Using technology to boost sport and activity

They may have been bitter rivals in the past, but now technology and PE are on the same team, the future is looking bright, says Lloyd Burgess...

Technology is bad. If you’ve seen Rocky IV, you’ll know this to be true. While Ivan Drago is wired up to machines that measure his every physical action, Rocky is running up snowy mountains, carrying logs and chopping down trees in preparation for the big fight. When Rocky wins it’s not just a victory over Communism for the good ol’ U S of A, it’s a blow for technology everywhere. Take that, Gorbachev. Take that, Bill Gates.

But before you take your PE lessons out into nature and turn your class into amateur boxers/lumberjacks, take a minute to think about how technology has changed learning drastically in the last few years, or even the last few decades – why should it be any different for PE? Yes, obviously you want children to be physically active, not sat inactive in front of a screen, but in any lesson you know that finding the balance between using the technology and getting the maximum learning output is key.

Watch and learn

The health and fitness crisis, and issues of childhood obesity, have been well documented, and engaging all children in physical activity is key to solving this. Even relatively simple technology can play a big part. “I often use it for watching a video clip,” says Michelle Barker of Lowther Primary School in Barnes. “I tried to play rounders with my class recently, but only three of them had actually played it. So we watched a few video clips, and they got it.”

Videos can also help to engage children in physical activity. “Sometimes, you’ll have boys who have an image of dance in their heads as just ballet, and they’re not interested,” says Rebecca Morley of Castle Hill in Chessington. “But if you show them a clip of street dancing it totally flips their perspective. It’s the same with girls, you can show them videos from campaigns such as #likeagirl, or that women’s football is on the rise. It’s great for opening their eyes to how successful you can be in something that’s been predominantly male focused in the media.”

One program that has helped do just this is imovesdance. Imogen Buxton-Pickles had been going into schools as a dance specialist for over 20 years, but with online streaming, Imogen and husband Ian have been able to roll out a whole program online (which now includes things like Pilates, gymnastics and PE too). “We tend to find is that girls love it at all ages,” says Ian Pickles. “With boys they’re very engaged up until about 7 or 8 when they develop the social expectation that dance is something for girls. That’s why we’ve got dancing based around combat, sports and using football-type movements, as well as topics like the Romans, Vikings and Stone Henge where it’s closer to marching; that engages them more.”

Instant replay

Some schools are not only playing videos, but filming their own, so students can watch themselves performing and go over the correct techniques. “We use the Hudl technique app to record, compare and analyse children’s actions whole variety of ways, which is particularly helpful in cricket and gymnastics,” says Neelam Parmar, Director of E-Learning at Ashford School, Kent. “We found that by watching themselves back on screen, children could easily find the correct positioning. We also use Explain Everything to draw angles and lines over the video, or play videos of two children next to each other to compare and contrast.”

Trackers and accelerometers, wearable devices that measure things such as activity and heart rate, have also proved beneficial. The Youth Sport Trust has found this technology ideal for ensuring children are achieving the Chief Medical Officer’s recommended 60 minutes a day of physical activity, whether it’s from riding their bike or walking to school, or exercise they do in PE or at break times.

“I’ve seen some good examples of schools that use trackers to project children’s heart rates onto a screen during PE,” says Will Swaithes, Head of PE for the Trust. “This way they can see if they get into their target zone with a nice audio-visual reference, and then they know what hard work looks and feels like.”

The use of tablets and screens also allows the teacher to differentiate abilities, so children can move on at their own rate. “I’ve seen schools with QR code readers,” says Will. As children try out different skills – a badminton serve or a balance exercise, for example – they scan the appropriate code and it will bring up a video with some simple teaching points that are easy for kids to understand. As long as the tech isn’t shoehorned in and detracting from active time, it can really add value to lessons.”

With that in mind, the Youth Sport Trust also created its own assessment tool, Skills2Achieve. “It’s based on four key themes – Healthy Me, Social Me, Thinking Me and Physical Me – that take in the whole day and is very much centred on developing the child’s health and wellbeing,” says Youth Sport Trust’s Matt Thatcher. “It can be differentiated for each child’s learning rate, and because it’s easy to monitor and assess progress, teachers can clearly see those children who are underperforming, and address it immediately. You can even break it down into sub-themes to see if any areas have been neglected, which again helps with that holistic development. It’s compatible with tablet devices too, so the teacher or TA can upload data onto an iPad instantly so that nothing is forgotten or lost.”

Future-proof play

For any child starting primary school today, mobile games and apps will be ever-present in their lives. It’s changing how they live, learn and communicate, and schools are adapting to well to the ways in which these children focus and engage in school. So technology needs to be embraced rather than being used as a scapegoat for why children are less active.

The Youth Sport Trust’s ‘Class of 2035’ report looked at what the future of technology might hold for physical education, saying that ‘Quantified Self’ systems, which pair wearable technology with activity tracking, could provide powerful incentives to regular activity using game-like interfaces and reward systems.

This technology could be discreetly embedded into clothes or sports equipment giving teachers valuable data which can help children improve. The report highlights the Babolat Play Pure Drive tennis racquet, which uses data collected by electronics in the handle to measure things such as the power and spin on shots, and relays it to an app. You can even compare your own statistics to those taken from professional players.

While this connectivity and data analysis could play a huge role in the future of tech in PE, we’ve seen that it’s something that can and should be harnessed now, even if it’s on a basic level. Screens, tablets, trackers and assessment systems can not only engage and incentivise children and aid teaching and learning, but give us a better understanding of our students’ physical literacy, both collectively and individually. And of course, using technology to share that best practice can only be of further help to schoolchildren and teachers across the UK.

The PE Geek’s best apps

Jarrod Robinson, aka The PE Geek, is often asked for his favourite apps for PE. Here are three of his favourites…

Balance It

This is a task card resource for PE teachers. A simple and powerful way to provide students with visual prompts to help them develop gymnastics skills.

Swork It

An absolute must download. Students get dynamically created video routines from 5 to 60 minutes to fit your schedule. It’s great for independent warm-ups and work outs.

Fit Radio

Music is one of the most powerful tools in the PE Classroom, and with this app you have access to an endless steam of high-energy music designed to motivate.

Check out more from Jarrod at thepegeek.com