Alan,

This is definitely a great idea. I do fitness running with my high school students, the 10th graders run the mile every fall. Using technology with a system like you described would be very helpful and accurate both for the students and for the teachers as opposed to calling out times and check points with a stopwatch. The teacher would be able to manage the students a lot better and especially with any class disruptions such as a student coming in late, medical concern, etc. If the device had sound or voice it would be great to let students know their time at checkpoints (after each lap) and encourage them throughout the run!

Data would be organized, analyzed and graphed out which is helpful for reporting scores and information to the state, district and department. Students can also track their progress from the pre-assessment run throughout the unit and during the final run. This technology would also allow for more individual self assessments or peer/small group assessments which is great for high school students.

Jessica

Being a track Coach, have often tried to come up with inventions to expedite meets and take away human error. One invention I had thought of was a laser measurer for the long/triple jump as well as the shot put and the discuss. No more bending over trying to read a taope measure 100's of times a meet. Imagine having the readoutin inches right in front of you. Another idea is to use PDA's for effort entries These PDAs could then be taken to the head score and downloaded via bluetooth technology. No more re-writing numbers and possibly making a mistake. We have come a long way from faxes for results. We now email everything to all schools and do entries for meets the same way.

Those were some great ideas. We put on a city wide track meet for grades four through six and used volunteers to help run the events. If your ideas were put into action there would be no room for the human errors we accept when we have no choice but to use these inexperienced volunteers.

High school tennis is one of the few sports that do not utilize a referee or umpire; therefore athletes are expected to use good etiquette in making quick and accurate calls. In professional tennis today, umpires and lines judges are expected to make calls, which at times can make or break a player mentally. Not that this will ever happen at the high school level, but I would like to see sensors placed on all the lines so that this will take the pressure off of lines judges and eliminate human error. Currently, they have a NET CAM that shows a close ups in where the ball really landed. For the first time, the US Open Masters Series tournament has allowed players (like Football) to challenge the call. I LOVE THIS! Most of the time the players are right when they believe their ball was in. Although this may not ever be implemented at the amateur level, it is nice to see it in professional events!

Hi Sandee, that would be great if it were to happen. I coach jv tennis at my high school. It seems every once and a while one or more matches has a conflic, and i spend the entire match working with my player to take the high road and control their emotions, when clearly the opponent is cheating and will always get away with it at our level. I dont know how much that technology is but it would be nice to see it at the high school level, i agree it would take some pressure off of the kids and allow them to have more fun just playing the match. Bobby Herodes

This is a great idea! The ideas of sensors in the ball and on the lines could eliminate the chains used in football and there would longer be any question as to whether the ball crossed the goal line.

It would be very interesting to put some sort of digital device (camera) on a soccer player, football player, dancer, gymnist, etc.... to see how well they use spacial awareness as a tool for success. This would be great a way to connect elementary PE concepts like spacial awareness to real life professions. Even as far as cameras on people walking in malls, after a sports event, etc.... This is just another way we can help children connnect to what we teach in class. Another idea is to have a track, field, etc... that is able to keep track of your heart rate and number of steps through the special shoes that are required to use when exercising on such a facility. This data would automatically be placed into a computer system that keeps track of every child's data. This would be a very expensive plan. But as you said, we're dreaming!

Keith,

Those are very interesting ideas. I wonder if technology isn't too far off from coming up with an actual device that is consumer friendly and be able to record steps, heart rate and document all the information as it is being performed. Look how pedometers took off and mainstream society now use them. I like your ideas.

GoPro cameras! The students that ski for my school use them! They get great footage to look at their technique and also gives them something they can post on their Facebook page!

I would love to know what my players are thinking on the Lacrosse field. Just to communicate with the players on the field would be a lot easier then shouting across the field. Of course, it would have to be a two way communicator. The girls wear goggles, and the piece could be attached to an earbud. I guess it would be a battle of coaches minds instead of the players on the field, like chess players on the chess board. The other side of this is to have an electronic virtual board with the field and the players. I could move the players on the board and the players on the field would move in the postions as directed.....

