Nearpod: Language Learning on your Mobile Phone

Nowadays, more and more students have their own phones, and they can do a lot of things through mobile phones. So why don't teachers design something to let students use the mobile phone to learn a language? Now, there is such a tool that can allow students to learn language through their phones. This week I'll introduce a mobile language learning tool called Nearpod.

(Source: images.google.com)

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is a tool allows teachers to do interactive online teaching, and students can also access the class through the app/ website, which is convenient for both teachers and students.

Some features about Nearpod

• Nearpod has different contents, teachers can add slides, quizzes, videos and audios into their presentations, and it makes the presentation more attractive.
• It is easy to control the teachers. For example, teachers can control whether to play the audio for all the devices.
• Students can be easily motivated through different activities. 
• It can promote students' autonomy. Students need to attend the class on time.

How to use Nearpod?

• If you want to use it as a teacher, you need to sign in to the website (I recommend sign in with your Google account).
• Click 'My Library' to add slides. If you want to add activities, right-click and choose add slides, then choose to add activities.
• If you want to add videos or audios, right-click and choose add slides, then choose to add content.
• If you want to change the layout or background, double click the slide you want to change, then you'll see the edit page.

What can we use with Nearpod in secondary school?

For myself, I may use it for the homework. I'll ask students to attend the class on a specific time after the class and display the presentation slides for them. In the class, I'll set some quizzes after they finish reading or listening then I can know how much do they master after the part. I'll name students anonymously to protect their self-esteem. It's a good way to assign homework because they have more freedom to do it.

Some limitations 

• For the online class, teachers always need to ensure the Internet can work. The class may be affected by WiFi, so it's a problem that needs to be concerned.
• This tool is not totally free. If you want to upgrade, you need to pay £120. 
• Autonomy is not applicable to everyone. Sometimes students may ask their friends to attend the class for them, and they may do some other things.😑

However, Nearpod is worth to be tried by each teacher because it's a new way for language learning, and it's also a trend. 

I found a video from YouTube that introduced how to use Nearpod, hopes it could be helpful. 

Thanks for reading.