also appreciate that Nearpod offers helpful teacher resources to remind them how to plan, create, or edit a lesson.

The classroom management benefits of Nearpod help with many of the common discipline issues seen in remote learning. The interactive components keep students engaged, and teachers are encouraged to incorporate an interactive activity every slide or two. Our teachers value the option to search for pre-made lessons by standard. Several teachers uploaded and customized their lessons, while others preferred the premade lessons, especially in science. Math teachers appreciated the Draw It tool option. Students could work out an assigned problem by drawing or typing, and the teacher could see their work and thought process. It helped point out which student needed more help in that concept.

Nearpod has also helped build those important student-teacher relationships by allowing students to respond to the teacher without speaking and slowly build that trust. As a result, they now submit their answers and are eager to explain their conclusions to the teacher and to their classmates. This is an entirely different observation experience than at the beginning of the year, where students would submit answers and avoid looking at their teacher or the camera in fear of being called upon.

How to make parents and students comfortable in a hybrid learning environment

While many parents and guardians were apprehensive about the in-person fraction of hybrid learning, they have come to love bringing their children to school. Students are excited to see their teachers and friends and to participate in the activities planned for the day. Several students started the year with severe social anxiety and would avoid social contact. These same students now challenge others in friendly games such as tetherball, foursquare, and target toss. They’re also volunteering answers in class or asking for input from other students. Feedback from the parents regarding social skills has been remarkable. Several parents plan to transition their children back to traditional schooling for their middle school years. They claim this would have never happened had this school not given them the opportunity to “baby-step” their way through social situations utilizing the hybrid learning model.

Asynchronous remote learning gives students and their families the flexibility they crave. Students can complete their required learning tasks throughout the week making use of the afternoons. They can develop their own schedule for success as long as assignments are completed by the specified date.

Nearpod is fantastic for this type of learning using the Student-Paced option which is available on the Silver version. This option allows the student to access the lesson at any time before the due date. It gives the teacher options to require responses and prevent skipping. Because of this autonomy, students develop ownership and self-sufficiency in terms of their education to the point where the teacher no longer has to require student responses. The students will now do the work because they know they are supposed to and want to show their learning.

Supporting students through charge time and intervention

Charge time is used at teacher discretion. It is typically dedicated to assisting students who are struggling and need more one-on-one assistance, virtually or in person. Time can be scheduled with a teacher for assignment assistance, tutor subjects, help with interventions, or help with make-up work. Nearpod is extremely valuable during this charge time. Using Nearpod, teachers can do whole class test reviews, reteach a difficult lesson, or have students deliver their own lessons.

The LPLTC Virtual Hybrid program places emphasis on student academic improvement whether they are at the top or struggling. Nearpod allows for differentiation with the Student-Paced option because students can be assigned lessons based on their skill level. At the end of this school year, 100% of students saw growth in almost every subject. The ability to differentiate the lessons makes huge strides with students of all levels. The best part is – it costs the school nothing by using the Silver version of Nearpod.

The flexibility of hybrid learning using Nearpod

This hybrid learning model lends itself to flexibility: In Louisiana, hurricane season is always a threat. In 2021, Hurricane Ida closed schools for two weeks with many losing power and internet for longer. Some students evacuated to other states and were able to attend school 100% remotely, using student-paced Nearpod lessons until their homes were repaired enough to return. Others attended school 100% in-person until they had power and internet restored. Because of this, students were able to continue with their education seamlessly and successfully.

This flexibility has made the hybrid learning program valuable to many families who prefer a non-traditional educational setting, and the results are encouraging. Improvement can be seen in many aspects: social skills and fine motor skills (such as handwriting and signatures), reading comprehension, math applications, and more! Students are also developing proficiencies in self-management, focus, goal setting, and organization. While the implementation of this hybrid learning program has been monumental, Nearpod has aided in creating an engaging and manageable educational experience. It has been beneficial in developing a remarkable opportunity for those learners who have found their niche and are currently improving their educational and life experience.

