In my second blog post, which I wrote soon after the first one, I created a Top 10 HPE Tech Tools list (click the link to see it) that I use regularly in my programming. Once again, I did this with the encouragement of Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler on twitter). After spending a great deal of time examining my iPad and Chromebook and collating all of the apps and tools I use into one big list, I began what was quite a challenging task to whittle it down to 10. Eventually, my decision making process centered on selecting the ones I use most frequently and that felt were most effective. Having said that, I want to take this opportunity to provide a separate list of honourable mentions, which are in no particular order.
- YouTube
- iMovie
- GIF Toaster
- Pic Collage
- CoachNote
- Coaches’ Eye (this was a tough one to leave off the list)
- Numbers for iOs
- Playsport.net & TGFU app (great lists of TGfU oriented games)
- Seven Minute Workout app
- IntervalTimer
- Pocket & Feedly (places to save interesting articles & blogs)
- FIT Radio (similar to Spotify, but streaming music is tailored more for exercising. There’s even a Phys Ed class workout playlist that I use a lot)
- All Google apps (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, & Slides)
- A bunch of handy chrome extensions (Save to Drive, Add to Google Classroom, Print Friendly & PDF, goo.gl URL Shortener [also creates easy QR codes], MakeGIF Video Capture, and Screencastify)
As I move into the future, and I'm not proud to admit this, I need to begin incorporating two very important pieces of hardware into my PE classroom. These are pedometers and heart rate monitors. Many other Physical Educators have been using these for years and, for some reason, I just haven't gotten with the program. This is my next important goal.
