Peardeck- An online learning game changer

Peardeck- An online learning game changer.

At the end of my second year of teaching online, in two different countries, the biggest game changer for how I teach an online is most definitely Peardeck.

For the brief spells that I have been back in school for face-to-face learning, I have also used Peardeck a) to assist with the transition back into school and b) as a powerful self-contained teaching and learning tool.

Initial thoughts.

I was initially put off by the fact I was told ‘you need two devices’- which you don’t; (however, it does work better with two devices) but I always maintained that I’d give it a go.

When I first started out using Peardeck, with a MacBook, I used an iPad as the background / teaching dashboard; however, for some reason, my iPad crashed. I thought my lesson was going to be ruined; however, it took less than a minute to load up my mobile phone to use as the second device and to operate the dashboard- simple.

Below, you can see some images of a lesson that i taught today on 'Different Types of Motion'

Some of the best features about Peardeck are-

1. Friendly. The social and emotional aspects built in- so that you can see in real-time how students are feeling in general and also about specific tasks. The current social and cultural backdrop makes these slides invaluable.

Above: A standard starter question

2. Real time. As previously mentioned and probably the BIGGEST win for me is everything is in real-time. I am not reacting to students after they have completed a task and giving them feedback a few days or a week later. I am able to give feedback and input in real-time e.g. “John- please make a response’’ and “Mary, please remember x,y,&z needs to be added”.

Above: Ability to see in real-time who does / does not need help

Above: reflections in plenary

3. Self contained- although Quizlet and Kahoot are great, I feel that Peardeck has the benefit of being all self-contained. No need to leave a certain platform, log on to a different site or app, then rejoin a main session. With Googlesuite, it is all synced and self contained.

4. Cover lessons: I am able to assign detailed cover work with my audio over the top of the slides, if for some reason I am unable to deliver live.

5. Academic rigour. It takes a little longer than usual to plan a Peardeck lesson; however, I feel the advantages and gains far outlay any extra time spent on the preparation- and surely, shouldn't we be putting in this time, anyway?

6. Intuitive. It is so easy to use once you’ve worked out the ‘presenter view’ and main dashboard. Students need very little / no encouragement or training.

7. Reflections. The takeaways, with everything contained on Googlesuite, I am also able to generate the ‘takeaway’ of every student at the end of the lesson. I can them see who has / has not fully engaged (if I didn’t know before) and also send to students, their very own personalised script of their engagement in the lesson.

Especially useful when writing reports, or for reference at parents’ evenings.

8. Structure. Peardeck helps with maintaining a clear, engaging and coherent structure to online lessons.

9. Pace. The pace of my lessons is at a learner-led suitable pace- especially useful with international students, when new concepts may take longer or shorter to be embedded.

10. Real-time (again). I am immediately able to see the what has been understood and what gaps I need to fill next time, when the info is still fresh in my mind.

Above: reflections in plenary

Above: reflections in plenary

I have since introduced Peardeck to other teachers within my department . I have offered observations of my teaching and have given training sessions on Peardeck.

Dear Peardeck. Moving forward, I’d like to see…

1) Templates. A custom feature added to Peardeck, so that I can personalise and store my ‘commonly asked questions’, or my own templates, so that I do not have to re-write them (or copy and paste them from old Peardeck presentations).

2) One device / one screen / one tab. The ability to deliver the lesson and see student responses on the same screen / device, with student only viewing / interacting with the main content, but with teachers able to see their responses- all on one screen at the same time.

3) Quizzes. Some kind of self-contained quick fire quiz (Kahoot or Quizlet style) that would inject even more excitement and engagement within the Peardeck.

4) A translation feature. Whereby a teacher can write the ‘Deck in English, but for a student to be able to access a translated version. I appreciate that this may not be possible, especially with more technical words, and indeed this may reduce learner progress and encourage over-dependence on the translations.