I think the wireless communication between the player and coach is a great idea. Do you think you could make a version of it so that it's waterproof. I would love to talk to my swimmers while they're racing!

"Thinking Outside the Coaching Box:"

1. Players wear an electronic device in their ears that allow the coach to communicate with an individual player. Frankly, it's frustrating at times constantly trying to yell above the noise in a gymnasium!

2. 3-second transmitter: officials are signaled when an offensive player is in the lane for 3 seconds. Players are fitted with a coded device. Electronic sensors in the lane (imbedded in the boards) monitor and send signals to a computer that constantly monitors activity.

Nice! A guy after my own heart, I too coach basketball and yes, it is very difficult to yell over everything in the gym, especially at critical moments in the game when you're trying to call that last shot with no time-outs left and :12 on the clock, haha, I hear ya.

Many many years ago when I was a physical education major at Kent State University, our professor had us wear a vest with some sort of radio inside. The device also had an ear piece and while we were practice teaching she would talk to us. (She called it the "bug".)
Some classmates found this annoying and distracting. I liked getting immediate feedback about how I was doing. Feedback was both supportive and constructive.
I wonder why my professor never took this any further. Fred this is exactly what you were talking about and as the learner, I found this to be very effective.

I like the idea of the electronic piece in the ear. It would be so much easier to get their attention especially in a gym with 30 2nd graders!!!!

I like your ideas but would also like to see a headband the players could wear that have a laser detector that will make a noise if the players heads get up to high when they are in their defensive stance. I know we always have to work on keeping players in their stance.
I really like the idea of the 3-second transmitter because that is something that is just not called anymore.

As a softball coach, communication with my pitcher and catcher with a ear device would be nice. This would end the use of hand signals, which can be picked up by the other coach. To let the catcher know, via a ear piece as to what pitch to throw or the throw down to a base, would be pretty awesome.
A palm pilot to doa score look would be good. You get home and download the information right into your desktop and instant statistics for the prints out.

I too am looking for a handheld device and software for coaching too. I coach soccer and would love the ability to chart things easily (possession time, poor decisions, turnovers, etc.) with a palm device. To then take this information, easily download it to my computer, and have it analyzed somehow would be incredibly hepful and time saving.

Mark,

Good luck with the handheld devices, a district near me has provided them to all of their PE staff, the only problem is they have very limited and sporatic wireless connection when out on the field. Those involved say it is not worth it and they have a technology company on sight.

As a culminating activity for all of our district 5th graders the elementary PE teachers hold a fun and fitness day. One of the morning events is the mile run. We have investigated the possibility of renting, leasing, buying or borrowing an electronic timing device. The students would wear ankle bracelets with computer chips inside and this technology would record without human error the time for hte mile. Since we are timing about 700 5th graders it would make life simpler. the technology is already available but we need to find a grant or a very generous person to obtain the device.

Being a softball coach at the high school, the hardest part of the job is inputing game statistics and making programs at the end of a season for college coaches. It would be a tremendous time saver if your scorebook was like a clipboard, and you just had to keep the book as you normally would. At the end of the game, all you have to do is sync it to your computer and all of the information would be transfered into a spreadsheet format by game as well as season long. It could also be helpful when scouting teams and for having printable information on teams that you may play twice in a season. You will not have to worry about losing information or your pencil breaking in the middle of the game. How cool would that be?

Having had two open heart surgeries before the age of 36, breaking 3 vertabrae while playing soccer against Syracuse in 1986, having spinal fusion, i have spent many years studying the mind-body relationship and a great deal of my coaching years working with the psychological aspect of sport with my players. I truly believe that athletics will help students gain valuable insight into themselves and ito their futures. The will to win far outweighs the technical skill of any player. Likewise fearing an opponent can lead to paralysis. Totally thinking outside the box, i would love to have the ability to fit my players with head gear that would monitor brain waves, specifically the emotion portion of the brain that would signal when certain emotions were present, such as fear, and anger. I have always strived to have my players remain emotionless during the match so as to never give the opponent any information that they could use against them. Well as a coach we are many times makeing educated guesses, or going with our instincs relative to our players state of mind at any given moment during a match. It would be amazing if we had factual data or information on the bench at our fingertips before, during or after the match. Remember in soccer you may not re-enter during the first half of the game. So when i was with the team during a pre-game speech i would know exactly what players were about to pass out with fear, and what players were ready to go. Bobby Herodes

