Overview
For the record, I am more of an apple fan as compared to a pear fan. Please note I mean the kind of apple you eat.
However, I got out of my comfort zone anyway and decided to give Pear Deck a try. I think I am glad I did. Pear Deck, like any slide deck program, lets you create slides complete with text and visuals. Not too exciting. But.. the excitement does erupt when you realize that your slides are now interactive. Pear deck lets you control the presentation as it is given to students. Their screen (after the login to your presentation) is controlled by you. Now you can add interactive elements such as multiple choice questions, free response, number response, and if you upgrade, drawing. So neat. Keeps your students engaged a bit more and provides tons of feedback. Pear Deck requires a Google Apps account and pulls all your images and current slide decks (if you want to import one) via Google Drive only. A little weird, but seems to work well enough.
Concerns
Make sure the interactive devices your audience has actually work well. I mean you don’t want to have this super awesome slide show and find out most people are so frustrated by using it that they just give up! It will only work if you have a Google Apps account. Super awesome for schools already setup like that, but not if you are asking people to use their personal accounts.Sample Uses
- Interactive lectures
- Student “pulse” response system
- Vote on issues for a class meeting