What is Pear deck?:

Pear Deck is an add-on of Google Slides. When added to a Google Slide, Pear Deck makes the slide show interactive. Teachers can insert bell work, interactive charts and assessments, and even exit tickets to make their slide show a little more interesting.



Step-by-step:

Step 1: Where to go... Log into Google and create a new Google Slides presentation.

Step 2: How to get it... Select "Add-ons" at the top of the screen and go to "Get Add-ons". When the Add-ons page opens, search "Pear Deck" and click the "+" button to add it to your account.

Step 3: Once you have gotten the add-on, it will bring you back to your new slide show. Go back to the Add-ons tab, scan over Pear Deck and choose "Open Pear Deck Add-on"

Step 4: Now that Pear Deck has been added to your Google Slides, the Slide Library will show up on the right side of the screen to choose from activity templets.

Step 5: Choose and templet and add your information to it. When using Google Slides on your SmartBoard with Pear Deck, students are able to draw on and select things on each slide depending on the templet chosen.

Videos:

Screencast:


Benefits of using Pear Deck in the classroom:

Pear Deck is beneficial in the classroom because it will keep students involved in the slide show instead of the teacher just reading the information. Pear Deck allows teachers to add questions into the slideshow to make sure that students are engaged and understanding the information. Students will be able to write, draw, and select answer to questions to show the teacher how well the know the information during and after the presentation. The presentations can be accessed through email and can be used on several devices to keep everyone involved even in younger age group classes. Google slides has many more add-ons to make the presentation fun.


Pros & Cons:

Pros:

  • Is really easy to use in a classroom where students have access to computers or tablets to use the interactive questions.
  • Keeps the students engaged in the lesson.

Cons:

  • Won't be as easy to use with young students
  • Will have to teacher most students how to work program properly before successfully using for a lesson.

By: Kaitlin Rivet & Courtney Lobue