Course Reflection

                                                 
       I really enjoyed this class and walked away with so many new ideas.  What I liked most with this class is that it forced me to get outside my comfort zone and try new technologies in education.  So many different people shared great ideas by using tools such as Padlet, Twiddla, FlipGrid, Buncee, G Suite tools, Seesaw, and so many more.  Every time someone shared a cool idea I found myself trying to think of a way that I could use and apply it to a Physical Education setting.  There are some instances that certain web tools really do not apply to a PE setting but most of them I found myself thinking of a way that I could use it.
     I also really liked meeting for the 3 times that we did during this course.  As much as I love taking a class online and working at my own pace, it's always nice to talk to a person or a group face to face and have "real life" discussions.  I can remember having a great conversation with a few people about the use of twitter and why every teacher should have an account.  It's fun to hear them reflect later on why they resisted using twitter and why they now understand its amazing capabilities.  I also remember having a discussion with a larger group of colleagues about the 4 C's in Education Technology and what our 5th C would be.  Every person in the group had a different answer but each person agreed with the points that were being made.  It's neat to talk with teachers from all different levels to gain different perspectives on subject matter.  For example, digital citizenship was discussed and hearing the high school teachers talk about the importance at their level compared to the elementary teachers was fascinating.  I am excited to take what I learned in this class and apply it to my teaching in the upcoming school year as well as share with my colleagues.

Artifact #2 Collaborative Technology Task

     In a previous assignment, we were asked to create an activity that allowed students to use technology in a collaborative way.   As a Physical Education teacher, this has been challenging in the past to get students to work together on something with technology because we would typically be wearing the technology or not have enough for every student, for example.   When thinking about this assignment and applying what I had already learned in this class, I created a Google Classroom where all of my students can go to find updates and assignments for my class.  This is where I created a Google Doc that students would open up on their own devices and they would create their own class rules for PE.  By using a Google Doc, every student had access to it and they could see what others wrote.  If someone had a similar thought for a rule, they could add their name to the row but they still had to type a reason as to why they thought their rule would be a good class rule to have.  This activity will not only show me who participated and who didn’t but it also gives the students a sense of ownership of the rules and for their class.  Using a Google Doc is great because it automatically saves what you type and allows so many users to be on at the same time working on the document.  I am excited to continue using the Google platform and am planning on attempting to use a Google Form to have students enter their own fitness data this Fall.  Wish me luck!

Class Rules Google Doc

Artifact #1 Multimedia Project

     I have to be honest; I have never used Google Slides before this class 😱.  I know, shocking right?  I have explored many of the other features in the Google Suite but for whatever reason, Google Slides has always been on the back burner.  It is similar to Microsoft Powerpoint in what its intent is but Google Slides has way more potential, in my opinion.  For an assignment in this class, I created a Google Slideshow for students to go through on their own and reflect on what they learned.  To do this, I embedded 3 short Youtube videos for students to watch about Physical Literacy.  After they watch each video, there is a link to a Google Form with a reflection question that they can answer with a few sentences.  A benefit of this is so that I can see what students are learning and taking away and also to see who really watched the videos and who did not.  These short videos are a perfect way to start the school year off with a message about physical literacy and why it is important to stay active throughout your life and why learning basic skills in PE class can translate to other activities as you grow older.  The nice thing about Google Slides is that it plays nice with all of the other features of Google Suite like Forms and Docs and also allows easy transfers from Google Drive into the slideshow as well.  As a PE teacher, I can see my classes next school year using this setup quite often now that we will be 1:1 for the 2^nd through 5^th grades.

Link to Google Slideshow

SAMR vs RAT: Not a new Sci-Fi Movie!

     The first time I had heard of the "Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition Model" (SAMR), was last year during one of our institute days discussing the upcoming Digital Learning Initiative that has made its way down to the elementary level.  At first, I thought the presenters were referring to a person when they continually said SAMR back and forth to each other.  After their presentation, I was left with the image of a swimming pool in my mind.  They used the analogy of a swimming pool that has a shallow end on one side and then slowly gets deeper towards the opposite end.  When a teacher spends time in the shallow end with the Substitution and Augmentation stages, they gain more confidence.  This teacher should then progress towards the deeper end and find themselves in the Modification and Redefinition stages of the model.  This all does make sense to me but I think many people get hung up with the two middle stages, including myself.  The phrase "above the line/below the line" gets used quite often and I think confuses teachers.  I was unaware of another model that exists with the same ideas in mind, just one less stage.  This is the "Replace, Amplify, Transform" model, also known as the RAT or TAR model.  I know what you're thinking, what a terrible acronym.  I agree, it could have been something way better.  However, the idea behind it makes a lot of sense.  With this model, you do not have to look up the definition of each stage because the title itself is pretty self explanatory.  This model basically takes the SAMR model and combines the two middle stages into one.  First off, I think teachers would much rather use the RAT model because it has one less stage to remember.  Second, I think this model is a much simpler and easier model to understand for everyone involved.  Sean Mchugh discussed these two models on his blog post and he made an interesting point.  Regardless of which model we choose to follow, shouldn't the bigger question be how do we get ICT from one end of the spectrum to the other?  I think that is a very important question for schools to discuss because sometimes lessons don't always need to be in the Transformative stage or the Redefinition stage.  There are also times when technology does not need to be used to enhance the lesson, I know, hard to imagine right?  Too often, I think teachers get lost in the idea of using technology for every single thing they do that they lose site of the bigger umbrella question.  What do we want students to learn and how do we get them to learn it?

     When thinking about my own teaching, I like to look through the RAT model lens.  Last year, our district piloted a new pedometer for elementary age students.  This new pedometer has some neat features that older pedometers do not.  It not only can track a student's step count but also track their activity time (any time they are moving), and also their Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity time.  On top of that, the best feature of all, these pedometers have the ability to be uploaded to my computer software by using a "reader" that the student places their pedometer on.  It takes a quick 1.5 seconds to upload all three data points into my computer and they are all done.  These new pedometers not only "replaced" the old, outdated ones, but also amplified the lesson and my teaching because of how efficient and productive these pedometers are.  Now I have a tremendous amount of data to use with the students and can provide feedback and use as discussion points.  When students use these, now they can work on goal setting and get real time feedback on their activity which can "transform" their experience.  Many students will say, "oh this is just like a Fitbit?" and I laugh inside because they think this pedometer is a new technology to them, but in reality the pedometer has been around for decades and they are so used to having technology in every aspect of their life.  I am looking forward to using more of the Google Suite to transform my teaching in the upcoming school year and see how I can use the RAT model to improve other lessons of mine.

Mchugh, Sean.  The RAT, SAMR, Transformative Technology, & Occam's Razor [Blog Post].        Retrieved from  http://doverdlc.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-rat-samr-transformative-technology.html