ETIPS - Make Thinking Visible
Ready Access
Ready access to supported, managed hardware/software resources is provided. Teachers must be provided with convenient and flexible access for educational technology. Although part of this is provided by the work environment, this resource area provides some access points and resources for classroom utilization and further exploration of the subject matter.
Student-Centered Learning Sites for Physical Education and Lifetime Fitness
Brain Pop
Grades: K - 12
Description: This site provides educational animated movies to explain concepts in a voice and visual style that is accessible, educational and entertaining for both children and adults.
Sponsoring Organizations: McGraw Hill Learning Network, National Geographic Kids, AOL@School, Washington Post, NOGGIN, BaBaGaNewz, American Lung Association, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, International Children's Heart Foundation, ScLinks, Movie Of The Day
Exploratorium, The Science of Baseball
Grades: All
Description: A "science of baseball" site that includes an interactive link to test your reaction time and what makes a home run.
Sponsoring Organizations: Louisville Slugger, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and Total Baseball
Fitness Fever
URL: fitnessfever.com
Grades: Elementary through Middle School
Description: This is a great interactive site for students to discover, outdoor activities, safety, health news and topics. Tools such as Weight, Calorie Needs, Calorie Burn and Target Heart Rate Calculators, Quick Quizzes and Interactive Games are available at Fitness Fever.
Sponsoring Organizations: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Minnesota Dept. of Health, Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, Minnesota Service Cooperatives and numerous other supporting organizations
Kids Health
URL: http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/index.html
Grades: All
Description: This is an interactive site that includes topics such as: Dealing with Feelings, Staying Healthy, Illnesses and Injuries, My Body, Growing Up, Kid Questions, Safety, Health Problems and a Glossary of Medial Terms. The Game Closet provides interactive educational movies on topics such as the respiratory system, muscles, digestive track and My Body.
The Heart: An Online Exploration
URL: http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/heart.html
Grades: All
Description: At this site, discover the heart's structure, blood flow, listen to a heart beating, and learn how to have a healthy heart and other information.
Sponsoring Organizations: The Franklin Science Museum with support from the Unisys Corporation
Out On A Limb, A Guide to Getting Along
Grades: Elementary
Description: This site contains educational interactive movies that teach children about getting along, feeling, making choices and understanding others.
Sponsoring Organizations: University of Illinois Extension
WebQuests for Health/PE
URL: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/matrix.html
Grades: 3 - 12
Description: These are webquests that include developing a fitness program
Sponsoring Organizations: San Diego State University, College of Education
Every Rule in the Universe
Grades: Intermediate through High School
Description: The site provides a link to a listing of every Sports-related rule from Archery to Wrestling.
Muscle Map and Explanation
URL: http://www.global-fitness.com/strength/s_map.html
Grades: High School
Description: This site offers an explanation of each major muscle group,
location, functions and strength training exercises for that muscle.
Sponsoring Organizations: Global Health and Fitness
The Longevity Game
URL:
http://www.northwesternmutual.com/nmcom/NM/longevitygameintro
/toolbox--calculator--longevitygameintro--longevity_intro
Grades: Intermediate through High School
Description: Take this interactive lifestyle and health awareness quiz to get an idea of how long you may live past retirement.
Sponsoring Organizations: Northwestern Mutual
Shape Up America
URL: http://www.shapeup.org/index.htm
Grades: Intermediate through High School
Description: This site offers links to a BMI Center, Fitness Center and Cyber Kitchen. Follow the Fitness Center link, then information link to get the "Benefits of Exercise".
Sponsoring Organizations: Private funds of corporations, commodity boards and foundations
Health & Fitness Tips, Tools and Fitness
URL: http://www.healthchecksystems.com/info.htm
Grades: Intermediate through High School
Description: This site provides information on many health issues as well as BMI and Heart Rate Calculators
Sponsoring Organizations: HealthCheck Systems
NetFit
URL: http://www.netfit.co.uk/menu.htm
Grades: Middle - High School
Description: This site offers information on many health-related fitness topics. It includes training programs, workouts, nutrition, FAQs
Sponsoring Organizations: NetFit Ltd.
Tools for Physical Education & Lifetime Fitness
- Multimedia software (sport specific related tutorials, ADAM: the inside story, My Amazing Body)
- Assessment software (DINEware, dietlog, Fitnessgram, Fitness Reporter, MicroFit, HealthFirst)
- Digital Camera/Video: Digital images can be used for stations signs, steps for an activity or protocol, assessment, projects and presentations.
- Heart Rate Monitors: Heart rate monitors can be used to: guide students to optimum exercise intensity, individualizing their work; providing immediate student feedback regarding their intensity level (visual and auditory feedback); providing an accurate assessment of student performance regarding effort and progress; and offering teacher feedback regarding lesson planning. (E.g. Did the teacher plan for optimal physical activity, time and intensity, during the lesson?)
