2 Apps to Build and Share Lessons on Your iPad

At the end of the school year, I learned about two apps for building and sharing lessons on your iPad:  Nearpod and GoClass.  Both apps let you broadcast lessons and assessments to student iPads and control the pacing of the lesson. You can load pictures, videos, your own drawings, and recordings.  Students can also manipulate what they see on their iPad to a small degree.  That is, they can zoom in and out and stop and rewind videos, if needed.  This is an excellent way to introduce topics in an engaging way. By maintaining control of student devices, teachers can prevent students straying to other apps or the Web while you are trying to teach. Building assessments in along the way further ensures that everyone is understanding the lesson as it is delivered.

Nearpod requires that you download a teacher app to your iPad and the student app to student iPads.  Nearpod will also work on iPods and iPhones. They offer Webinars to help you understand how to use the program.  Teachers should upgrade to the free Silver edition, so that you can create and save up to 10 lessons.  In addition, they are developing a library of lesson plans to help you get started. Watch this video for more inspiration:

GoClass uses a Web based application for creating class rosters and only works on the iPad.  To create student accounts, you must have a student ID and a unique email address for each student.  When you open the GoClass app, you have to choose the class assigned to the lesson.  After you start the session, you can decide whether students have access to all items that have been broadcast during the session, allow them to favorite and view broadcast items during and after the session, and whether or not you want to control both instructor and student iPad sleep mode.