Using Mobile Learning

There are a few reasons why teachers need to embrace mobile learning. The most important reason is that the culture nowadays is moving towards technology everything. Kids are on their iPhone more than they are talking face to face with each other. The need for being able to teach through technology is becoming extremely necessary. Another reason is that some people are more visual learners than audio learners. Also some people also learn by doing hands on work. Having them use their iPhones or iPads and being able to learn through the devices they use every day can make things much easier to keep them involved.

The largest issue I feel with mobile learning is the socioeconomic variety within the class room. Some kids aren't able to have some of the out of class materials necessary for assignments. Things like laptops, iPhones, iPads, or even internet availability depending on where they live. Having a class set of materials, such as iPads, would be the best way to help with this problem. Along with that, making all assignments that iPads are necessary for be in class assignments. Using socrative as an exit test would be a very effective.

There are a few ideas I have for integrating mobile learning into my PE classes. One idea is having a lab portion where we use iPads with an Excel type application and logging things such as heart rate assessment and recording peer to peer assessments. Another idea is using socrative or survey monkey, which are both applications possible on a phone or iPad, to take pre and post tests necessary for my game units. One last idea I had pop into my head is having kids tweet every time they exercise outside of class as a part of their grade. Tweets are easily sent through both smart phones and not smart phones.

Socrative is definitely something that I am planning on using once I start teaching. I have already gotten the application on my iPhone and it is very simple to use. Being able to make a quick quiz or exit card from my phone would make things much more simple. Another application I would use would be Twitter. As I've said before, there are many ways to implement twitter outside of class, especially for a PE class where it is activity based and a quick and easy way to assess and grade the students.

Twitter Pages To Follow

Here are some fun pages for you to follow on Twitter.

If you are one that melts over baby animals, CuteEmergency is the page you need to follow. Cute puppies, kittens, and all sorts of animals.

For those sports fans out there who like the wide variety of sports gear, check out Top Sports Gear. They have new and old uniforms and gear for athletes. You can also follow Uni Swag for the same type of photos.

Are you a Blazer fan or just want to follow a local team? Check out pdxtrailblazers to follow our Portland Trail Blazers for updates, news, and scores. Here are a few players you could also follow JJ Hickson, Damian Lillard, and LaMarcus Aldridge.

If you are interested, you could follow Me :)

Information Literacy

Since technology is expanding every day, it makes it harder and harder for people, especially students to become information literate. Wikipedia defines information literacy as "the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand." The internet makes it both easier and harder to use the information needed. Some information might not be from a reliable source. Yet there are many different places to be able to find information. We are able to help our students become information literate, but most of that is on them to explore their sources and also spend time with the different sources. We can try our hardest to help kids become effective users of the internet. We can teach them how to find reliable sources and how to search for specific keywords. We can give them all the tools, but it is up to the students to become literate themselves.

Podcasting in PE

Technology in PE is a very new concept. As the world becomes more and more technologically demanding, PE is one of the last parts of school that teachers become technology savvy. A couple things have come to mind when I think of ways to use Podcasts in my classroom.

The first thing that came to my mind is making a podcast for kids to make up days they have missed. I would be able to walk them through the make up assignments and they are reading the hard copies themselves. I would probably use the podcast or also make a Jing presentation to walk them through whatever I have them do.

Another way to incorporate it in PE would be to have kids make a podcast to respond to classes and out of class activities. Part of the PE classes are matching our own standards with the Oregon state standards for education. The affective domain of these standards is how students feel and their social interaction. Being able to respond via podcasts could let me as a teacher know what activities they do and don't like and also how they felt emotionally and physically during and after class.

Here is a short little podcast I made about the NASPE standards we PE teachers have to meet inside of the Oregon State standards.

That is all that has really come to my mind. If there are any other ideas on how to implement podcasts in the PE classroom, please feel free to leave some feedback.

Multi-Media Websites

Youtube.com/education - We all know how addicted to YouTube videos this generation is. With this website, we can use the YouTube name to catch their attention and find educational videos for the students that will also be interesting for them. It is formatted the exact same way just with educational videos.

Xtra Normal - This website is a great website to use for the middle school ages. It is a way to make silly 3D cartoons to present. Granted, the quality of the 3D isn't going to come anywhere to Avatar, Tron Legacy, or even the Pixar movies. Yet, it is a great way for kids to entertain themselves and their peers with an animated movie. All you have to be able to do is type and the program does the rest.

Flickr for students

Flickr is a place where people can upload and edit photos for the rest of the world to see. Since I am focusing on PE teaching, it would be tough to integrate a picture website into my classroom. I could think of ideas such as having them upload pictures of the them doing the activities outside of class and posting pictures of certain exercises as an assignment. 

Good and Bad Presentations

There are a few reasons why we as teachers need to use appropriate citations. One reason is that we need to set examples for our students. We can't hold them to standards for citations when we don't use citations ourselves. Another thing is that if we site where we got information from, the students could possibly be able to access these sources when they are outside of class. We need to seek permission for copyrighted work for the same reasons. Some of the best sources out there are copyrighted and need proper permission to use them.

There were a few things in the Presentation Zen chapter that I was already aware of. The most common mistakes that are made during PowerPoint presentations are people using too many bullet points for each slide and also how long each point is. Having slides that are very wordy are not only boring, but it also loses the interest of the students and also they won't actually pay attention to the slides and information. I am very aware of how to make good presentations. It is important to have interesting and fun PowerPoints because then the students will look forward to coming to class and taking notes/learning the information. All of the PowerPoints I have made over the years have always been animated and had fun and attention getting backgrounds.

If anyone in interested in the fantastic food of Couscous, I have made a Prezi about it. I has a little history, some basics, and how to make it. ENJOY :)