EDUCATION 573 - Technology and Education in PE/Wellness

I have been teaching high school physical education and wellness for 7 years. Technology in physical education is a vital learning tool that has remained untapped for years. While classrooms thrive on technology, students in the gym are still using bats and balls (along with various other equipment). I think the biggest problem is that physical educators and wellness teachers lack the resources to use technology. In our school, every physical education teacher and wellness teacher is operating on their own personal technology. We have been promised iPads for a couple of years now and we have completed grants to get iPads and Apple TV's.

I feel that we as educators would utilize apps and other resources in our classes more, if we were uniformed and most importantly provided with the tools we need to get the job done. Let's face it, you don't send a surgeon in to perform heart surgery with nothing in hand. We don't hire a painter to paint our house, only to find out that he/she doesn't provide the tools necessary to complete the job. As teachers, we are walking into a classroom/gym full of students that thrive on technology, only we have tools that don't allow students to learn to their maximal potential.

'The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.'

- C.S. Lewis