As described by their site: Nearpod is an instructional platform that merges formative assessment and dynamic media for a collaborative learning experience.
Although I had the free version previously, and I had tried out the gold version for free and you can pick up pre-made Nearpod lessons for free or you can pay for some; I had not realized the true capabilities of the program until we had to do distance teaching. Realistically, it was only after I had spent 2 PD sessions (2 hours) with Nearpod before I really started to hit my stride. I realized that I had more familiarity with the program than the other newbies, but it helped that I could get all my questions answered during those sessions. I now have access (via email) to the trainers at Nearpod if I have any more questions. I actually reached out to them to ask about using Nearpod for PD and PLC's, they said that they use the platform for all of their internal meetings.
I recommend trying out the free version and using some of the free lessons to get a sense of what this program is capable of. Or you can create a google slide deck, get the add-on for Nearpod and try out the tools offered in the side-bar.
Once you have created a google slide deck, you can add Nearpod activities or you can save & go to Nearpod. It changes your slide deck into a jpg. So if you want items linked you have to create the links in a Nearpod slide. This is why the students can all work on the same slide deck and not mess up the settings. This is also why you can get real-time analysis of student input.
Since the district was pushing out the Benchmark lessons as a google slide deck it made it very easy to convert it into a Nearpod lesson. Commonsense.org also has lots of pre-made Nearpod lessons that they created. They are similar to the lessons offered on the CommonSense site but they are not the same as the google slides on the CommonSense site. They are both free though.
I loved the live version when I was on Zoom with my students. Students can not mess with the slides or go onto the next slide until I moved to that slide. I was sure to put lots of interactive slides in to keep them with me. I had my teacher's version of the Nearpod lesson on my mac with Zoom. I had the student version on my iPad so I could see both versions simultaneously. Then I could highlight the students input (with or without names). I was able to put Quizizz, Kahoot, Seesaw or any other web tool into the slide deck. The students were able to click the link and they were right with me. I would set up all the links on separate tabs before the Zoom meeting so as not to waste time while my device loaded. This worked well.
The things that didn't work as well was getting my students to work on nearpod asynchronously. But that was true of most of the assignments that I pushed out to them.
I think that Nearpod is so adaptable that it is the right tool for almost any job. I wish I had all my meetings via Nearpod. It adds interactivity to all tasks. If we need to vote on something -take a Nearpod poll. Filter by standard, teaching strategy, grade level, content -Nearpod can do that. Want to collect audience collaboration- Nearpod has virtual post-it notes. Want students to show their thinking - they can share a drawing on Nearpod. Want to create a quiz -use Nearpod's race to the top. It has Open Ended Questions and Matching Pairs. It has integrated with Microsoft's Immersive Reader, which will read the instructions to the students. Nearpod for classroom is an extension in the chrome web store for easy access from your toolbar. I have now purchased the Gold edition for $120 for a year, it is good for saving 3 GB of lessons. I have many lessons saved in the program and I have used 142 MB thus far. I will save my lessons as Google Slides and convert them to Nearpod as needed and delete the Nearpod version if I start running out of space. They have a school edition that the school district could purchase too.
I believe this was the best tool for me. It gave my students teaching, collaboration, communication, creativity, assessing and reflecting with the smallest investment of time from me.
The one thing that I am not as happy with is that paid nearpod lessons are not accessible if you discontinue your paid subscription. Boo!