THIS IS A LINK TO FITBIT
We’re in the midst of yet another exciting chapter about how technology will impact our everyday activities. Consumer tech is leading the way by teaching us that both big and “little” data can transform fundamental patterns of behavior. Education may not be far behind. We know that the interaction between faculty and students is the lynchpin of educational success. Faculty are in the best position to observe and influence student engagement, which research tells us is the number one determinant of a student’s success. For example, are students persisting through difficult content? Participating in class? Revisiting course material after class? The Fitbit approach to educational data gathering may be a key missing link. They say what gets measured gets improved. By paying closer attention to great teaching, we stand to make powerful advances in how we understand and improve learning. Sometimes revolutions can happen in evolutionary ways.
One way we can obviously use FitBit in online learning is with physical education. FitBit offers a comprehensive fully customizable user interface. You can adjust goals, steps, heart rate, calories, as an example of flexibility with the device. In PE, students do a bevy of physical activity, what if we incorporated FitBit as a method of behaviorism. FitBit collects a lot of data, and that is a good thing for statistics, and mathematics courses as well.
THIS IS A LINK TO HAIKUDECK:
With so many students, email addresses, decks, classes, and shared devices, it’s no wonder teachers sometimes run into trouble finding their students’ projects or accounts. Thankfully, Haiku Deck helps make one part of this equation a lot easier by explaining the best ways to use Haiku Deck for education. Haiku Deck makes it easy to follow the best practices recommended by experts: simplify your message, use images to amplify emotional impact, and keep formatting clean and consistent.
In Class, we often have to write up a little bit of an introduction for our classmate. What better way than to use Haiku Deck as your personal calling card. With Haiku deck you can creatively describe yourself to others, I a clean and aesthetically pleasing way. Haiku deck is easy to navigate, and simple to implement as well as share. It comes available on mobile devices so you can instantly make changes on the fly, and it will populate the changes across your account.
References
Another example of Haiku Deck that could be used in class is to teach visually. As access to the creation and consumption of digital media increases, educators must embrace an expanded view of literacy. Teaching the skills of reading and writing is no longer enough. Students need to be able to use images as a currency for exchanging feelings, stories, and opinions with the world at large. So... maybe a picture is not worth a thousand words. Perhaps a picture is worth a thousand ideas?
References
Byrne, R. (2013, February 25). 76 Examples of
Using Haiku Deck in School. Retrieved from
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/02/76-examples-of-using-haiku-deck-in.html#.VvTLDvl96Uk
David,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of using a device like FitBit in physical education classes. I could also see it being good for health classes of many types as a way to show students direct results of their efforts. The sharing feature that most FitBit devices have would also allow the students to share results through a common social media platform.
David,
ReplyDeleteI think if I had a FitBit in college for my required physical education courses, I may have been more encouraged to adopt physical activity into my daily routine. I think this is a wonderful idea, and I agree with you (and Heather) that there are many other ways to apply this creative idea to the classroom.
I investigated HaikuDeck after seeing yours in your Class Cafe introduction. I loved this visual introduction and agree that this would be a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom on the first day with introductions. I can also see this being applied to a job skills classroom. As a matter of fact, I may build one (during the next break) to post on my LinkedIn as an introduction to my new skill sets.
Nancy
David,
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for the use of FitBit for instruction! I had never heard of HaikuDeck. I plan to check it out.