- Pedometers: Pedometers can be used as a motivator for students, providing the initiative for goal setting, providing data regarding activity level and, offering feedback for the teacher regarding lesson planning. (E.g. Did the teacher plan for optimal physical activity during the lesson?) The pedometers can also help with multi-disciplinary integration and collaboration with other subject areas, such as math and geography.
DINE Healthy
URL: http://www.pesoftware.com
Description: This is a nutrition software package. It analyzes single foods, diets, menus and recipes for 1 to 26 nutrients, including dietary fiber, cholesterol, sodium and fat.
Gr. Level: Secondary school and College
Dietlog
URL: http://www.healthetech.com/corp/consumer/dietlog_upgrade.jsp
Description: Software that helps individuals establish a personal nutrition and weight management program. Now upgrade with BlanceLog.
Fitnessgram
URL: http://www.cooperinst.org/ftgmain.asp
Description: Fitnessgram is a health-related fitness assessment. Students are not compared with each other but on researched health fitness standards carefully established for each age and gender that indicate good health. Feedback including a prescription for improvement is included in the printout.
Gr. Level: Ages 5 through 17+
Fitness Reporter
URL: http://www.fitnessreporter.com/
Description: Fitness Reporter is fitness assessment software for the President's Challenge Fitness Testing Program. It provides a printout with feedback and percentiles based on the President's Challenge program.
Gr. Level: Ages 6 - 17
MicroFit
Description: Microfit is a company that manufactures health and fitness assessment products. The Basic System hardware includes a CTI - computer transducer interface unit, Skinfold Caliper, Polar heart rate monitor, Blood pressure system, Body weight scale and strength platform, Flexometer and Cycle ergometer with RoboBike. The Micorfit software provides a "Fitness Profile" of seven different aspects of physical fitness: Body Weight, Body Fat, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Flexibility, Strength and Cardiovascular Fitness.
Gr. Level: Comparison Standards for ages 15 - 90
HealthFirst
URL: http://www.healthfirstusa.com/
Description: HealthFirst has teamed up with Polar to provide fitness testing systems and software. The hardware products include the TriFIT 600 similar to the Micro
Fit system. Health First also provides HealthFirst Companion (a PDA based fitness software), TriFIT Software and a web based "Wellness Center."
SimAthlete
URL: http://www.pesoftware.com
Description: This software instructs students on how to develop their own practice plan.
Gr. Level: Elementary through high school
Biomechanics Made Easy
URL: http://www.pesoftware.com
Description: This software instructs students on the analysis of movement.
Gr. Level: Elementary through high school
Other - Camera and video, data projection, heart rate monitors, pedometers
General Tools
- Internet
- Online reference tools
- WebQuests
- Spreadsheets
- Databases
- Word processing
- Desktop publishing software
- Web authoring tools
- Telecommunication technologies
- Bulletin board, chat room, discussion forum, ex. Tappedin.org
- Discussion software, ex. Instant Messenger
- Database, ex. ERIC
- Computer simulation
- Video clips
- CD-ROMs
- Online magazines and newsletters
-
School-based or teacher's website for posting grades and comments,
assignments, attendance, summaries of lesson plans, ex. ThinkWave.com
Inspiration
URL: %a{:href => "http://www.inspiration.com/"} http://www.inspiration.com
Description: Inspiration is a powerful visual learning tool that inspires students, grades 4-12, to develop ideas and organize thinking. Use Inspiration to assist you and your students in outlining, diagramming, concept mapping and webbing. Set up live hyperlinks to create direct connections to the immense resources of the Internet.
Kidspiration
URL: http://www.inspiration.com
Description: Kidspiration helps K-3 students see, organize and develop their great ideas. Students can brainstorm ideas with pictures and words; organize and categorize information visually; create stories and descriptions using engaging visual tools; and explore new ideas with webs and visual mapping.
HyperStudio
URL: http://www.hyperstudio.com
Description: For over 10 years, HyperStudio has been the de facto standard classroom multimedia-authoring program. The newest version, HyperStudio 4, represents the next level in desktop and online multimedia communications for educators and students. Use this versatile application with high school students to develop electronic portfolios.
PowerPoint
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/default.asp
Description: With its easy-to-use tools for creating presentations, Microsoft’s PowerPoint is an engaging form of communication in the classroom. Instructors and students use PowerPoint to add images of art, video clips of artists, and art techniques for instructional or creative purposes.
Ways to Use PDAs in Your Physical Education Program
Use the PDAs for self or peer assessments on skills. Students can take a picture or a short 20-second movie clip of themselves performing a skill. Using a predetermined rubric, students can evaluate their skill level by viewing their performance and comparing it to the rubric.
Teachers can use the eyemodule, movie-clip mode, to assist in giving students immediate feedback regarding skill acquisition.
