This week Pear Deck was voted Weymouth Public Schools’ favorite technology application, defeating Runner Up Google Forms in the championship round of Tech Tool Madness. The competition, modeled after the NCAA March Madness tournament, began with 32 popular apps and platforms used by Weymouth teachers from all schools and grade levels. Teachers, counselors, and support staff volunteered to create short videos that advocated for their favorite tools. The videos were shared with all members of Weymouth school staff and during each round the faculty were invited to vote for their preferred tools.
Prizes were awarded to participants of each round, starting with pens, stickers, and lanyards in the early rounds, then upgrading to blue light glasses, t-shirts, and Gumdrop headsets. Trophies for the winner and runner up were designed and created by WHS career and technical education departments. The CTE Drafting and Design Technology program created a 3D image of a Chromebook that sits atop a trophy base produced and finished in the Metal Fabrication shop. All 32 teacher video creators were also entered into a raffle for 5 spots in the International Society for Technology in Education Online Teaching Academy. The ISTE Academy is a self-paced professional development workshop focused on critical issues facing today’s educators. Topics such as ensuring equity and inclusion, creating community, designing online instruction, and providing feedback and assessments are covered in the training.
Overall there was intense competition with several tools winning by one vote. The “Final Four” came down to Pear Deck, Quizizz, and two Google applications, Slides and Forms. These applications have been the most versatile and frequently used at all grade levels as part of instruction, practice, assessment, and feedback. Ultimately Pear Deck, an interactive learning platform relatively new to WPS, earned the top spot. Congratulations to all who participated and voted. The videos will be available for future viewing and technology integration specialists are always available to support any teachers who want to use these tools with their students.
