Tool # 4

Using Pear Deck as a Teacher

I chose to create a few different activities in Pear Deck as I was intrigued by the capability of this learning platform and was curious to see how easy it was to navigate through the dashboard. I discovered that the add-on was easy to add to Google Slides and PowerPoint; however, I needed to refer to the FAQ section to learn how 'Prompts' functioned and could be integrated into my lessons and the capabilities of the teacher's dashboard. Once I had spent some time going through the 'How to ...' videos, I was able to see the potential of using Pear Deck in the classroom.

The Advantage of Using Pear Deck (Its Strengths)

There are many advantages to using Pear Deck including what I have listed below.

• Real-time interaction between the teacher and students.

• The option to present a file from OneDrive makes it easy for teachers to quickly turn a simple PDF file into an interactive lesson with pre-made prompts.

• The dashboard is user-friendly with a visually easy-to-navigate user interface.

• The visuals are vivid, fun, and appealing to teachers and students.

• The join code makes it easy for students to connect to a lesson, complete with a fun way to remember the code.

• Teachers can add prompts during the lesson, and students will automatically see the update.

• Teachers can set assignments at Student Paced Mode (which means the students choose which page they work on, more self-paced or teacher-paced – typical of a presentation style. When the teacher changes the page, the students automatically follow. This flexible type of learning allows for differentiating.

• Students have multiple ways to interact with the prompts – the drawing option is a fun way for students.

• Having the lesson pre-made ensures that a substitute teacher could easily give the lesson.

• Individual feedback can be given to students.

• Automatic student results reduce photocopying and lost responses from students.

• Google Classroom and Google Drive, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 integration

• Setting up an individual teacher's account is easy.

• Suitable for primary and secondary students.

• The school pricing offers unlimited lessons, unlimited storage

• .The individual teacher account is reasonably priced at $150 per year, with the complete dashboard. The teacher can view students' comments, respond, create lessons, and access the pre-made templates on this dashboard.

• Pear Deck is an excellent tool for remote learning and quick lesson development with its 'Prompts.'

• Pear Deck also has The Orchard templates and teaching packs that can save a new teacher time with planning and becoming accustomed to the application.

The Limitations of Using Pear Deck (Its Weaknesses)

Pear Deck does not work offline; students need to be connected to the internet to access their work, and teachers need to have a Google or Microsoft Account, which is standard for most schools. In addition, because Pear Deck has a dashboard complete with a class roster, real-time learning, the option to view students' screens, and a host of other features, learning to use this application is not intuitive. Watching the instructional videos, reading through the help section, and trying out the application will allow a user to maximize all the application's features and potential classroom usage. Thus, using this application with the Individual Teacher's Account takes some time to set up the lesson and understand all of the features. The quickest way to create a lesson from scratch with Pear Deck is to start with a pre-made template or teacher's pack from Pear Deck's library or a PDF from Google Drive or OneDrive. The disadvantage of not first uploading a PDF to Slides or PowerPoint is that the PDF pages can not be deleted or reordered. However, using the pre-made templates helps to facilitate lesson development. Although there are many prompts to choose from, a user can only add a Prompt and not change the Prompt template.

Pear Deck is a versatile application for the ESL classroom for whole class lessons, presentations, student-paced activities, pre and post activities, extra work, and open-ended questions. Pear Deck allows the teacher to provide students with self-paced lessons and different skill levels, supporting learners in an ESL classroom.

Below, I have enumerated several ESL classroom uses that highlight this application's potential.

Activity Examples for Primary and Secondary Students Using Pear Deck.

1. Collaborative Pair or Group Activities: Students work with a partner or in a group with assigned roles, completing the activity interactively or separately. Using the student-paced mode, students could move through the slides and share, then update their answers in a cooperative jigsaw activity. The teacher would be able to give feedback to groups or individual students.

2. Immersive Reader: Providing an online immersive reader for students to provide students with tools to facilitate reading and vocabulary building.

3. Pre and Post Activities: Adding 'Prompts' to existing presentations or PDF files to include pre-activities or follow-up activities.

4. Student-Paced Mode: This student-paced mode can support differentiation in the classroom and allow students to complete homework assignments outside of the classroom. Teachers can interact with students, provide feedback, and see student progress.

5. Vocabulary Practice and Memory Games: Using the Flashcard Factory, vocabulary can be presented and practiced, individually or in pairs. Students have to illustrate the meaning and interactively explain the definition.

6. Formative Assessments: Teachers can create formative assesements and quizzes by adding questions such as multiple choice or short answer questions to presentations to check for students' comprehension.