The Use of Technology in Health and Physical Education Focus: Department Supervisor (Health and PE) Kate DeSantis

The Latest and Greatest Technology… It seems like everyday something comes out in the technology world that can help make our lives easier and better. Some of these technology gadgets and programs can contribute to health and physical education. A few components can help reach a goal or contribute to maintaining health.

Goal: To incorporate a piece of technology into a health and physical education classroom with applications on it that can help towards making, achieving and maintaining health and fitness goals. By purchasing a product that students can use during class with there peers can make achieving there goals fun.

Ipad Mini An Ipad mini has many uses in a classroom. It has many features/apps that can be used in a health and physical education class. The mini version is smaller and more compact which will make using the device easier for students as they use it to assess there health components. Ipad mini $329 each Can be purchased from Apple.com

How the features/applications on the Ipad mini and be used in the classroom… The Ipad mini has some features/apps that can be very useful in a health and physical education class. The Internet The Camera/video App ‘My Fitness Pal’ App BMI Calculator App Stop watch App

The Internet Feature The internet feature on the Ipad mini is a great feature to use because you can access any application or website. A website that would be very helpful in the classroom would be: Mypyramid.gov That website can be used for nutritional information, food tracking and making nutrition goals and tracking them.

The Camera/Video App The Camera/video app on the Ipad mini would be a great tool for students to use to log there fitness goals/progess throughout the school year. They can use the camera to take still pictures or they can use the video part to make documentaries about there journey or video students performing fitness/health activities.

‘Myfitnesspal’ App The ‘myfitnesspal’ app is a free app offered on the Ipad mini. It would need to be downloaded to each Ipad mini before use. On ‘myfitnesspal’ students can create a food log (it also offers calorie counting, nutrition facts, serving portions, etc), see there progress in charts, graphs, and numbers and they can make comparisons which results.

BMI Calculator App There are many different kinds of BMI calculator apps offered on the app store on the Ipad mini. Each one will ask for sex, height, weight, sometimes age. The app will calculate it for the student and give them results in charts, tables and pictures. *(students should be able to calculate there BMI on there own but this app will show them there progress in charts)*

Stopwatch Feature The stopwatch feature on the Ipad mini is a great tool to have students use when they are doing any fitness tests. The stopwatch feature is easy to use and is convenient on the Ipad mini because students can easily transfer results to documents or apps to log there progress.

Overall Cost Each Ipad Mini is $329 each. For a class of 25-30 students I would make groups of 5 students (5-6 groups). Each group would have an Ipad mini. 5 Ipad minis @ $329 each= $1,645 All apps/features mentioned in the slides were free and Ipad mini’s can last a long time if they are taken care of and properly used.

Conclusion The Ipad mini is a great tool to have in health and physical education classes. I chose the top 5 apps/features (in my opinion) that could be helpful in the classroom but there are much more. Students can benefit from using the Ipad mini in groups by helping each other and comparing results and seeing progress in there groups. Thank you!