Taking your head gear a step further, wouldn't it be nice to be able to communicate to them through that head gear during a game instead of trying to scream across the field? You could also talk an angry player down or help a player with confidence in their play, or even see an open opportunity that they have not seen on the filed. If pro football players and even some high school football teams can communicate with players on the field through head gear, why can't other sports? An ear piece behind a basketball players ear telling him to have the confidence to take the ball to the hole because he's quicker than the big guy, could do wonders for a game. In fact, I think it would drastically change the world of high school and college athletics as we know it.

Mary: I like the idea that you pose but I would think it may be distracting to the player as well. It would take some getting use to. All coaches and players would also have to be able to use such devices in order to keep a fair advantage.
I feel this would be very good for players like a catcher communicating with a pitcher during a softball or baseball game.

This is a fun question! The first thing that comes to my mind is the GPS systems that are now attached to golf carts at some golf courses so players can track the distance of the ball to the pin. Is this legal? I have a few ideas of my own.
1. I have been wanting to use pedomters in my classes and at the same time want to monitor my students heart rates. Maybe it is out there, but why hasn't anyone invented a combination pedometer/heart rate monitor all in one device that can record heart rate,calories burned, steps, and miles during activity. I find this odd, when the cell phones of today can perform multiple electronic tasks.

2. Locker room tasks are always fun, what if each student used a fingerprint sensitive keypad on their locker instead of turning a dial left -right -left to open it. This could eliminate the phrase" I forgot my combination."

3. How about ear piece devices for students, athletes, and the visually challenged in your classes? This way teachers could communicate with them as they perform. These could also be used for E.S.O.L students and it would automatically translate your lessons/feedback into different languages.

4. What about a smaller designed Dance Dance Revolution pad that could be placed on a tray in front of wheelchair bound students so they could use there hands to dance with the others in the class. I sometimes work with students with disabilities and feel technology could be very useful to this population in physical education.

I am impressed with your ideas.
These ideas certainly would make a positive impact and make our jobs more efficient.

What I would like to add to the heart rate monitor/pedometer device would be a way to have students record the information into a computer. Along with that would be the software that would create an individual as well as class report of their progress over the semester.

Your locker room idea would be wonderful. Last school year was my first year to have to deal with locker rooms and there is too much time and drama wasted in that room. The touch identification makes sense. Kids forget their combs the first week of the semester and after breaks.

The DDR hand pad is such a reasonable idea, it seems like it should already exist.

Polar USA may have monitors and or software that will meet your needs try going to this site to browse. http://www.polarusa.com/education/default.asp
I found something that you may be able to use to meet your needs. SPORTLINE Pulse Monitor Pedometer Model Number: 355
Check it out at http://www.onlinefitness.com/product.cfm?pr=548

Hope this helps.

Ben

I wish to see technology that takes the human error factor out of officiating football. So many decisions are left to be made in a subjective manner, technology is the ultimate objective tool. We've come a long way with using technology to help officials, such as the first down automated markers. The problem is the time it takes for officials to review material aided by technology. My hope is as technology advances officiating will take less time out of the game and be more objective so both teams are truly on the same playing field.

This always raises the question of are we changing the game to much if you take away human error. In many games human error has won or lost the game because of a call or a none call.

I think that the future of competitive swimming involves doing everything wirelessly. Right now, there are cords all over the place.

Just this year, Colorado has come up with a way to have back up timers relay their times from their watch, wirelessly, to the meet computer. I think that they will eventually take things even further.

I see all the communication becoming wireless over the next ten years. This would be easier to set up and faster to run. I think this has potential.