Interested in reading more about this topic? Check out this blog post: Actionable steps to address learning loss

Nikki Lavergne

Nikki is a Google Certified Innovator, Educator, and Trainer and works as the Assistant Principal of the pioneer LPLTC Virtual-Hybrid program for grades 3-5. Prior to this position, she was the District Instructional Technology Facilitator and developed a love for helping make teachers’ lives easier through technology training at Nvision Consulting.

NikkiLavergne.com

The post Livingston Parish Public Schools implements hybrid learning with Nearpod Silver appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

For many adults, navigating digital waters is difficult, so trying to teach students about internet and device safety seems impossible. The Digital Citizenship & Literacy lessons within Nearpod move the impossible to POSSIBLE. Everything students need to know about online safety is already organized by grade and topic and I can plan an entire lesson in a couple of clicks that includes interactive slides, videos, and activities. Using the digital citizenship lessons was a time-saver for our teachers. Any time you don’t have to reinvent the wheel is a plus, right? A bonus: lessons are updated frequently, so as new issues arise within the digital realm, lessons are being completed to address those issues.

Although the lessons are for the students, the teachers are learning as well. As I mentioned above, many teachers are not comfortable with the internet. Through Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program, teachers have become more aware and better digital citizens themselves. This has caused an impactful ripple effect for our students: teachers use the digital citizenship lessons and become confident, their confidence is showcased by allowing students on their devices for creation and class activities, then students gain confidence because they can use a tool they know and love to share what they are learning.

Teaching Digital Citizenship: Helping to Mold our 21st Century Learners

Downloading and editing lessons that fit our classrooms

My team was responsible for making teachers aware of the process involved in finding the lessons from Nearpod and downloading them to their library. Initially, we provided support for teachers in the form of modeling, emails, image tutorials, and videos. As time went on, my team went through and modified some lessons by adding, editing, or deleting content to create lessons that were perfect for our students and teachers. This was done from kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade.

Creating a Digital Citizenship Pacing Guide

Next, to connect the importance of teaching digital citizenship to students and to take away as much extra work from teachers as possible, I created a Digital Citizenship Pacing Guide for our elementary teachers. It provides a suggested order in which to complete the lessons. Each lesson has notations for the teachers helping to suggest where to start and stop for each day’s lesson. If there are any materials that the teacher may need, they are included as links in this pacing guide, including resources to send home for parents. I also added an option for our primary teachers to complete the activity as a whole group lesson without individual devices. If they chose this teaching option, they had to fill out a form indicating the lesson and the number of students that participated. Each grade’s pacing guide was linked to their 1st Nine week ELA pacing guide for the district.

Helping to mold our 21st century learners

We received positive feedback from teachers about the lesson modifications and pacing guides. My team saw a commonality in language as teachers reiterated what students were learning in the digital citizenship lessons. Students were transferring what they learned in class to how they should behave online in school and at home.

This year, to help our teachers, my team has been in discussions with school leadership about completing the digital citizenship lessons during the first two weeks of school, rather than waiting until October. We believe teachers should complete these lessons as they are setting and practicing expectations and rules within the classroom. We have received backing from most administrators and will begin the year learning how to be a responsible digital citizen! Additionally, each grade level’s ELA standards were added to the digital citizenship Pacing Guides to help teachers make that connection between their standards and the content of the lessons.

Our district has evolved in its use of Common Sense Media each year and our trend is to continue to improve. My team is proud of what we have created for our students and how we have helped and supported our teachers. 

Digital citizenship is important for students to learn and worth the sweat equity it takes to prepare our students for their futures.

Erin Darnell

Erin Darnell is a Digital Integration Specialist for Anderson School District 5 located in Anderson, SC. She was an early pioneer of Nearpod as a K5 teacher and now shares her love of it with anyone that will listen! Erin loves to be creative and innovative as she collaborates with teachers and works with students. She believes that “Making Magic” for students means leaving your “Comfort Zone” behind.

