(Pear + deck = Peardeck?!)
I guess we've all been in this situation: either dawdling through a long drawn-out lecture, OR trying (desperately) to present a lecture that seems to interest no one but yourself. So Pear deck presents a solution to that engagement problem: bringing the slides to the audience! Indeed, as the audience, I felt more engaged. I got to participate more than I did in traditional powerpoint lectures - answering questions, doodling on the slides,... No doubt such features as sharing slides, drawing pictures are great selling points for Peardeck. Not only that, it also allows the instructor to keep track of who have joined the session.
But there are some issues. We shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that as long as we have Peardeck, the attention problem is over & done with. Letting students play with the cool features only because they are cool may capture students' attention in the first few moments, only to lose it soon. One thing I notice about the Pear deck presentation group is that they themselves did not stop making efforts to interact with the audience - like walking around the classroom. In other words, they were still the ones doing the teaching, not Peardeck. That is definitely something I want to take note of, when I consider using Pear deck or any technology to teach students.
I guess we've all been in this situation: either dawdling through a long drawn-out lecture, OR trying (desperately) to present a lecture that seems to interest no one but yourself. So Pear deck presents a solution to that engagement problem: bringing the slides to the audience! Indeed, as the audience, I felt more engaged. I got to participate more than I did in traditional powerpoint lectures - answering questions, doodling on the slides,... No doubt such features as sharing slides, drawing pictures are great selling points for Peardeck. Not only that, it also allows the instructor to keep track of who have joined the session.
But there are some issues. We shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that as long as we have Peardeck, the attention problem is over & done with. Letting students play with the cool features only because they are cool may capture students' attention in the first few moments, only to lose it soon. One thing I notice about the Pear deck presentation group is that they themselves did not stop making efforts to interact with the audience - like walking around the classroom. In other words, they were still the ones doing the teaching, not Peardeck. That is definitely something I want to take note of, when I consider using Pear deck or any technology to teach students.