Every student has an ipod these days. Well, this ipod that I am thinking of is controlled by the teacher who can interject positive feedback and encouragement to the student while they are performing a particular task such as a push-up. It would also be able to help the student correct their form or give them an alternate task if the one they were attempting to do was too difficult. This ipod would also be able to convert steps to calories expended while the music plays.

Hi Lesly! You'll get a kick out of this. I had a student who was allowed to wear his ipod all day in school but only in one ear. It is in his IEP to help him focus. I think your idea is great especially for physical education, because then you can motivate the students while they are listening to music as well as help others without singling them out.

My passion is softball and I dream of watching more games on television. It is improving but still not where I want it to be. I dream of watching softball games and having a timer on the scoreboard of how fast a girl is from home to first, or how fast a ball is hit off of a bat. I would like to see that appear on a scoreboard. As softball is a very mental sport, I would like to have some sort of transmitter as to what my players are thinking in the batters box or even in the field so I can help them succeed mentally.

As a coach of an indoor sport, I think that having ear pieces to communicate with players on the floor would be a lot easier sometimes than to yell. If all players are not possible, at least in the point guard's ears, as they must call the plays.

For phys. ed. some type of electronic display either in the gym or locker rooms of what will be going on that day, or highlights of the activity itself.

I'm sure this stuff is all on the way in the near future, who knows, it probably already exists.

I know that there is technology already available for this use. But we still do not have it in our district. I would love to have a handheld that can be used to imput grades, attendance, scores and etc. We have piloted a couple different devices but have not been able to find one that is completely compatible with our system and programs.

It would be so nice also if programs were more universal instead of specific. Districts are constantly under funded and resources are low. I would love to feel more confident spending the district's money on technology with the knowledge that it won't be completely outdated in a year or two. And if upgrades are created, that they become available to current users free or at a very low cost.

Handhelds are a must for a PE teacher! Laptops with wireless access are a close second, but are cumbersome. I would love to use a PDA in my classes!

Each year our school implements a walking/running program for the K-3 students. Our method of recording the students process is rather old fashioned, a teacher marks their hands as they go around the playground and each dot represents a lap. I would love to eliminate this method and bring the program into the twenty first century. I too would like to have ability to equip the students with GPS bracelets that can be downloaded directly to my computer.

I think a great idea would be able to monitor all of your students heart rate during a fitness day. I would be able to keep track of their heart rates, but at the same time, they are responsible for writing down the correct information. I have the students record their own information at the end of class, but always double check, because there is always one or two who try to cheat. This way, it would eliminate any possible cheating. Another great idea, would be to have board the illuminate letting the students know what they are doing for the day.
From a coaches perspective, if the my basketball players could were ear plugs, then I could specifically target the player(s) and let them know what they did wrong, or what to watch out for. This would help eliminate me losing my voice from yelling.

I have two wishes for technology in the Physical Education setting. The first one would be for each of my students to be able to wear a heart rate monitor during their mile run. I want the monitor to tell the student’s when they are either working too hard or not enough. This way my student’s would learn how to pace themselves during the run. I would also want their heart rate to be beamed to my PDA so I could keep track of their heart rate on a daily basis.

The second wish would be to have built in computer into the gym that is safe from any equipment hitting them. This computer would have a projector on it so I could use it to give test and information to my students. I like to use computers as a station in the gym but I work in a very small gym and the computer always seems to get hit by a flying ball.

I could see equipment that comes with technology that when zapped creates a 3D image on screen of how the equipment was used and analyzes the skill and how to improve it. For instance, a golf ball would be able to detect how the club face hit, the speed of the club at impact, the distance of the ball, etc. Based on this information, a video representation on how the ball was hit could be seen on screen after a golfing session or in the golf cart. Recommendations could be made to improve your swing.

Another idea would be to have students fitness information be able to create a personalized workout video for them with specific exercises geared for their problem areas and abilities.

For teaching I would like to have a device hooked up to the parents and the student in class to show them everytime the student wasn't moving or was disrupting class it would show up on the parents cell phone by telling them what they are doing wrong(text message). I am not sure this is ethical and probably not possible but it would save a lot of phone calls.