The post Teaching Digital Citizenship: Helping to Mold our 21st Century Learners appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

We know that there are many benefits to integrating educational technology into curriculum and that these benefits extend to both teacher and student. One of the most well-known benefits of educational technology is that it helps instructors to differentiate instruction to multiple types of learning styles while also offering the ability to quickly assess student understanding. However, another major benefit of educational technology is that it also allows the classroom to be anywhere. Having the flexibility to learn when and where it is convenient is something that is becoming increasingly important for adult learners.

Integrating educational technology into curricula helps institutions adapt to the needs of their students while benefiting both the teacher and student. Educational technology, like Nearpod, allows the classroom to exist anywhere and on any schedule. The flexibility of learning when and where convenient allows students to better manage their schedules and opens the door to those who cannot commit to a regularly scheduled in-person class. Additionally, educational technology makes it easier to tailor a course to multiple types of learning styles. Instructors receive real-time insights into student understanding for the entire class, not just the ones willing to speak in front of the class. 

“We were able to decrease face to face time but increase the intensity of learning without being in the physical classroom.”

Dr. Adam Duggan, Dean of Adult Education and Training Services at Mount Wachusett Community College, recognizes the challenges that adult learners at his college face. His commitment to making education accessible to all types of learners is one of the reasons Nearpod appealed to him. After learning about Nearpod, he realized the benefits that adult learners would have by giving them the opportunity to learn from anywhere—not just in the physical classroom. Nicholas Colello, Associate Director of Adult Education and Training Services, also saw the advantages to integrating the Nearpod platform into their courses. Many of their students work part- or full-time jobs and find it challenging to attend class on a consistent basis. 

“Nearpod has allowed us to take a much more creative approach to all of our classes.”

Mount Wachusetts Community College’s diverse group of students have many different needs, ranging from learning to speak English to earning a certification or degree for a career. Dr. Duggan noted that Nearpod has simplified their ability to adapt curriculum to meet the needs of their students. When the college started to look for technological options in 2016, they were introduced to Nearpod by instructors who also taught in K-12 classrooms. The ability to customize lessons to best fit the needs of their students was extremely appealing. Since many of their students are on time constraints, being able to combine lessons and content allows them to maximize learning in a shorter period of time. One of the ways they do this is by combining courses required for a career with English language development content. Nearpod’s integration with Google Slides makes lesson customization easy. By combining content, students are able to study the skills they need for their future job while also working on their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills at the same time. Nearpod’s partnerships with publishers such as Quill, have also helped to strengthen their students’ English development. 

Dr. Duggan and Mr. Colello both believe that Nearpod has allowed them to meet the many different learning needs of their students. The Nearpod platform allows them to capture student understanding for both formal and informal assessment. The Collaborate Board feature has been an extremely useful tool in engaging classroom discussion. Students who generally shied away from speaking during class were more likely to participate in discussion because they could respond anonymously. This was especially true with their English as a second language students. 

Dr. Duggan attributes Nearpod as one of the reasons their students were still able to achieve success in their areas of study when COVID-19 shut down their classrooms. Having instructors and students who were already comfortable using Nearpod made the transition to remote learning easier. The shift to remote learning was so successful that instructors are planning to offer remote learning through Nearpod indefinitely. While some Mount Wachusetts Community College students may still want to attend class in person, instructors recognize that the majority of their students will benefit from being offered a HyFlex learning environment.  

“Nearpod is just as effective outside the classroom as it is inside the classroom.”

Mount Wachusetts Community College also uses Nearpod to gain funding for their programs. In order to receive funding, the college must show that students regularly attend class and track their seat time. Nearpod’s reporting features allow instructors to easily track student usage and attendance. 

