This is it....the last blog for I4ED

Well it has been a great class, and here is what Stu and I created for our final project. It's a video blog discussing what we learned in class, and some of the tools we learned about and how they can be used for education purposes. It went just a touch longer then we originally planned, but we like the final product we came up with. Hope you enjoy!

Week 7

Well we didn't have any classes this week, but it was a good chance to complete all my tech tasks. I got a chance to visit my cooperating teacher this week and figure out some of the units I will be teaching. One of the units will be weight training and a cardio unit. So I was thinking what I could do for this, and I started thinking how can I use technology. One thing I have talked about wanting to try is having my students make a YouTube video showing how to perform a skill or workout routine. So now I have the chance to try it. I still haven't decided exactly how I am going to do it, I still have time to plan that, but I am determined to try it. I think it would be a fun assignment and it would be a great way for me to see what my students learned. Will see how it goes, maybe it will completely bomb or maybe it will go amazing, only one way to find out! 

TT 8: Podcasts

I almost forgot about this task, so I started searching and I came across The P.E Geek podcast. The P.E Geek podcast covers topics related to physical education and he talks a lot about different uses for technology in the gym. He has quite a few episodes and the one I listened to was about QR codes. I chose the QR code one because it was something we have been working with quite a bit in our EY PE methods class. I really liked his podcast because he is always talking about things that are relevant and current, and he provides so much useful information. Also his podcasts are about 25 min per episode on average which is nice because sometimes you don't want to sit and listen to a podcast for an hour. I don't think I would necessarily use this in my class because it is more useful for me then it is for my students. With that being said I would listen to it to gain new ideas to use in my class. I will definitely keep up with this podcast in the future.

TT 12: The future

Thinking about the future is kind of exciting. 20 years ago who would have guessed we would be using as much technology in schools that we are right now, and if you think about it we have barely even scratched the surface of what we could use. So it is exciting to think of what will come next. The article touched on many different impacts that technology can have in the classroom, but there was two that I wanted to talk about in more detail, hybrid learning designs, and wearable technology.

Hybrid learning designs focuses on using more online learning components in the classroom to help get the students more engaged and gain a deeper understanding. This is something we have talked about a lot throughout this course and I think will only continue to be more used in the future. But like I have said in past blog posts, we need to be careful about not using it just for the sake of using it, it needs to have a purpose. Going forward I think something like Google docs will become much more popular. It is fantastic for group projects because it allows everyone to work on one project on multiple computers all at once. Eventually I think every student will have some sort of tablet or laptop so it would only make sense to use something like Google docs. It also talks about the use of videos, now it isn't talking about showing videos, but rather using videos for learning. So a great way to use this in the gym would be having students creating videos demonstrating skills for example. Then students could share the videos, yes you can go online and watch an informational video, but by creating one they learn so much more.

The second topic was wearable technology. First of all something like Google glass, or Microsoft new hologram technology are incredible. These two items may not be big in schools just because they are so expensive, but I still think they are amazing. But in terms of school I think wearable tech will become as popular as smart phones. When smart phones first came out only a few people had them, and the ones who did were the older students. Now everyone has them, heck some students in grade 4 and 5 have them. Things like the apple watch are just one example of wearable tech that could be used in schools and specifically in the gym. They can track all your physical activities and see your progress. This is one of those things that I think will take longer to happen though. But over time more models will come out, things will get cheaper, and as they get cheaper, you will see more and more students with them.

Those are just my thoughts, and at the end of the day we know the technology is going to get better, and there will be new and exciting ways to use it. But we still need to learn how to use tech effectively and learn how to use it so it helps create a more engaging experience for the students, and not just using it so we can say we used it.

TT 11: Show and Tell

Team Shake was an app that I used a lot in my first placement. It is a free app and what it does is create teams. So it is great for phys.ed but you could definitely use it in the classroom to for selecting groups. The app is very user friendly, you input the students names and shake it up and it creates teams for you, that simple. The app allows you to set up groups to, so you can make each group your different classes so you don't always have to re enter the names every time. My favorite part of the app tho, is the fact that you can give each student a skill level. So this is great if you don't want to have all the strong athletes stacked on one team, you can set it so the app shakes up the teams evenly by skill level. My first placement was where we had the gym set up with apple tv and it had a projector. So I would shake up the teams, throw it up on the screen and all the students could see what team they were on. You don't need a projector you can just tell the students their teams, it was just an added bonus that we had the projector. Here are some photos of what the app looks like.

Week 6

This past week we had Kelli Boklaschuk from BSD come speak to us. The biggest thing that stood out to me was all of the restrictions they have on technology. One reason for the restrictions is they prefer to use Microsoft, and they would rather you use a Microsoft based app. Now you can use other apps in your class but you need proposals for everything you want to do. Kelli mentioned how very rarely do the proposals get rejected, but it still seems like a very tedious task. I get it, they would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to potential consequences with using technology inappropriately, and that is why they have so many things blocked, and why they prefer Microsoft based programs.  But I just feel that there are so many benefits to using tech in the classroom that are not being fully utilized because of these restrictions. Like I said, I understand why they have these restrictions, I just don't necessarily agree with them.

TT 10: Kids Blog's

For this choice tech task, I chose to write on another students blog. The class I chose was Mrs. Thompsons, she of course was a BU students not to long ago. Kirstens blog is creative, well organized, and it is really easy to navigate through the pages. I commented on a post where Sydney was sharing the answers to the Bill Nye Video they watched. 

Here is my comment:

It's kinda cool that Bill Nye is still popular because I remember watching his videos when I was in school and they were awesome. But it's good to see that students like Sydney are learning a lot from them. 

I am still undecided on whether or not I will use a blog for my classroom. I can see the benefits of it for sure, I guess it would depend on what class I am teaching, and also the students. If the students have no interest in it, it would probably be a waste of time.