In my own experiences at several different elementary schools across Calgary, the most significant mobile technology has been the iPad, as the overwhelming majority of our students at the K-4 grade level do not own phones nor bring them to school. We currently have a district wide mobile technology contract that students and parents need to read through and sign before permission can be granted to individual students to bring mobile devices to school. Some of our grade 4 students bring their phones to school, but they turn them off during the school day and only use them at the end of the day to communicate with parents or friends. Truthfully, the schools that I’ve taught at over the years have been very well equipped with iPads and laptops, and the students haven’t demonstrated much interest in using their phones during class time, despite the fact that they would have permission to do so while under teacher supervision. With regular access to iPads and laptops across the school, our students don’t seem to feel the need or see the benefit in using their phones to complete tasks and assignments that could just as easily be completed with our school owned mobile devices.
As far as my own pedagogy is concerned, mobile technology has been an important part of my teaching practice in Physical Education. While I don’t often make use of laptops in the gym, iPads have become a part of our shared experiences in daily physical activity. In particular, even a single iPad in the gym can be implemented in a variety of ways to support student learning and achievement while encouraging collaboration and feedback. Compared to other curriculum areas, Technology and Physical Education are not quite as readily connected with each other, despite the fact that there exists tremendous potential for the use of mobile technology, including iPads, in daily physical education classes. With the demand for focus and funding in other curriculum areas oftentimes being driven from administration or district levels, teachers are often left lacking the knowledge or support to connect technology with Phys Ed. Nevertheless, teachers can integrate mobile technology into daily physical activity to help enhance and support student learning, progress, and achievement.
A single iPad in the gym, especially when connected to a projector, becomes a powerful means of presenting or displaying information to students. This could include demonstrating skills, instruction of new games and activities, sharing of goals and objectives, and communicating information and ideas in ways that get students excited, motivated, and engaged about physical activity. The use of iPads offers opportunities to utilize a wide variety of instructional videos and game demonstrations to provide visual support for student learning. Scoreboards and timers are no longer required tools in physical education sessions, as iPads offer a wide variety of apps for use in keeping score in games or timing student performance. These scores and times can be saved and documented as part of daily formative assessment in Phys Ed.
With an iPad on hand, teachers always have a camera to photograph or video record student activity and document progress. According to Ciampa (2013), students enjoy having their efforts and achievements recognized by others, and in order to make this learning visible, an environment must be created that allows for the engagement of motivation through recognition. Mobile technology, including iPads, provide affordances for this type of collaboration and recognition, and students’ ability to learn and perform motor skills increases with the use of tools such as digital video. By recording students performing a skill or task, teachers have a means of providing meaningful formative assessment directly to students to help guide their learning and development. Through the opportunity to watch themselves performing these skills or tasks, students are able to analyze techniques and self-reflect to guide further progression in Physical Literacy. Collaboration becomes an important component of video analysis, as students are able to watch and critique the work and progress of their peers, while providing constructive feedback to help guide reflection and further skill development. Videos may also be used as a method of summative assessment to document student achievement at the end of a particular unit, or while performing a routine or planned series of skills. Numerous apps are available for use in Video Analysis, with many of these allowing for complex and detailed examinations of skills and techniques, including those utilized by athletes and coaches at high levels of competition.
With the ultimate goal of promoting student motivation and increasing overall participation and engagement, iPads can be used to infuse gamification into daily physical activity. Apps that guide or instruct students in learning skills and movements can enhance teaching and learning in Physical Education, and these can be utilized by individual students, small groups, or during whole class activities. Augmented Reality offers exciting new possibilities in delivering engaging physical activity to students. The use of iPads in physical education can help support and enhance student knowledge, motivation and skill development, while providing teachers with opportunities to engage in varied methods of documenting student progress and achievement in formative and summative assessment. When implementing technology in Physical Education, it becomes essential that lessons follow the guidelines outlined in Bates’ SECTIONS framework (2014) and continue to be based on achieving a maximum level of student activity, rather than focusing on the skill of using the technology. The use of iPads offers students and teachers significant benefits while requiring minimal time to learn and implement during Physical Education lessons.