Nearpod allows adult learners to further their career goals while getting the flexibility they need to balance both their professional and personal lives.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post Making higher education more accessible to adult learners appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

HyFlex instruction is a combination of in person instruction and online learning. Students learning online may participate live through video conferencing or watching a recorded video of the instruction. This method of instruction recently became popular among schools across the country due to the pandemic. Universities, which typically have larger class sizes, looked to this method of instruction as a way to continue to safely educate their students. One benefit to HyFlex learning during the pandemic was that it reduced class sizes. HyFlex classrooms allow for part of the class to be physically distanced from one another in the classroom while another group of students learns remotely. 

Dr. Mallinson began implementing Nearpod in the Fall of 2019. He was both curious and hopeful that the platform would increase student engagement in his classroom. With class sizes averaging around 50 students, he believed the platform would allow him to customize content to meet the different needs of his classes and students. He found that the tools and features in Nearpod allowed students to freely share and communicate their ideas. He also noticed that Nearpod made it easier for students to collaborate with one another. Real-time insights delivered in the platform allowed him to assess how well his students were comprehending the information he was teaching based on their responses and engagement through Nearpod activities. 

Nearpod’s platform makes it easy for him to streamline all types of content into one place. Dr. Mallinson uses Nearpod to design his own lessons and embed important videos and links to enhance his curriculum and keep his students up to date on current events. He uses videos from social media platforms such as YouTube and Nearpod’s weblink feature to integrate URLs from various websites.

In addition to using video and website integration, Dr. Mallinson discovered that the collaborative tools that promoted discussion and sharing of ideas within the platform were beneficial to his students. Like most classrooms, Dr. Mallinson has a combination of students who are very vocal and some who are less talkative during discussions. By allowing students to communicate their opinions and thinking through Nearpod, he found that even his most quiet students were given the opportunity to have a voice in his classroom.

“Nearpod allows all of my students to have a voice in the classroom.”

Flash forward to the Spring of 2020. Dr. Mallinson found himself looking for ways to adapt his classroom for remote learning. Nearpod has become an integral tool for that. He already knew that utilizing Nearpod allowed him to quickly assess student understanding through the interactive lessons, interactive videos, gamification, and activities. One of the most beneficial aspects of Nearpod was that it allowed him to continue to hold meaningful discussions with his students, even while they were not physically in the classroom.  

Eventually, Dr. Mallinson had to adapt his instructional model again. During the 2020-2021 school year, Dr. Mallinson continued to use Nearpod as his classroom instruction changed to a HyFlex classroom. This meant that only half of his class was physically present in the classroom at one time. The other half of his students would work remotely from their homes. He found that Nearpod allowed him to continue to have students collaborate together whether they were physically in class or on Zoom. His students were able to continue to share their ideas and respond to questions by using Nearpod’s lesson activity features. Nearpod activity features such as polls, open-ended questions, and Collaborate Boards help him continue to engage with his students no matter where they were located.

“Using Nearpod in a HyFlex classroom made it easier to  engage students both in the classroom and on Zoom.”

Dr. Mallinson describes himself as someone who is passionate about correctly implementing technology in the classroom. Recently, he wanted to investigate how the use of technology in the classroom affected student engagement. He discovered that students were more likely to share ideas, ask questions, and interact with their peers when Nearpod was incorporated into their curriculum. He observed that the classroom discussions that took place within Nearpod gave his students a space to share ideas on how to create change in the world and problem solve. 

Through discussions his students had within Nearpod, he noticed that his students felt more inspired to take more active roles in their communities at the local, state, and national levels.

About Daniel Mallinson:

Daniel Mallinson received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University. His expertise lies in state and local politics and policy, with his main research focus examining the mechanics of policy diffusion among the U.S. states. Additional interests include public administration and public policy as well as statistical methodology.

He is particularly interested in Pennsylvania State politics and has experience as an Information Specialist for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and a Program Analyst for the Office of Inspector General in Philadelphia (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). He has published in a variety of journals, including Policy Studies Journal, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, State & Local Government Review, and Statistics, Policy, & Politics. He received the Robert S. Friedman Award for Excellence in Teaching from Penn State University and has published about pedagogy in political science in PS: Political Science & Politics.

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