Phys Ed Playlist

Online Social Software Tools

With new technology emerging every day, it is now more important than ever to utilize it in your classroom. Not only teaching students by using technology, but also teaching students how to use technology.

Most of us by now have either heard of or used many different types of software tools. One specific tool that I plan to use is You Tube. This is a website where anyone can log on and share videos with the entire world. With this site I plan to create a High School Physical Education project for my students. This will give students the opportunity to learn important Phys Ed activities along with learning to use an online tool effectively.

The project will be simple yet effective. In groups of three or four, students will create an exercise routine or an instructional demonstration of a particular sporting activity. Once they have researched and planned out their project, they will then record a ten to twenty minute video and post it on You Tube. Once all the videos are completed, the entire class will watch each video and participate in the demonstration. This will not only give students a fun way to learn about a particular area of interest, but will also give them a chance to be creative and teach the rest of the class what they have learned. After viewing and participating in each video demonstration, students will then log back on to You Tube and post comments about each video.

This activity that I have created uses just one of the many tools that are available for teachers. With a little bit of time, and minimal knowledge of computers, any current or prospective teacher can utilize online software tools to greatly improve the educational experience of all students.

Spreedsheets Blog

Spreadsheets can be utilized as an effective learning tool in the classroom. Using graphs and charts teachers can teach students to analyze data and information. I recently reviewed a spreadsheet project titled Graphing Our Throw-Away Materials by Linda Wiedenfeld. This project is designed for students to learn about conservation by analyzing the trash they generate every day. The assignment requires them to record what type of trash they throw away and how much. Students then analyze the data to learn more about their throw-away patterns.

This simple yet effective project can be altered and utilized for different subject areas as well. For example, If I were to use this project for my High School Physical Education class, I could do so by making some minor changes. Instead of analyzing throw-away materials, I would have my students record their eating patterns. First, students would be taught proper diet and important elements of the food pyramid. Then, I would have to teach them how to enter data recorded onto a computer. Using this computer, they would keep track of what types of food they eat each day and how many servings they consume. It could then be applied to a graph that showed how many servings per day they were eating of each component of the food pyramid. Once a graph is created students could use it to observe their eating habits and see what particular food groups they need more or less of. This project would be a very beneficial and informative process for students in any Physical Education or Health class.

Using spreadsheets can provide an effective way of allowing students to gather, apply, and analyze data. This can be an important element of the educational process if utilized correctly.

Vint Netiquette Blog