I had to chuckle when I read your idea. I don't know if it is ethical either, but I would love it if someone would invent one of those devices also. I agree it would save some phone calls.

I would love voice recognition for inputting grades. Where you can say the student's name, grade for the quarter and the comment for the report card. It is annoying to have to input all of your students into the computer. Also I think it would be fun to have a halographic image of thier favorite athletes demonstrating skills and even explaining technique. Picture Michael Jordan teaching a jump shot in your gym!

For soccer I would love a chip of some sort to put in their cleats that measures the absorbancy of the ball into their foot when they trap the ball. So many of my players can't keep the ball within in a foot of their body when they trap it. I could use this info for them and myself to see how "hard" that first touch really is.

I can see how a voice stimulated program would help with report cards. It would then allow us to give more specific feedback in regards to our students. Isn't it fun to think about the possibilities? I wonder if I will see it in my career?

That is a wonderful idea! We are required to write narratives for each student in PE class. They are required to be around 1600 characters and for each class of 22 x 5 it gets to be cumbersome! I could "write" meaningful comments in probably half the time.

Grades in PE have been an issue for some time. I look forward to being able to input my evaluations instantaneously on a hand held device and by voice is even better. I know to some degree it is available, but cost keeps getting in the way. Hopefully with strengthening of our PE department we will get a stronger voice and get the tech group on board. The halographic images sounds amazing as well. What an inspiration for the kids.

I would love to have several video camera's with instant play back set-up around my gymnastics gym. This way a gymnast could perform a routine and or skill and have immediate feedback. It could play in slow motion and also break down each skill. This would help save so much time at practice.

In PE, I would love to have a student tracking system. I would use this tracking system to know where my students are during class, for example if they are late, or called down to the office. To see how much area they cover during a soccer game, or touch football game.

We also have a problem with theft in our locker rooms. It would be ideal if we could record each studnets movements in the school and figure out who tampered in the locker rooms. It would save us a lot of headaches.

In thinking about sports, it might be nice if somehow they can "activate" the lines of the court on the gym floor. For instance, in a volleyball game if the ball is out the line would not light up when the ball hit the floor. If the line did light up than the ball hit the line and the ball would be considered in. Maybe the same could be done for badminton and tennis and it would help to alleviate some errors that might occur.

I would also love to use heart rate monitors but being in elementary school with no locker rooms, it is not possible to get the chest strap in the proper place. It would be nice if finger pads could be placed around the gym and be used to determine heart rate using their index finger. This way immediate feedback is given to the students. Are they working too hard? Or are they not working hard enough?

I like the line idea. You gave me another idea. Have a way to have certain lines show up on the gym floor. Like if you're playing volleyball only the volleyball lines are visible, basketball would only show basketball in the same gymnasium. For PE this would be great. You could program in the lines you would use for certain units and then you could set your gym for that unit by using the computer to trigger the lines instead of spend an hour laying down tape that the kids love to pull up before you've finished your unit. Even going as far as making targets on the walls for various skills, they could light up when hit like a touch screen on a handheld and record scores for students while using that protion of the floor/ wall.

I love the line idea. I would like to use something like that in my physical education class. I would like lines that, with a touch of a button, would appear or disappear on the gym floor leaving the lines needed for that particular sport. While playing that sport, like you say, if the ball hits a line it will light up and vice versa. Our gym floor has so many lines and some are not even correct. Your line idea may be a money maker in the future. Great idea!

I would love to see technology that could call a ball in or out in the game of volleyball to remove the possibility of human interferance (i.e. calling a ball out that was in or missing it completely). There would have to be some sort of device in the ball that could help it be tracked by a computer that was simultaneously watching the lines. I would love to see technology make it possible for students to particpate physically in an physical actvity that they could not have access to because of their location. Having a holographic gymnasium, so students could experience any physical activity possible. Taking virtual reality to the extremes, like if they were in the inner city in LA, they could hike on the Appilatian Trail with the feel of the terrain and the fresh air. Or play in a World series with all of the greatest baseball players in history.