Taking our Multicultural Games to a new level...

Kerry Dyke and I taught our Multicultural Games unit last semester and we decided to take it one step further recently by creating a wiki which contains the best student work from within our classes. Our goal is to share this unit with other schools around the world, by letting you try it and to see if you can contribute your best games to this wiki in order to create a great resource for PE teachers all over the globe, hence creating global collaboration between teachers and students.

If you want to find out more about this unit we teach to our grade seven students have a look at an older post of mine which I wrote when we started planning out this unit, or check out the unit plan. We are also about to launch the wiki which is in the final development stage, so watch out for a blog post in the next week or two guiding you to this wiki.

Here's a little video of us working with our top students from the unit. We did this after school and they finished off their work for homework. This was a great chance for them to refine their tech skills, get extra credit for the extra effort outside of the classroom and for them to gain recognition for the great work they've done. We hope you enjoy!

Photo Orienteering...

If you are looking for a great blog to read as a PE teacher trying to integrate technology then you will enjoy reading Jarrod Robinson's blog, 'Mr Robbo the PE Geek'. Jarrod is an Aussie PE teacher who offers some fantastic ideas on integrating technology into Physical Education lessons (have a look at his ACHPER conference presentation for some great ideas). One of his posts last year was geared around using QR coding in orienteering, which made me think of an even simpler way of using technology in orienteering... Photo Orienteering.

One of the things we are faced with while teaching middle school Physical Education at ISB are short PE lessons. This means that we don't have much time to teach tools such as QR coding. In reality, we want to maximise our activity time to ensure kids are moving. So instead of using QR codes we decided to create photo orienteering. The idea behind photo orienteering is that there are no clips or code to find, instead the students just have to take an enlarged photo of a photo clue given with a map, thereby matching photo clues to map locations. Almost all our students have camera's on their cell phones so there is little or no need to supply any camera and once set up this is a very easy lesson to administer.

Here's how it works...

We give the students a double sided laminated page, one side containing small numbered picture clues and the other side containing a google image with circles showing where the different pictures were taken. The pictures are small cropped pictures from a larger picture taken at the site, here's an example of some of the picture clues:

Here's an example of from a section of the map...

The students are instructed to go to one of the circles on the map and see if they can find one of the cropped pictures in the area of the circle. When they match the cropped photo with the circle, then they need to take an enlarged photo of the area to verify they actually went to the location, here's an example for letter C, which matches with photo clue number 16:


The Orienteering is easy to administer, the checking at the end is easy with all the answers being shown on a looping PowerPoint so students can check off their photos to answers, scoring themselves on the total number of images they were able to find.

Please email me if you need any more information on administering this.

Technology in PE... Worth it?

So why integrate Technology into PE?

It is quite fascinating looking back to what people wrote over ten years ago about the possibilities of technology in Physical Education (See McLean, D. 1996, 'Use of Computer-based Technology in Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance'). Specialised software, multimedia enhancement, computer assisted instruction and use of the web were some of the major suggestions made by McLean. But the big question still remains: Have we really moved much beyond the these suggestions? Are we changing our profession and modernising the way we teach Physical Education? Has Physical Education entered the 21st Century?

Before we answer that question we have to ask why change? Why actually go to all the trouble to integrate technology into our lessons? Is there any research out there that suggests it is a good thing to integrate? There sure is a heck of a lot of resistance supported by a view that technology takes away practical time. Possibly it does. But I would argue that although we may lose practical time we maximise 'learning time', increasing the chance that our learners will become 'life long learners', motivated to gain in knowledge, understanding and application about what this actually means in a 'Physically Educated' sense.

Research isn't that easy to find and most web-sites offer limited scope on how one can integrate technology into PE. The most current trend being implemented is that of pedometers and HR monitors into PE (e.g PELINKS4U), primarily to assist in measuring effort (the whole concept of an effort grade is one that still bothers me... do we give an effort grade in academic subjects?). When used appropriately I have seen HR monitors and Pedometers improve participation and in some cases where there has been sufficient teaching, it has also lead to a greater understanding amongst the students of what is occurring during exercise in their bodies. But take caution! Research from McCaughtry, N., Oliver, K.L., Dillon, S.R., & Martin, J.J. (2008). (Teachers' perspectives on the use of pedometers as instructional technology in physical education: A cautionary tale), highlighted that the use of pedometers does not necessarily mean better learning in our classrooms, nor does it motivate all students to participate better.

But what about other technologies? Are we utilising digital video footage? Web 2.0 learning opportunities? Online feeds such as You Tube (have a look at the endless sporting videos online). What about software like the fitnessgram, Polar's PE Manager, are these promoting better learning? PDA's are useful in recording assessments, but are these enhancing learning? Are they giving the teacher more time to provide meaningful feedback within the class?

I think we have to test technology integration with three critical questions....

1. Does this integration of technology increase the participation of the student in physical activity in and/or out of the classroom?
2. Are students LEARNING better about being a physically educated person as a direct result from implementing this technology?
3. Does this technology remove barriers to participation?

I think when we can honestly look at our technology integrations and say yes to each of these questions then we are doing the right thing, if not we need to seriously question what we are doing.

Take your marks, set...

It has taken me a while to get into this. I love technology, but I am also very wary of how it can form a giant black hole which potentially sucks people into a virtual life of a million connections, yet disconnecting them from a tangible reality. My goal is to use technology so that I can do the things I REALLY want to do, it has to free up my time, not suck up my time.

I resisted cell phones, now I text, call, surf the web and plan my lessons and life on its calendar. I refused to have an online email, now Gmail is the hub that keeps me in contact with hundreds of people all over the world. I hated the idea social networking thinking it was a waste of time. I am now linked on facebook to people I would never have been able to keep in touch with otherwise. I don't like the idea of anyone finding out all about me online... now I am blogging my thoughts here.

I learn. The gun went off and I may not have had a quick start, but anyone who knows anything about the sport I am passionate about... adventure racing, knows that it is a long race and you don't always know what is around the corner. You have to adjust, keep your bearings, become confident in your surroundings and you have to use your surroundings to your advantage.

My challenge lies in using I.T. in my current teaching discipline: Physical Education. Technology has become so embedded in sport that we have no choice but to role model it in Physical Education. It is easy to embed the physical technology of new products and sports equipment such as heart rate monitors and pedometers, but how do we specifically embed I.T. to drive students towards our number one goal: a lifestyle of personal fitness for health and enjoyment. How do we use it to inspire those students who want to push themselves that little bit harder so they can achieve better performance within their sport.

Some schools appear to embrace it, teachers walk around with palm pilots, downloading heart rate data from students, while assessing them in real time with pre-set rubrics. Some embed technology within lessons using visuals from the internet, and some schools are even buying into the new 'exertainment' systems. At ISB we are trying panthernet for online assignments and assessments in order to increase activity time. But will this really improve our students learning? We are trying to get kids off there rear ends and be active... therefore is embedding I.T. going to be counter productive to our goal? Possibly. We have to be wise about how we integrate it into our subject, it has to grow to a new level of connectivism... a state where it connects into the life of the student and inspires ACTION on their behalf.

I am doing a few courses through the school I currently teach at (International School Bangkok) and my challenge is going to be to take this learning and to apply it specifically to Physical Education. If it potentially takes away activity time for my students, I have to question it. If it makes them more inspired to take control of their own fitness I'm all for it. The gun has gone off and I am navigating through my environment working out which are the best tools to use; it should be fun! Look out for my reflections throughout this course.

"If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger."

Frank Lloyd Wright