PE Tech Integration Ideas with Steve Babcock

Hope this sunny Monday finds you happy and healthy! First, a shout out to the current CMS Fitbit champions, Kara and Terri (each busting 100,000 steps last week!). Thanks for keeping us all motivated to hit the pavement and get those extra steps. While we still don't have the budget to buy every student at CMS a Fitbit, today's blog post examines other ways that technology can be integrated into PE instruction.

Our fitness guru Steve Babcock completed his master's thesis on providing high-quality physical education in low income settings. When it comes to technology integration, Babcock realized that not all students will have the same access to technology, and designed his lessons accordingly. He shared with me details on how he uses simple video for performance assessment with sports skills.

Integration Idea
Babcock shared a lesson that he created for his class which incorporates skills instruction, technology, and formative assessment. Ready for the best part? Math is included in the performance tasks, which makes this lesson extra STEAMy!

If your class doesn't have access to devices that will travel well to the outdoors (i.e. iPods or iPads with very sturdy cases), then there is no harm in allowing students to use their own personal devices for this lesson.

How to...

• Create station cards for the stations that the students will travel to using the samples in the images below (each station includes a hint the students view first which directs them to a performance task). 
• Have students work in pairs or teams to video each other during each performance task.
• At the end of the tasks, students will report to you to show you the video from the tasks they completed. 
• Reteach skills and have students revisit the stations (taking new video for assessment) as needed. 
• Have students respond to (or blog about!) the final hint.

Ready for the next level with tech?

• Have students upload their videos to Google Drive to share with you (or submit through Google Classroom by sharing the link to their video).
• Share exemplary demonstration of skills with students by projecting on Apple TV. 
• Start a discussion in Google Classroom on what they learned from watching exemplary videos. 
• Have students use fitness apps such as myfitnesspal to analyze their nutritional intake. 
• Use step counting apps such as runtastic to track distance and steps.
• Allow students to maintain fitness blogs on Google Sites, Kidblog, or Weebly where they can track their progress with PE skills, distance accomplishments, and nutritional analysis. 

Do you have other great ideas for integrating technology into PE? Please share them in the comments below! *Contest alert* A special techie prize goes to the first teacher to try a technology integrated PE lesson and share their experience!

Lesson Materials: