Revisiting Technology Philosophy Statement

When going back and reviewing my previous Philosophy of Technology Statement regarding technology use in P.E., I still agree with a lot of the arguments that I previously made. More specifically, the main idea of my statement is that usage of different technologies in Physical Education is a very case sensitive concept. We have discussed the many uses of technologies within a classroom but I feel that we often still neglect the fact that a lot of schools, especially in today's horrible economy, simply do not have the funding for the top notch technologies that could greatly improve a P.E. curriculum. I still agree with this concept very much and think that really integrating technology into the P.E. setting is a situation by situation ideal that depends on the schools funding and resources.

Another point that I made in my Statement that I think still applies is that you have to really take into consideration the age and maturity levels of the students in your class before deciding if you are going to use any sort of technology. I still believe that it is very crucial to understand your students prior to deciding whether or not they will be able to effectively use the technology that you are providing for them. Obviously, it may be hard for 1st graders to understand how to use a high tech heart rate monitor and they won't really understand what the point of using one is. Making sure that you use age appropriate technology in your classroom is a huge benefit to implementing the use of technology in the P.E. setting. Furthermore, you need to really understand if the students are mentally mature enough, not just age-wise, to handle the technology you give them to use. If you have high school students who are going to mess around with a video camera and break it than obviously it is not an effective aid to the class.

A final point that I actually altered within my Personal Philosophy Statement was that I now actually see more practical uses for technology within a P.E. classroom. When I had previously written my statement, I was a bit skeptical as to whether or not using technology could actually provide for a more productive and effective physical education class. However, I now am more aware of just how many different ways you can actually use technology as a teacher. Not only can technology be used to increase student understanding and learning, but it can be used for classroom management, assessment, and personal professional development. I think that it's important as a teacher to be efficient in all three of those areas and many technologies can help make that possible.

All in all, there were many ideas in my first philosophy statement that I still agree with. However, after further review and reflection, I have realized that there is many possible uses of technology in the Physical Education classroom setting. As long as the school you work for has the funding and the students you're working with are at a mature enough age to correctly use the technology, then implementation of technology usage can be a huge factor that can positively improve a class.