Engaging, Enhancing and Extending learning with visual media through Nearpod

Professional Development Online Learning Module

Shanice Sololmon

FRIT 7739: Practicum in Instructional Technology

Georgia Southern University
Spring 2022

General Audience
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The primary audience consists of certified teachers of all ages from Godley Station K8 School.

Participant’s teaching experience range from two to twenty-years. Since the participants are at

the elementary level, they cover all the major content areas, with a few providing services to

gifted and specialized education (IEP, 504). The primary audience provides instruction to

students in grades K-5. Ages range from 5 to 12 years old. Due to the school district being 1:1

with technology devices, participants are capable of using technology, with all either often or

very often using technology in their classrooms.

Problem Identification

Godley Station K8 School is a part of the Savannah Chatham County School System (SCCPSS).

The District Technology department has to cover many schools throughout the district. They

provide professional development by creating a site that allows educators in the district to sign

up for training. This training request could be in the form of a one-on-one training, group

training, or shadow request. With many of the Covid protocols as well as limited staff (there are

only two technology coaches to serve close to 2,600 teachers in the district. It makes it more

difficult to roll out new technology tools to all. With that in mind, SCCPSS has become a

Nearpod district, so there is a need to ensure teachers are well prepared to utilize this tool in their

classrooms. In collaboration with the Library Media Technology Specialist, we conducted a

Technology Needs Assessment, determining the level of technological competency and their

comfort level with Nearpod. Most, of course, have heard of Nearpod and either don't have much

experience with the tool or have never used it in their classroom. As with most individuals,

teachers and students are considered primarily consumers of technology. The staff development

workshop would in turn help bridge the gap of understanding of Nearpod and examine ways to
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use it to integrate technology effectively in the classroom to engage, enhance and extend

learning. They would walk away from this workshop being able to curate presentations and

activities from Nearpod’s library as well as create their own to apply in their own classrooms.

Instructional Goals:

The mission of this staff development is to engage, enhance and extend learning using

visual media tools. After this professional development workshop, teachers will be able to:

● Access or create a Nearpod account

● Discover a web tool (Nearpod) to engage, enhance and extend learning with visual media

● Explain the purpose of using tools that embed tasks within visual media to assess learning

● Explore/navigate the Nearpod website/application

● Create a Nearpod activity that can be used in their own classroom

● Assessment of participants’ understanding of Nearpod

● Survey of professional development

Learner Analysis

1. Introduction

In the development of this staff development, the group of teacher-learners consisted of

certified teachers with diverse ages and experience levels within the elementary side of Godley

Station K8 School, located in Pooler, Georgia. The school is a part of the Savannah-Chatham

County School district. At this time, there are a total of 29 certified teachers in grades K-5: 27

females and 2 males that range from 22 to 58 years old. Teacher experience in the field of

education ranges from two to twenty-years. All 29 of these teachers cover the content areas of
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Social Studies, Science, Math, English Language Arts, and Reading in grades K-5. 8 teachers are

certified gifted. 5 teachers provide instructional support for students with an Individualized

Education Program (IEP). Demographic information was obtained from the LMTS, who

gathered the information from the information specialist in the front office of the school. Data

and other information for the Learner Analysis was collected through informal and formal

interviews, email, online surveys, and observations of the faculty and administrators within

Godley Station School and the SCCPSS district.

2. Entry Level Skills

All teachers have the following skills prior to the staff development workshop:

● basic use of computer/laptop

● Ability to access and navigate the Internet.

● Know how to access the school’s learning management system, Google Classroom, and

Class Link (applications and tools used in the district are housed here).

● Use some form of technology in their classrooms everyday.

● Knowledgeable of the curriculum standards (Georgia Standards of Excellence) for their

specific content area and certified in those areas

Motivational Characteristics

When looking at underused web tools in the elementary level at Godley Station K8

School, Nearpod was one in particular not being implemented. The focus group is elementary

(grades k-5). Teachers are motivated to ensure that the web tools they use are effective in

engaging, enhancing and extending student learning. Teachers want to find ways to formatively

assess students by embedding activities and questions throughout the Nearpod presentation. Prior

to this workshop, teachers should have an idea of a lesson that they would like to integrate with
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technology. Knowing the SCCPSS is a Nearpod district, teachers want to know more about this

presentation tool and how to implement them in their classrooms.

Professional Development Outline

Module 1:What is Nearpod?

1. Click the icon provided on the module 1 tab and enter the given code to access module 1

materials. There are activities embedded in the Nearpod, including a poll, video questions

collaboration board. This module covers the basics about Nearpod and some of the

available features that can be used in the classroom.

Module 2: You will have a chance to explore the Nearpod Library and share what you would use

in your classroom. Below is an overview of how to navigate Nearpod.

1. Overview of Navigation of Nearpod:

2. Log in to Nearpod using your district login

3. Explore by searching the Nearpod Library and find at least 2 lessons/activities in your

classroom.

4. After your exploration time, post findings in the Microsoft Teams chat.

Module 3: In this module, you will create your own short Nearpod presentation and complete the

PD evaluation survey.

