Blog Post #14

1. First watch Helena Baert's video Technology in PE
2. What are some technological tools Physical Educators can incorporate in their class, and what are the benefits?
Answers to part 2.
Pedometers and Accelerometers. These are great tools to incorporate into physical education classes. Pedometers and Accelerometers count the steps students take each day and motivates them to adopt a more physical lifestyle. These are wonderful tools to connect the students with other subjects, such as math or geometry.
Heart Rate Monitors and Pulse Sticks. Heart Rate Monitors and Pulse Sticks are important tools to show students how unique their bodies are and how different we all are from our peers! These tools are great to teach the students what exercises and different physical activities help increase the heart rate, resulting in calories burned. The sooner educators can incorporate pulse sticks the quicker they can be introduced to more advanced heart monitors.
Active Gaming & Excergaming. Examples of these tools are Wii Fit, and X-box Kinect. These devices make exercising more enjoyable for students who rather play video games than play outdoors. Using the Wii Fit for physical educational purposes helps students increase coordination.

3.Pick a sport you enjoy playing or watching and find ways of incorporating technology into that particular sport to make it more health related, or beneficial. Also find a video example of how it can be incorporated.

Answers to part 3.
The sport I enjoy both playing and watching is basketball. There are many ways to incorporate technology into basketball and make it beneficial for the participants. As a future basketball coach I plan on using pedometers to track the distance my players run during practice so I can gradually increase the running to maximize the amount of running I can get out my players. Another technological tool I plan to use are flip cams, ipad or some type of video capturing device. This would be the most beneficial technological tool for my players. Using video is a critical part for critiquing a players movements/actions while at practice or during a game. Watching video of a previous game is important to get an understanding of what the players could have done better and correcting the mistakes. The last type of technology I plan on incorporating into my basketball team is YouTube. YouTube is a great way to broadcast special talent to the world to see. This gives a student athlete free promotion to showcase his or her talent to colleges and scouts around the world which could lead to scholarships from colleges around the world.
Video Example. This is a video of some young basketball talent showcasing their ability to the world. Their dad coaches them and records every practice and workout he puts them through to perfect their work habit and knowledge of the game. They call themselves "Shift Team," the father critiques their skills by use of video then uploads the videos to YouTube to encourage scholarship offers due to their hard work ethic. By watching the videos at home the players can see what needs more practice and what not to do in the game. This is a prime example of using technology in the game of basketball.