ATC Dude 505: 2013-07-07

Web 2.0 Resources in the Classroom

As I pointed out in my last blog (7/2/2013) physical education and health has been put on time restraints in many school systems due to increase academic pressure in core subjects to reach benchmarks on standardized testing, therefore, learning to use resources like web 2.0 to increase online content could be very helpful. My own child will be entering high school this year where they are teaching an integrated class call LIFE PE that students take the entire year and receive state credit requirements for health, driver’s education, and physical education (Nivada Spurlock, Chairman Physical Education, Homewood School System). To accomplish this the school system is using a combination of “hybrid learning where the course is a mixture of online and face-to-face delivery” (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 207). For example, the health component is taught entirely through on-line modules.

According to “keeping pace”, hybrid learning is the “fastest growing segment of k-12 online learning (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p.212). As distance learning increases education systems must keep in mind characteristics of successful distance learners such as responsibility and self-organization ability of students. Furthermore characteristics of effective distance learning instructors such as course planning, verbal and non-verbal presentation skills, ability to use strategies, and ability to coordinate several internet sites for student activities need to be kept in mind.(Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p.213).

Using web 2.0 resources embrace the technology world students of today are growing up in; therefore, instructors must keep pace. Interacting with files online in recent years has expanded with tools such as icloud and drop box (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p.220) which makes sharing much easier for students and instructors in online learning. Sending instructions or assignments through email was the only option a few years ago in online instruction. However, now instructors can use blogs as their main communication points with links to web 2.0 resources like in this week’s assignments (glogster, animoto, blabberize), websites, tweets, wiki lesson plans, Prezi presentations and many other internet options (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p.222). The web 2.0 resources like glogster (1 page), and short videos (30 seconds) like animoto, blabberize with animals talking are good examples of tools that can be embedded into a blog. These presentations are short which I think helps keep students attention and can be used to introduce an entire unit of study or simple lesson plan in a fun way.

ATC Dude 505

Edwin E.Harris, MS, ATC

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

twitter 2.0

Glogster Nutrition Food Pyramid

Monday, July 8, 2013