C4T #3

C4T 1

In Mr. Jones's blog, GoPro in PE, he found out that using GPS data loggers would be useful for analyzing player movement when in games. Personally, he has used it to record for his cycling adventures. During that process, he found out he could use GoPro for his Physical Education classes and analyze the player’s point of view. A GoPro is not a requirement, but it is usable for physical activity. He hopes to use if for a student portfolio. It will demonstrate their participation is school activities and outside physical activities outside of school.

Hey Mr. Jones, this is Katherine Harvey from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I think that a GoPro camera would be useful for group projects. The kids can see what they did right or wrong. They can log their activities so they can keep up with what they are doing. I hope you continue to use this in your class. Best of luck!



C4T 2

In the blog, “Emulator? Or Assimilator?”, Mr. Jones struggles when preparing for his upcoming semester. He is teaching several classes and has to come up with lesson plans. He also is expected to lead the staff team for the upcoming semester. Mr. Jones struggles with either coming up with new ideas to teach the students, or referring to old ways to teach the same material. Using the same old ways that are already established is known as emulating. In this section of the blog, Mr. Jones claims that the advice he has received is to “not reinvent the wheel”. This means to reuse old methods of teaching and project ideas for the upcoming year. He believes that emulating is the easiest method, but it is not the most satisfying, nor the longest lasting in the long run. He also has to be careful about making too much change and scaring the staff off when he presents his new ideas. He states that if the real world is drawing its influences from diverse places, the kids should be exposed to these new ideas to better prepare them for the real world. The other method, assimilation, is the development of new ideas and tools to reach students. One risk that the assimilation method takes is that if an idea or tool works in one situation, that doesn’t mean that it will work in another. Implementing new ideas and tools takes time to develop and change if needed. Many policies in today’s schools work very well now because it took years to make minor changes to make it as good as it is today. This is the problem with assimilation. We can’t throw a new idea or tool at unsuspecting students without making sure that this new tool will work. Unfortunately this may take some time. Personally, I believe that there has to be a balance between implementing new ideas and using old, established methods. While bringing new ideas and tools into the school system is a great idea, there should always be a back-up plan in case the new idea does not work. At the end of the day, making sure that the students understand the required material is the most important job of a teacher.

Hey Mr. Jones, this is Katherine Harvey from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I believe that there is merit to both methods of teaching. I definitely agree that coming up with new ideas to present information is key to getting students to learn. Students learn in different ways, therefore we have to teach in different ways. At the same time though, there are established ways of presenting information that have worked for several years now. I believe that a combination of these two ideas must be incorporated depending on the situation of the students.