Media mentions: Online physical education classes featured on tech-focused website; Smagorinsky emphasizes human relationships in AJC
Online physical education classes featured on tech-focused website
A recent article on eCampus News highlighted “virtual” physical education courses developed by Department of Kinesiology faculty member Ilse Mason.
By targeting off-campus students, Mason said students can complete the physical education requirement regardless of their location. “It’s having real, life-changing impacts for some of these students,” said Mason. “The technology enables us to see what students are doing even when they’re as far flung as Switzerland, South Korea, or Mt. Kilimanjaro. Most important, the cloud-based program is removing data-focused roadblocks and empowering students to focus on physical education.”
The website, eCampus News, features news and stories that focus on technology and innovation in higher education.
Smagorinsky emphasizes human relationships, not data points
After transferring to a different school, yet another teacher has found a welcome shift from worrying about test scores to worrying about student success.
Peter Smagorinsky, Distinguished Research Professor of English Education in UGA’s College of Education, highlights the importance of teacher-student relationships, rather than data points, in a blog post for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“As often happens with kids in schools serving low-income populations, administration [emphasizes] data, data, data,” he wrote. “At faculty meetings, data were mined to death, along with this teacher’s spirits.”