ExerGame Lab: Learning through technology!

Technology Can Be Fun!

Last Monday instead of going to St. Mary's we had an ExerGame Lab! It was SO much fun! We played a bunch of games that anyone could play at home however it was a little different. We played dance dance revolution. At first I was confused on how this could be affective in the physical education classroom but after we went through all the games it was quick clear to me that these games were perfect for physical education! The dance dance revolution can be used to stimulus coordination, reaction time, agility, and ability to move to a pattern and also help on focusing. While playing the game I thought about all the educational areas I was working on, I was really shocked that a still game can do so much. Another game that I played was NBA on Xbox however the only way to power the game to play was to run in place on a machine. This was such a great idea it focuses physical activity in a usually non-physical game. I believe if this was brought into the physical education room many children would enjoy this because it is a common game the only difference is physical activity is added into it. There was another game that was a racecar video game but to power the game you had to pedal on a stationary bike. This game caused a lot of physical activity by the end of the game I most of sweat tons of calories. Fun and interesting games like this will cause children to want to be physically active and want to do what it takes to achieve success in the game. Lastly we were told to play with a bunch of small toys and thing of ways how they could be used in the physical education classroom. Some of the toys we played with were foam object shaped as an animal and a letter was cut in the middle of the foam object. These foam letter animals could be used to help young children learn the alphabet Also they can be used in fun ways like hiding the foam objects in certain areas and once the children find the object they most recite the letter and make the sound the animal made that the foam is shaped as. I believe technology will create a new way of teaching in the future and phyical educators today should begin to get used to this idea! WE ARE THE FUTURE!