Technology Integration in PE, This Needs to Happen

 Roberta Furger, (August 1, 2001), The New PE Curriculum: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Physical Fitness

Edutopia: retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/new-p-e-curriculum 

I am a firm believer that there are two types of people that do my job. There are "gym" teachers and there are physical education teachers. I do everything I can to ensure I am NOT a gym teacher. Physical education class in the last 15 years or so has started to change for the better. Healthy and active kids make better learners......period!!

This article hits close to home, literally. It is about the physical education program in Naperville SD203 that uses many forms of technology to enhance the PE program. Pedometers, heart rate monitors, and computer-based fitness station where students measure everything from strength and flexibility to cholesterol levels just begin to touch the surface of what they use. Academic scores at these schools are awesome and student participation is also. These students want to be in these PE classes!

I personally feel with the way education is headed with testing, scores, etc. all school districts need to invest in all academic areas, EVEN SPECIALS!! Physical education, art, and music always get left out because eveyrthing else gets the attention. We need tech tools to better do our jobs as well. Help us specials teachers help the classroom teachers. Give me some pedometers and heart rate monitors, (as well as daily PE, but that's a different discussion for another day, LOL), and watch test scores and overall grades go up in the classroom.

Multimedia in the Classroom

Santosh Bhaskar K, (November 8, 2013), New Ways of Using Multimedia in the Classroom
 Ed Tech Review: retrieved from:
http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/746-new-ways-of-using-multimedia-in-classroom

This article talks about how using multimedia in the classroom is a powerful tool in today's educational world. One of the points discussed is how it can help various different types of learners suitable learning resources for the same lesson. Auditory, visual, and tactile learners can all have different things to look at and still have the same learning outcome. Learning in a group across the classroom, school, or even the world can be done. It also discusses how with multimedia students can learn great new ways to improve how they present what they have learned to others.

It seems to me that using multimedia is here to stay and we as educators need to find ways to use this as a tool for our students to succeed in today's world. Multimedia like computers, phones, projectors, and such are basically a required teaching tool in the classroom. It seems like every classroom today needs a document camera, smartboard, projector, or all of the above to help reach students and have them engaged.

Even in my physical education classroom multimedia is present. Even if I am using a stereo to play music to keep the students motivated and pumped up it works. But that is not where I stop using it. Using iPads that my school has for videotaping students do activities, cameras for still pictures, and my laptop computer with a projector and YouTube videos are very helpful.

Student Engagement with Media

Eric Stoller, (August 5, 2012), Social Media Increases Students Engagement
Inside Higher Ed: Retrieved from:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/student-affairs-and-technology/social-media-increases-student-engagement

This article talks about how social media does, if used correctly, increase student engagement. He uses what I feel is a great analogy about how a carpenter from the 1900's in today's world can still build a house and be a carpenter, but with advances in tool's his trade has evolved a lot. He is basically saying that social media is a tool that educators can use to help aid student learning. But a tool itself cannot teach someone how to build something, it still needs a knowledgeable person to use said tool to be useful.

I think that Stoller is right on the money with this. Today, student's are all over many forms of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat is what they do all day everyday. Why not reach and teach them where they are at already? Picking up a book or heading to the library is not what students do now, they use their smart phone, tablet, or laptop computer as learning tools so this goes together beautifully in my opinion.

My district this school year has gone to using Schoology for teachers, students, and parents. Things like grades, assignments, classroom updates, and tests can be done on Schoology. Best thing for students is that it resembles something very familiar to most of them......Facebook. Using this media tool for student learning is wonderful and it is my hope that all of us can take advantage of this tool.

Dennis Carter, (06/10/2008), Technology Bring's "new PE" to Schools
eSchool News: Retrieved from:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/06/10/technology-brings-new-p-e-to-schools/