1. Think of a mini lesson you would like to use in your classroom.

2. Log in to Nearpod using your district email.

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3. Click the create button and create at least 3 slides/activities. The first should be a title

slide.

4. Share a link of your Nearpod to ss14371@gmail.com.

5. Once you have shared your presentation use the provided link to complete the staff

development evaluation survey.

Pre-Assessment: Needs Assessment Survey (Appendix A)

A needs assessment survey was created using Google Forms in collaboration with the

Instructional Technology Specialist in development of the Nearpod staff development workshop.

Post-Assessment: Post-Professional Learning Survey (Appendix B)

A feedback survey was created in collaboration with the Instructional Technology Specialist for

participants to complete at the culmination of the workshop.

Data Analysis, Evaluation, & Reflection

The Nearpod Staff Development Workshop was created within the instructional

technology course in the Spring of 2022. The modules were housed online through Weebly.

From the many meetings with the Godley Station Technology Specialist and tossing around

ideas for what tools teachers could use more in their classrooms, we considered Nearpod. Godley

Station School is located in the Savannah-Chatham County School System (SCCPSS), which is

a designated Nearpod district. Based on the observations of the LMTS, teachers would greatly

benefit from a workshop that assists them in implementing Nearpod into their instruction. A

technology needs assessment was completed to determine which teachers would benefit most
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from the workshop. Of the 29 certified elementary level teachers, 9 were identified to participate

in the workshop. In collaboration with the LMTS, a Technology Needs Assessment was

conducted to help determine the needs of the staff development participants. From this and our

conversations on underused tools in the classroom, Nearpod was the top choice. Next was

outlining the tasks. I used procedural analysis to identify the tasks and content for the Nearpod

staff development. This is based on Morrison, Ross, Kalman, and Kemp’s (2013) description

that states “conducting a procedural analysis is a matter of walking through the steps with an

SME, preferably in the environment in which the task is performed”. I walked through the steps

by using the very tool that would be the focus of the workshop. This type of application of the

presentation tool assisted in thoroughly demonstrating ways that teachers could use Nearpod in

their own classrooms.

I wanted to make sure that the staff development was engaging and provided resources

that would be valuable to the teachers. The idea is to add a technology tool they can easily

integrate into their classrooms without the feeling of putting more on their plate. This can be

achieved by replacing the way they present lessons and showing them the prepared resources

available on Nearpod.

Of the nine teachers invited to complete the needs assessment, five submitted it and 6

attended the online staff workshop through Microsoft teams and completed the modules and

activities. My supervisor sent the information and reminders to the selected participants who

confirmed they would be present, so it was a little disheartening that they did not show.

Teachers participated in their own classrooms using their work device (laptop or Chromebook)
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the module and activities. Those not present had the option to complete the modules on their

own. I provided a screenshare of the activities for modules 2 and 3 so that the material missed

would be explained.

The staff development took place during their normal time for staff meetings or training,

which was first thing in the morning. As we went through the modules, teachers were to post

their thoughts in the chat. They also answered questions embedded in the Nearpod activity from

Module 1. I made sure to leave time at the end for the participants to ask any questions they may

have about the modules, Nearpod, or additional resources.

For the first module, the participants joined a Nearpod lesson that served as a way to

introduce them to Nearpod. It began with a poll asking about their knowledge of Nearpod. This

quick pre-assessment helped to determine their needs. I could visually see from the results the

needs of the teachers. A video overview of Nearpod was embedded with multiple choice and

open response questions. Then, we took a look at some of the tools built into Nearpod. This

served as a way to get the participants’ thinking of the different tools they may be interested in

using. In module two, participants were able to explore the Nearpod Library and share what they

would use in their classroom in the Microsoft Teams chat. This really seemed to get their minds

working on how Nearpod fits into their own classrooms. In the third module, the

teachers created a short lesson or engaging activity on Nearpod and were to share a link of the

lesson or activity with me. This serves as a way to apply what they have learned through the

modules and start creating materials for their own curricula. This is in line with the UDL’s

guideline to Provide options for Expression & Communication. There are multiple means in

Nearpod that teachers can create their lesson or activity.

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The staff development’s post-survey was provided for the teachers to complete, and all but one

submitted. Most gave the ease of navigation of the course website and the Nearpod lesson from

module a rating of excellent. Functionality of using the Nearpod was rated between definitely

and most definitely. For improvement, there was an audio issue while the video in module 1 was

playing. It was a network issue out of my control. A way to ensure this does not happen again

could be to use an in-network device when holding a staff workshop virtually. When asked what

aspects of the staff development were most useful, participants cited the following:

● “Interacting with nearpod as a student, it was interesting since I have never used it that

way before. I like to preview what my students could do.”

● “searching for nearpod activities that were already created”

● “Seeing the easiness of use”

● “Going through the benefits and practice session”

My hope is to follow up and provide more assistance to participants as well as reach out

to those unable to participate. This staff development is very helpful in preparing teachers to use

Nearpod effectively in their classrooms. The course could serve as a great resource so that

implementation of these engaging presentation tools is done with much more ease and hopefully

its use in the classrooms of Godley Station K8 are increased.

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Appendices: Post-Staff Development Survey Data

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