Since Boom Decks are used on the BOOM Learning website, teachers are encouraged to buy a yearly BOOM subscription. Understandably, not all teachers want to shell out money for this. Well, I’m here to explain three ways to use Boom Decks without paying for a subscription.
Three Ways to Use Boom Learning for Free
Teachers can use their Boom Decks for free using Fast Pins, a free trial subscription, or on interactive whiteboards. To use BOOM, you do have to have an account on the BOOM website, but this is just so you can access your Boom Decks. There are different membership levels you can choose, but you can still use your Boom Decks without paying for one of the upgraded memberships.
Option 1: Fast Pins
My favorite free way to use Boom Decks is what’s called “Fast Pins.” To use Fast Pins, you create a link and give that link to your students. It is quick and easy and gives an unlimited number of your students access to play a deck.
Directions to Create a Fast Pin:
- Sign in to the Boom website.
- Go to the Library tab.
- Find the deck you want and click on the blue Action button.
- From the list of options, click on Fast Pin.
- Click on Generate Pin.
- Copy the link that you created.
- Give that link to your students. They can open the link and play through the Boom Deck immediately.
Here is a How To video showing how to create Fast Pins.
Pros:
- It’s free!
- It is quick and easy.
- You don’t have to spend time creating student accounts or keep track of student usernames/passwords.
- Students can use it wherever, whenever, and on their own devices at home or in centers/stations in class.
Cons:
- Your created link expires in fourteen days, so after that amount of time you will have to create a link again. It’s not a big deal, but it can be annoying.
- The scores of your students are not recorded for you as they would be if you had a subscription. However, you can have your students record their own scores and report their scores to you. Or students can keep track of their own progress in their interactive notebooks.
Option 2: Free Trial
BOOM offers a free trial for new users. So, if you have never used BOOM before, you can have a three month* free trial of a premium account. More information about the free trial is on the BOOM Learning website. *Note: When I made this blog post the free trial was for three months. The length of the free trial has varied in the past, so it may change again. Click here for the most up-to-date information about Boom’s free trials.
Pros:
- You have full access to what BOOM has to offer.
- Your students can have their own accounts and their scores will be recorded for you whenever they use a Boom Deck.
Cons:
- Eventually, your free trial will expire. At that point you’ll either have to start paying or delete your student accounts.
- There is a limit to the number of students you can have. Last time I checked it was 150 students. I don’t know about you, but most years I have had 200+ students so this option doesn’t work for me.
Option 3: Interactive Whiteboard
If you are teaching in-person classes, you can play through the Boom Decks together as a class on your interactive whiteboard. Just open the Boom Deck you need and use it as a bell ringer, review, pre-assessment, or whatever.
Pros:
- It’s free!
- Your students can all learn together at the same pace.
- Interactive whiteboards can be used in a variety of ways.
Cons:
- It’s not individualized for the students, and they can’t work at their own pace.
- Hello? We’re in a pandemic and not much in-person learning is taking place, so students obviously aren’t clustered together staring at the same interactive whiteboard.