I was first introduced to Nearpod in 2012 through my good friend, Nick Trakas. We were a two-person Ed-Tech department in Florence, Arizona and always looking for new ways to integrate technology in our schools. He showed me Nearpod and had me download the student app on my 16gb iPad 2 (remember when Nearpod had a separate Teacher and Student app???). It blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that he was able to get immediate feedback from me and control the presentation on my device. This led to an immediate bias to Nearpod which led me to eventually become a PioNear.
I was on Twitter one day minding my own business when wham! #flipgridfever is all over my timeline. I didn’t know what it was and started to raise an eyebrow. I then saw something shiny under the table and forgot what I was doing on Twitter completely! A couple of months later at an edcamp in our district, Flipgrid came up and I suddenly remembered seeing that along with #flipgridfever a few months before. We played around with it some at that edcamp and that summer, I had caught the fever. I even contemplated getting the logo tattooed on my neck… just kidding. I did however become a Flipgrid Student Voice Ambassador as well as a Flipgrid Certified Educator.
As the school years move along I’ve found myself app smashing different tools with one another to have students and teachers create projects that incorporate technology in meaningful ways. I found myself consistently using the same two apps. You guessed it, Nearpod and Flipgrid. This led to bigger and better projects with teachers, EL students, GT students, and administrators as well! I even created a YouTube video last year showing how to do this. Check it out!
It’s pretty evident that I love me some Nearpod and Flipgrid. I’m an ambassador for both and have taken my expertise in both to various conferences in and outside of my district. I know folks at both companies on a personal level and have had some great conversations with both parties…separately. I would however, like for my two friends to meet up and shake hands. And when they do, I have a request. I (along with thousands of other edtechers) want top see a Flipgrid integration built into Nearpod and a Nearpod integration built into Flipgrid. Perhaps this could come our way in the form of a Google Chrome extension, a complicated code written in the background of each tool, something! Please! We need and want this soooo bad. I’d love to be a beta tester and give input whenever needed. How about you? Would you enjoy this? Do you think these two tools should shake hands and share in this worldwide edtech playground?