References
Bates, J. (2014). Teaching in a digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation.Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12036/epdf
Hello Allen,
Thank you for your post. I cannot help but wonder if there is a lot of off-task behaviour in using the devices that the student due bring in. Off-task behavior is a great concern for the implementation of any electronic mobile device in my school, and I am curious how your school addresses this issue. In response to your own teaching practices, those are wonderful ideas. While, I must admit that I had not considered the use of iPads in the physical education program, yet at the same time, I cannot manage my own training without such a practical tool. In your examples there are many cases in which you are in control of the iPad, do you have any examples in which the students themselves are using the technology? I can imagine having the students using their own devices for a nutrition unit or for a personal fitness program (probably more suited for older grades). I would love to have your opinion on the matter.
Hi Danielle,
Thanks for your comments and questions. Off task behaviour with personal mobile devices has been a concern at the schools in which I’ve taught, and the approaches to dealing with the issues have varied within different schools and with different teachers. With the parents and students signing the mobile technology contract, in many cases the school has exercised the option of revoking permission for individual students if off task behaviour becomes a serious concern. The regulations and expectations are clearly outlined in the contract, and therefore, we’ve had full support of parents if permission has been revoked. The vast majority of students do not bring their own mobile devices to school (since we’re K-4), and therefore this hasn’t really become as serious an issue as it would be with older students in the higher grades. Right from the September start of the school year, we really aim to hammer out the expectations outlined in the school contract.
Students in my Phys Ed classes have utilized the iPads in groups, and they perform many of the recording and assessment tasks themselves through peer collaboration. Student groups might record each individual member performing a skill, and then analyze the video as a group and provide feedback to each other within their group setting. I’ve also had students and groups record a skill or task that they would like to share with the larger whole class group, and then we provide feedback through discussion. For the most part, I’ve found that when students provide peer feedback and assessment in small groups, the discussions are more authentic and lead to better strategies for improvement, as the students feel less self-conscious than they would if we were discussing in the larger class groups. I’ve also incorporated iPads as part of fitness circuits or training stations, as this allows all students to utilize the technology, but requires fewer devices in the gym at one time. After all, the aim is to engage students in physical activity without the use of the technology becoming the main focus for the sessions. Outside of the gym, our grade 3-4 students are currently working on using the iPads to create PSAs about nutrition and healthy lifestyles that will be shared with students in classrooms and with parents and the community on the school and classroom websites.
Overall, I really enjoy exploring new ways to integrate technology within the Phys Ed/Health curriculum, and I’d be more than happy to share other ideas or answer any other questions that you might have. Thanks again for your comments and questions!
– Allen.
Hey Allen, Great examples of incorporating tech into Phys. Ed. We usually set up the projector and a computer for the dance unit, but I honestly never thought much about the many other possibilities you have provided. I especially love the small group instruction for circuits and the formative assessment through video recordings. I can see how students would be motivated by ‘training’ like an athlete, reviewing tapes of their performances. Now that you say it, it seems so obvious! Do you find that some students are shy and do not want to be recorded? If so, how have you been able to address this? Have you had any mishaps with the iPads being in with high levels of movement and equipment? You mentioned there are a variety of apps, would you mind listing a few? I’d like to take a look for the K-4 crowd as that is likely who I will be teaching next year.
Hi Kim,
Thanks for your feedback and questions. We typically video record and share our work in smaller groups, which lessens the sense of self-consciousness for most students. When we share in the larger group, I’ll always ask permission of the individual student before sharing their video. I haven’t had any students express that they don’t want to be recorded, as they are generally eager to see what they look like while performing a skill or a sport. I suppose that providing feedback on the student’s “live” performance rather than the video might help for those who really aren’t comfortable being recorded.
For sports related video recording apps, Coach’s Eye and Hudl Technique ( which used to be called Ubersense) are two great options. I’ve heard that Dartfish Express is also useful, but I haven’t personally used that app before. But to be honest, the video option available on the iPads work very well too without all of the bells and whistles, as these can become distracting for some students.
We’ve been fortunate that there have been no mishaps with the iPads. We generally keep them safe by mounting them for recording purposes or by keeping them on surfaces that won’t be impacted by our games and activities. The student that operates the iPad is stationary, so we limit the students’ movements when they are holding or carrying an iPad.
Hope that helps you with your K-4 groups. If any other questions come up, please send them my way!
Thanks,
– Allen.