Understoodit: Checking for Understanding for the 21st Centruy

I've been toying around with lots of these Classroom Response Systems (CRS) and like the fact that many of them are free and can be accessed with multiple devices (SMS, twitter, web, apps, etc.). I've listed a bunch of systems at the end of the post but wanted to share 2 new ones including one still in closed Beta.  Although I love the intent of these tools, the majority of the scenarios are unfortunately still modeled in the traditional teacher-centeted class or lecture-based delivery format. From what we know about different learning and teaching styles, surely we can give better examples of student-centered learning, problem-based, project-based, team-based, just something besides the lecture.

Teaching, Quizzes, Online Polls, Study Aids

1. GoSoapBox
2. GoClass
3. Poll Everywhere (SMS, Twitter, Web)
4. ResponseWare - (Smartphone & clickers)
5. StudyBoost
6. SAP Web 2.0 (Twittter) - PC
7. UnderstoodIt (Beta)
8. Wiffiti

Understoodit is still in closed Beta, but you can sign-up and try to score your own Beta invite. It looks to be on par with a lot of the other systems that allow anonymous responses, but is that just between students or is there a tracking mechanism for teachers?

GoSoapBox is another classroom response system that has an interesting tag-line "Hear what your students are thinking!" Now if I could really hear what they thought, that would be pretty scarey because I know what I think while I'm in a class. This system is anonymous between students but the interactions can be tracked by the teacher.

Getting started with GoSoapBox

View more presentations from John Pytel'

GoClass is a new iPad app that allows teachers to create lessons using different forms of media, project these lessons with a compatible projection system and broadcast specific media to student iPads.

Related articles

• Understoodit Lets Students Voice Their Confusion Without Having to Raise Their Hands (techcrunch.com)
• Confused in Class? There's an App for that (understoodit.com)

Choose My Plate: Good or Bad? (poll)

Here is the USDA's newest Food Guide logo - Choose My Plate. New Logos of all types and even separate areas can be found here at the USDA site. It looks like they wanted to separate the physical activity from the nutrition which allowed them to simplify the number of elements needed. What do you think?

Try this audience polling system at Poll Everywhere

Try this audience polling system at Poll Everywhere

What do you want to learn in terms of tech in PE?

Replace your audience response systems with Poll Everywhere

Overly intense practice session or just good touch coaching? (poll)

Slideshow: Holy Family Incident On Tape: MyFoxPHILLY.com

Tough or Good Coaching?
Here's an interesting news piece about a tough basketball practice emphasizing physical positioning and rebounding. Have you ever been through a similar type of practice? Please take the following poll and watch the coach as he says he doesn't think his actions were out of line but then says it was just an accident.

1. Do you think the coach's action were justifiable as a means of "toughening" up his team?
2. Do you think the coach should have been suspended?
3. Would you go back to play for that coach if you were that player and he "apologized" in that manner?
4. Do you have personal professional liability insurance when you volunteer coach, substitute teach, or coach (paid)?  Do you need to have a policy to cover you?
5. Is there a school liability insurance policy covering your actions?

Via Yahoo Sports Ugly altercation between coach, player leads to tense TV apology - The Dagger - NCAAB - Yahoo! Sports

As reported in the Yahoo piece:

Asked by Stephanopoulos earlier in the interview whether he realized his actions were out of line, O'Connor responded "not really," adding that he was only trying to make his players better. Furthermore he repeatedly referred to the incident as "an accident" and "unintentional."
Ultimately, the better PR approach might have been for O'Connor to admit he was wrong, to describe the behavior as out of character and to insist that it will not happen again. 

Employer demands Facebook Login from employee - WWYD (470)

Image via Wikipedia
Would you give your employer or potential employer your Facebook username and password? Take the poll below to voice your vote on this issue.

Employer Demands Facebook Login From Job Applicants

"...the ACLU has taken up the case of Maryland corrections officer Robert Collins, who was required to provide his Facebook login and password to the Maryland Division of Corrections during a recertification interview so the interviewer could log on to his account and read not only his postings, but those of his family and friends too. 

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guiding Questions

1. Does an employer have the right to ask this of you?
2. Does the government have the right to ask you a similar request if you are applying to one of its military or intelligence agencies?  
3. What are your rights in terms of what potential employers are allowed to ask you?
4. Is there precedence or previous legal decisions for what is permissible and what is not in job interviews?
5. What are your legal rights and responsibilities as a teacher?
6. What legal rights do students enjoy (and do they have legal responsibilities)?
7. What are today's main approaches to moral education?
   
   
   Be sure to check out School Law & Ethics in our text
   
   

McDonald's sued over Happy Meals

CBC News - Consumer Life - McDonald's sued over Happy Meals

Should McDonald's be held accountable for their marketing and "nutrition" machinery they call Happy Meals?

Suspended Toronto student gets gym access back

This story is very intriguing for all of us in PE as it appears that a student who voiced his displeasure for a lack of support for intramural soccer was suspended from school and "banned from intramural sports for criticizing the school's physical education department". At an assembly he said:

"We now have it instilled into us that soccer [at Northern] is synonymous with the word 'unnecessary,'" Cohen, a soccer player, told the assembly.

Now is that how we handle issues of discipline, free-speech and communication? How would you as a future PE teacher/administrator handle it? Let's talk!

Read more here: Suspended Toronto student gets gym access back: "A Toronto student suspended and banned from intramural sports for criticizing the school's physical education department has recovered his athletic privileges."