Dustin Yoder
KIN 460
I believe technology is a great tool that should be implemented by teachers in physical education courses. Not only will it keep students interested and enjoy the material that they are learning, but it will also be beneficial in the long-run for students.
Using technology in physical education will keep students interested and enjoy the activities that they participate in on a daily basis. One way in which students will be interested in the activities is through Exer-gaming. Although students may not realize that they are exercising when they participate in the activity, they actually are. A perfect example of exer-gaming that will keep students involved and interested is Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). DDR gives students a chance to work on cardio activity while playing the video game. Although just moving your feet to the rhythm of the music may not seem like exercise to physical education students, it is a way to increase your heart rate and exercise while doing an activity that is both interesting and enjoyable.
Another way in which technology is useful to keep students interested and enjoy the daily lessons is through the use of television monitors on treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes. In today’s society, children are raised watching television all the time. In many cases, watching television is a time where they can sit back and relax, but in this case, it is a time where they can get a workout in while still watching the shows they enjoy on television. Putting monitors on these machines will give students more of an incentive to work out and keep them entertained while doing so.
Second, using technology in physical education courses is beneficial to students and teachers in the long-run. If weight training or personal fitness is the physical education course that is offered, a teacher can use computer technology to track how much a student has improved from the beginning of the course to the end of the course. For instance, in a weight training course, technology can be used to see the percentage increase in a student’s strength from the first week of lifting to the last week of lifting. In personal fitness, body fat can be measured in the first week and throughout the course to see how the students progress. Not only will this benefit the students by showing their progress throughout the course, but it will also benefit the teachers by showing them if they are teaching the correct ways and techniques of doing things.
Overall, technology is an asset to physical education courses and should be included by all teachers. Technology will keep students interested, make activities enjoyable, and benefit both the teacher and the students in the long-run.
Dustin,
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you had to say about the several different options of implementing technology into physical education. It had never crossed my mind that the use of televisions or music in the cardio machines would be a way of merging technology and fitness, and I believe in today's society that this is a necessity because people have become so reliant on technology and the use of televisions to focus their attention. I also really liked the idea of using computer programs to track students progress in strength and conditioning classes, I think if the students have the opportunity to look at and chart their success it has the possibility of really motivating them to keep working harder. When you talk about using video games in the classroom to help get students active while they think they're just playing a video game is a good idea, the only problem I see with that is that some teachers may start to rely on this too often and not do as much actual teaching. In all though I think this is a very good philosophy on incorporating technology into physical education programs.