Kerri Procida
Cognitive Celebration #2
3/21/2011
1. The use of technology in my major, Health and Exercise Science, is expanding more and more
each year. Every year they are either constantly updated previous technology or coming out
with something new. When I went to the Atlantic City NJEA Teachers Convention in November,
they had a specific section just for technology called, “Kids of the 21st Century”. The section
dealt with all the different types of technology they would be introducing into the school system
in the near future and gave lessons to the teachers on how it worked and how it would benefit
them and their students. My point being, technology is only growing and it is becoming better
and stronger than ever before. What we can to with technology is amazing and I have a feeling
it’s only going to get better.
2. (a) Heart rate monitors are great pieces of technology because it allows you to know how fast
your student’s hearts are beating and how physically challenging your lessons are.
(b) Pedometers are also very effective because it allows you as the teacher to see how much
each student is moving during your activities.
(c) Wii Fit. If you choose the appropriate game that gets kids constantly moving, then this could
be an excellent activity for your kids rather than running the track.
(d) Accelerometers are effective tools for physical activity because they have the ability to
continuously record physical activity and intensity data over user-specified time intervals.
(e) DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) is a type of video game that involves students constantly
moving. Many schools are beginning to incorporate this activity into their lessons and found it
very effective.
3. (a) One piece of non-computer technology that I would use in one of my lessons is DDR, or
Dance Dance Revolution. DDR is a type of video game that involves students continuously
jumping, stepping, and moving all of their body parts, all while having fun. DDR is another way
to incorporate fitness into the classroom without having to do those tedious laps around the
gym or track, or doing the same exercises over and over again. DDR is for everyone, not just the
jock or physically fit students; which means more involvement in your classroom! DDR is
becoming more and more popular in the PE class and reason being because it is proven to be
very effective. Ways that I would use them in my classroom would be: I would only probably do
it for 1-2 weeks, depending on how many times per week I would meet with my students. I
would do this activity more than once a year, probably do it once or twice per marking period. I
could also use it as an incentive for the students to behave; for example, if they were behaving
as a class, not just in PE class but in all of their classes, I would do DDR the next class to promote
good behavior in the classroom. This will also benefit the other teachers because I would also be
promoting good behavior into their classrooms as well.
(b) Heart rate monitors are also very beneficial. They allow you to see how fast or slow each
student’s heart rate is. This is also another way to self reflect on your lessons. If you notice that
most of your student’s heart rates aren’t as fast as you would like them to be after a certain
lesson, you could go back into your lesson and find a way to fix it to increase their heart rate the
next time you present that activity to them. So not only is it beneficial for the students, but it’s
great for you as a teacher also! These heart rate monitors would be used by each student during
an activity. After the activity is over, each student would report to the teacher with their
monitors to go over their heart rates with them. Granite, this will take up a good chunk of class
time, but I think it’s necessary because it’s educating them and they’re getting a workout at the
same time. By going over this information with them, you can set goals for each of your students
for the next time they do this activity to see if they can increase their level of intensity during
the activity to get their heart rate up some more from last time.