Have you ever stared into the engine compartment of a vehicle and been fascinated by all those moving parts? Now imagine being a student in the automotive field, building your professional knowledge of parts and terminology is an important first step toward being successful. This week we are featuring Nolan Miyahara an Instructor of Automotive Technology here at Leeward Community College who recently conducted a Nearpod activity with his students to review and reinforce their learning of basic parts.
Activity
Nearpod is a formative assessment tool for delivering engaging presentations. It does require an internet connection but does not require a Smart Classroom projector. Each student sees the presentation on their own mobile device (phone, table, laptop) and the pace is controlled by the instructor. Students’ interactions can be shared with their peers for class discussion or captured for easy reporting. Nolan’s activity used Nearpod’s draw slide feature to allow individual students to match terms with images (engine parts) he provided. Nolan thought the Nearpod draw activity worked well, he also took time to build a few Nearpod slides following a more traditional yes/no format.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Following the activity Nolan thought “the variety of ways you can put up questions and how the students can answer in different ways” was a strength. Student feedback seemed to infer that students “didn’t feel challenged because there was no timer”, a problem which can be addressed in the future by simply having the instructor implement a time limit for each slide.
In Summary
Overall Nolan felt the Nearpod review activity went well based on learning and engagement. When asked for tips or advice for other instructors interested in using Nearpod, Nolan said “I would recommend it.”
If you are interested in learning more about Nearpod and how a Nearpod lesson can be integrated into your rotation of activities please contact Brent Hirata (bhirata@hawaii.edu) at the Educational Media Center.