Using the “Sheets to Go” application teachers can record information to be shared and manipulated. For example if students are using pedometers the spreadsheet application is a quick and handy way to record each students’ steps in a class period. View an example of this.
Students can keep track of their fitness scores allowing them immediate access to their level and improvement. View how a school in Maine is developing fitness and assessment software for Palm OS handhelds. “The fitness component is an easy to use program that allows students to enter results of their testing in the areas of strength, cardiovascular fitness, and flexibility. The assessment piece is built around rubrics and observations.” This application can be viewed on Palm’s Website of Education: Success Story at http://www.palm.com/education/studies/study25.html
Teachers, using the “Thought Manager for Educators” application can keep track of various school records, lessons plans, assessments, and class management records. School records can be posted on a Web site for student/parent access. View the information at http://www.handshigh.com/html/tmeducation.html.
In a Physical Education class, intermediate, middle and high school students can use the application PiCoMap to create a sport/skill analysis diagram via a concept map. This software allows students to represent ideas as well as vocabulary. This information can be shared with peers in small group formats or turned in via beaming to the teacher or a printer with infrared capabilities.
Introduce a new unit using the application PiCoMap. Intermediate, middle and high school students can brainstorm movement and skill concepts using this application. It can facilitate sharing of information using the beaming feature
As a way to gauge or assess high school students’ understanding of a lesson, ask a few questions and have students answer them and beam them in before they leave class.
In Health or Physical Education classes, high school students can create a class vocabulary list of movement concepts or health concepts by using the PDA to take notes of new vocabulary learned during class. Students can then beam the list to the teacher by the end of each class.
PDAs can be used in middle or high school small group activities using the jigsaw method. PDAs help students process information in their expert groups and communicate their information to the rest of the class. Each group is given a specific task or activity to accomplish such as list as many activities as you can that assist in developing “muscular strength, flexibility, cardiorespiratory endurance or muscular endurance” in which they become the experts of that given task/activity. Then the groups rearranged to form new groups that comprise of one expert from each of the original groups. Each expert waits his/her turn to share information and beams the text to the others. When high school students are working in small research groups, the PDAs can be used to gather information and facilitate the sharing of information with group members by beaming gathered information to each other. A topic might include “what are the benefits of physical activity/exercise.” Then students can share their rough drafts and receive peer input and editing using the beaming feature.
Software Applications and Hardware/Peripherals
Software:
PiCoMap
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/download.htm
It is a free graphic organizer tool for students. It allows students to create, share, and explore concept maps.
Cooties
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/cootiesAppPage.htm
A virus transfer simulated program
Thought Manager for Education, Hands High Software
http://www.handshigh.com/html/tmeducation.html
Allows for the creation of collapsible outlines, lesson plans, assessments, checklists, rubrics, manage classroom tasks, and sharing of “School Records” via posting them on a Web site.
Documents To Go
http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/index.html
Use Word Excel or PowerPoint on any Palm, Visor or Clie handheld.
Palm Roll Book
This software allows for collection of attendance and grading information.
Palm Fitness
This software allows for collection of fitness scores. Data can be collected over multiple years and reported on one form with graphs.
Fitness Plus (computer)/Fitness Keeper (Palm OS)
http://www.JBSoftware.net/Fitness.htm
Enter students and teachers in the database. Administer Tests and enter scored in the Fitness forms designed by PE Professionals. Automatically calculated percentiles and fitness awards and stores them in the student’s history. Generate year-end award lists in minutes instead of hours. Track your heart rate monitor data from within your fitness database. Windows compatible.
Go ‘n Tell
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/download.htm
Create a virtual scrapbook with this free download. Allows text and graphics. Can be used in combination with Kodac PalmPix Camera.
HandySheets
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/handysheetAppPage.htm
Create quizzes and surveys on a website for downloading onto the handheld.
BFL Heart Rate
BFL Heart Rate is free and calculates your heart rate training zones (Fat burning, Aerobic, Anaerobic and Maximum) using five common methods: Basic, Aerobic, Running, Karvonen and Edwards. Search the Handango site for “fitness” to come up with a variety of fitness software applications.
Handango Fitness Suite
This suite of software combines the most popular and helpful applications into one comprehensive handheld tool. The suite includes: Activity Aid, Work Out Aid, Fitness Helper, Aerobic Aid and Weight Trainer. Search the Handango site for “fitness” to come up with a variety of fitness software applications.
Fling It
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/download.htm
Allows you to download and share web content for offline use. It is a free download.
FreeWrite
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/download.htm
This word processing free download features a 109,000 word spell-checker. It is useful for taking notes, journaling and peer editing.
Sketchy
http://rainbowtech.org/workshops/summer2001/Mindtools.html
This is a free animation/drawing tool. It has an easy to use interface.
