Toru

Is anyone out there using Polar products?

https://www.polar.com/en

Our department recently discovered that we had a stock pile of H10 Heart Rate Sensors. They had been sitting in the back of our storage space for a number of years. The story goes that they were ordered and had been planned to be used with the students. However, the IOS capability of most student phones back then was not compatible with the product. Thus the monitors were put in storage for another day. Well that day has come and we want to use the monitors to enhance students learning.

As with all new technological additions there is a learning process. As a department we are now learning how best they can be used to enhance learning. Ensuring that teaching time isn’t eaten into as we introduce the product to the students is something we want to avoid. Also ensuring that the use of the monitors is meaningful and not gimmicky (you know I hate gimmicky tech). The plan is to use the monitors in the following ways;

1. Monitor the students HR over the course of a unit to measure their level of intensity.
2. Monitor HR over the unit to see if there is an increase in cardiac output.
3. GPS track the students to to see the distance covered during the unit.
4. Create a leaderboard amongst all the classes in a grade level to create competition.

The data that Polar can send to a device is great and the information sent back in real time helps keep the students focused. I have used something similar in the past to motivate myself to run a little hard or further. I can already hear some of the conversations my students will be having with each other when they see who has been working hard and who has taken it easy during the session.

One area that I am really concerned with about the product is that we can only have one student send data to a device. It currently requires a whole class to have monitors and a connected device. This makes the whole process clunky and prevents the competition aspect during the lesson. I would need to check each device for data before knowing who has achieved what level.

There is a solution. Polar has an app, Polar Club that can solve all of our problems. This app would allow us to track all students on one screen in real time. It looks awesome!

Sadly the Polar Club app isn’t available in the Philippines. It is geographical dependant. We have this great technology but because of where our students are being taught it looks like they are going to miss out. Why would an app like this be dependent on location? Is there away around this? This looks like a seriously great opportunity to incorporate technology into our curriculum and it may not even get off the ground 😦

If you know any solutions please share.