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.