Mobile DB3
http://rainbowtech.org/workshops/summer2001/Mindtools.html
This is a database for Palm OS users. It has simple access to flat-file databases.
TealPaint
http://rainbowtech.org/workshops/summer2001/Mindtools.html
This is a paint and sketch software program. It is full of features.
Hardware/Peripherals:
Eyemodule Digital Camera for Visor
http://www.palmgear.com/hs/products/prodoverview.cfm?sid= 85142220020513134222.727639525&prodID=322&prodcatID=5,18
Attach the eyemodule to the top of your Visor to take digital pictures.
Stowaway Portable Keyboard
http://www.targus.com/accessories_pda.asp?Member= 2&PageNumber=1
A full size keyboard that folds up to the size of a handheld device.
Palm portable keyboard
http://www.palm.com/products/accessories/peripherals/
Full size keyboards that fold up to the size of handheld devices.
Kodac PalmPix Camera
http://www.palm.com/products/palmiiic/accessories.html
The Kodac PalmPix Camera lets you take pictures with your Palm.
The Companion
http://www.polarusa.com/2_business/education/products_class.html
Collect attendance, heart rate, fitness assessment, student grading, rubrics and observations. Windows CE operating system.
Palm Auto/Air Recharger Kit
http://www.palm.com/products/palmiiic/accessories.html
This peripheral allows you to charge your battery using a 12-volt cigarette lighter receptacle.
Palm HotSync Cradle
http://www.palm.com/products/palmiiic/accessories.html
The HotSync Cradle allows you to synchronize your data and recharge your handheld.
Palm Shinei I-vox Digital Voice Recorder
http://www.palm.com/products/palmiiic/accessories.html
It replaces the flip-top cover on your handheld and allows you to record conversations.
Mi-NotePad
http://www.store.yahoo.com/pilotgear/minotepad.html
Attach Mi-NotePad to your Palm Handheld and install software to take notes or draw in your own handwriting.
Resources and Readings
Success Stories
http://www.palm.com/education/studies/index.html - k12
Read these first-hand accounts from some of the people who have successfully leveraged the Palm OS in education.
Palm Pilots at Vanderlyn Elementary
http://www.schoolblogs.com/PalmPilots/
Read how Vanderlyn Elementary School is using palms. Especially helpful is the “Timely Tutorials” where instructions for using Palm OS applications are spelled out and “Palms in 5 th Grade” where students have made movies teaching how to use various programs within the Palm OS.
The Kentucky Migrant Technology Project
http://www.migrant.org/project_info/index.cfm?subject =pda&topic=index
Through this site you can access information about using PDAs in education, PDA resources, read articles about PDAs being used in educational, and find ESL resources.
Handheld Education.com
http://www.handheldeducation.com/
This site provides software downloads, reviews of handheld products, and ideas on how to use handheld devices in the K-12 setting.
Handheld Computers as Mindtools
http://rainbowtech.org/workshops/summer2001/Mindtools.html
This site discusses PDAs and Education. It includes links to Palm, Inc. Education, and Palm Mindtools.
Learning in the Palm of Your Hands
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/
This site offers PDA resources for K-12 teachers. Obtain free downloads, read the Palm Monthly newsletter, and find links to several other articles on technology.
Palm Tipsheet
This is a free monthly newsletter providing relevant news and practical tips for handheld users. Visit the archives to see articles from past issues.
“Handhelds Go To Class” By Diane Curtis
Edutopia, The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF)
http://glef.org/FMPro?-DB=articles1.fp5&-format=article.html&-lay=layout%20%231&learnlivekeywords::jargonfree=
Technology%20Integration&-token.3=Innovative%20Classrooms&-token.2=Technology%20Integration&-token.1=Art_955&-max=200&-find
Learn about how teachers in all subject areas are using PDAs in the classroom.
Dick Tracy Goes Digital By Todd Leeuwenburgh.
http://www.electronic-school.com/199901/0199toolsofthetrade.html
Article discusses how educators have taken to personal digital assistants.
A Powerful Learning Tool In the Palm of Their Hands By Andrew Totter
http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=10techupdate.h20
Read an article from Education Week on the usefulness of Palms in Education.
Handheld Computing: New Best Tech Tool Or Just a Fad? By Andrew Totter
http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=04palm.h21
This article has links to several other articles on Technology and Education.
(Education Week on the Web)
Leadership Model
The Educators Palm
http://educatorspalm.org/hhl/leadership/leadmodel.html
Discusses teaming and collaborating, communicating, learning and self-improvement, gathering and analyzing, reference information, organizing and planning. It also discusses using a language translator on the Palm for learning German.
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
http://etext.virginia.edu/ebooks/
Free Ebook library consisting of 1,600 book selections including British and American literature.
Edutopia Online
George Lucas Educational Foundation (GELF)
Learn about innovative models of K-12 teaching and learning in the digital age.