Are We Teaching the Use of Technology in Physical Education?

Purpose: The purpose of this study was threefold; (a) to determine how physical education teacher education (PETE) students are being evaluated on their use of technology during their teaching, (b) what types of technology are they using during their teaching, and (c) to determine the role of videotaping in the evaluation process of these students.

Methods: Telephone interviews were conducted with nine participants, who meet the following criteria: general physical education professor of a physical education teacher education master's programs and earned a Committee of Physical Education Teacher Education award during the years of 2004 or 2005. Prior to each telephone interview, copies of the interview questions were sent to each participant to allow the participant to prepare thorough responses. Each telephone interview was recorded using a digital audio recorder and then transcribed by the researcher. Data gathered during the telephone interviews was combined and independently analyzed by the researchers using open, axial, and selective coding (Burnaford, Fisher, & Hobson, 2001). Categories and patterns developed by individual investigators was then compared and discussed until a consensus was reached.

Analysis/Results: Seven of the nine participants did not evaluate their PETE students on their use of technology during their teaching or gave very little weight to it in their program. One participant has their students take a full course in technology in physical education. Another participant evaluates their students' use of technology over a variety of courses. The most common types of technology that the participants had see their students use during their teaching were computers, videotaping/video clips, heart rate monitors, PowerPoint, pedometers, and e-portfolios. Participants were asked specifically about videotaping during the evaluation process of their students' teaching. Two of the participants did not use videotaping at all during their evaluation process of their students' teaching. The participants that did use videotaping during the evaluation process used it as feedback, reflection, and self-analysis. Six of the seven participants that did use videotaped evaluations used them as reflection or self-analysis for their students. The other programs used it as a demonstration to the instructor that the students were using good teaching practices, a variety of teaching styles, and best practices.

Conclusions: If we extrapolate from these results then most PETE programs teach and expect students to appropriately use current technology when teaching PE. Future researchers need to look into designing evaluations for the use of technology while teaching PE.