Communication Tool #1: Pear Deck

Pear Deck is presentation software. It allows teachers to build presentations that students participate in rather than passively sit back and watch. Each student logs into the presentation that the teacher has put together, and as the teacher moves through the “master” presentation on the class projector screen the students’ version moves along as well. Teachers can embed questions to check for understanding and there are tools to pull responses from students automatically and anonymously that the teacher can project on the classroom screen to make teaching points. There is quite a bit of work needed on the part of the teacher up front to build these presentations, but once they are built they are effective in increasing student engagement in presentation-style lessons. 

	User Friendliness (Julie)	Safety (Lauren)	Customization for Educators (Brandon)	Cross-Curricular Application (Brandon)	Cognitive Differentiation (Julie)
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across multiple subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and does not support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.

I would give Pear Deck a 3 on our rubric for User Friendliness. It isn’t a great tool for students who struggle with traditional methods, unless it could be used in a small group or individual basis. Pear Deck needs direct teacher involvement, so it is a tough tool to focus on one or two students in a class of 20. 

I would give Pear Deck a 4 on safety. There is no public access of any kind on this software and there is great teacher control on comments or responses from students.

I would give Pear Deck a 4 on Customization. This would be a great tool for professional development as well as classroom instruction.

I would give Pear Deck a 3 on Cross-Curricular Application. It can be used to tie lessons together from multiple subjects, but not any more or less so than Powerpoint presentations.

I would also give Pear Deck a 3 on Cognitive Differentiation. While there can be upper-level taxonomy tasks built into a Pear Deck presentation, there’s nothing that makes this tool stand out above others in this specific area.