This article, written in 2008, does a good job showing what the "new PE" was and where it was heading to. Showing that "gym class" was being booted out and that "physical education" was on it's way in and was not stopping for anybody.
In the article it points out just a few of the ways technology was making it's way into the physical education classroom. Heart rate monitors for each student, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), and the Wii Fit were ways that technology was not only helping physical educators but they were also opening physical education and making it fun for a whole new group of kids. Having students who normally do not play sports and do not participate in PE start participating because in their eyes they were playing a video game is a great success. They are getting a workout without even really knowing it, and they were having fun doing it.
Along with this new technology comes a small problem though, funding all this new expensive equipment. Because of this many new grants have been made available from various places to help school districts get the new technology. New things such as heart rate monitors also came with all of the necessary software for teachers and students to be able to track their progress. which in turn is a great tool for assessment. These heart rate monitors also opened the door for the ability to show kids how after a period of time their target heart rate would be harder to achieve because of the fact that they were building their cardiovascular endurance.
Technology like heart rate monitors, pedometers, and interactive video games are wonderful tools to have. Today's technology with heart rate monitors can actually send information via Bluetooth to the teachers computer and they can project it onto a screen to show real-time results. Or you can just download it and have a record of how hard the students were working.
The only problem I have with all of this wonderful stuff is the same as most other teachers, the cost. Working in one of the poorest schools in a district that does not have much money anyway means that I have zero access to this great technology. With cheap heart rate monitor sets costing around $450-$500 for only 12 and class sizes usually around 25-30 in elementary PE that is around $1,200 just for heart rate monitors. My yearly budget over the last three years has been right around $340 per year. Not going to happen. I won't even start on how much a DDR class pack would cost.
My hope is that eventually my district will see the benefits of this kind of technology  and buy it for the elementary level schools, even if it is a DDR that travels throughout the entire district. I also hope to find a grant that I can apply for and purchase some things that will greatly benefit my students.

Blue Jay Bridge, (01/25/13), Enhancing Physical Education with Technology
Pep Talk: Retrieved from
http://blog.participaction.com/en/enhancing-physical-education-with-technology/

Technology is something that is not going away. Some would argue that in today's society technology such as smart phones and tablets are completely taking over today's youth in all aspects of their lives. Because of this we as educators need to be able to change with students and teach them in ways they will be engaged. This article gives the physical educator many ideas as to how different apps can be used to enhance the physical education classroom.
We begin with an app for phys ed teachers to use to video record students doing a skill to analyze. Great tool to use to show students what they are doing correctly and where they need to improve. Other apps include one that randomly picks teams for activities, sets music for you for interval type workouts with a timer even!
Apps that can help students track what they are eating such as MyFitnessPal are also mentioned in this article. An app that I feel goes with that is one that shows you the caloric intake of various foods that you may find at your local fast food chain. Once students know how many calories they are supposed to have in a day and then enter in a normal meal they may have at McDonalds it really opens their eyes. Then you can factor in how much exercise they must do to burn those calories and they rethink that large fries and Coke.
Other apps that are a great resource show you many different games broken down into catagories for you. Need a game that works on skipping, it's there. One for an overhand throw, boom!
This article has so many resources for the physical educator it's crazy. And I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg here. There are Twitter names and hashtags here that are going to be great resources for me. Seeing some of these apps gets me excited to begin the next school year. So long as my building administrators are on board and get me the minimal things that will be required to make them work.

Jacque Wilson, (February 1, 2014), Not Your Mama's Gym Class
CNN: Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/health/physical-education-innovation/

This article is a great article that shows how physical education is changing in today's school's and has some good examples of how as physical educators we can use technology to get students interested in PE.
This article discusses how physical educators are fighting the battle on childhood obesity and how today's student is not as active as students in the past. The article also talks about how PE is not just team sports anymore. It is about finding and teaching physical activities that will promote a life-long desire to be physically active and healthy. Finding fun non-traditional games is a key to this.  
Using technology in the physical education classroom is also discussed in the article as a great tool. Using video apps, pedometers, heart rate monitors and programs like Skype to communicate with classrooms across the country or even the world to engage the students.
The relationship between a students stress level and physical activity is also touched in this article because of the amount of testing students have. School districts have cut many ways students can relieve stress because of the need to have students in the classroom longer to prepare for testing.
Also touched upon in this article is what parents can do. As parents the job of school involvement does not end with reading and math. Finding ways to be physically active as a family is also important.
As an elementary physical education teacher I really think that this article is shining a light onto the importance of physical education. The correlation between physical activity and a students learning is undeniable. Finding activities and games that appeal to the athletic kids who love sports as well as the kids who think they are never going to be an athlete is hard. Using technology such as Coaches Eye, YouTube, pedometers, and heart rate monitors are just a few ways that students can see that being physically active and healthy are great for them in and out of the classroom. 
Using blogs and/or social media to promote ways families can be active together is also a great tool. As teachers we can promote local fun runs, 5k's, sports teams and organizations as well as things as easy as walking the dog and ridding your bike around the neighborhood.