Tablet Technology to Monitor Physical Education IEP Goals and Benchmarks

Abstract

The Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that all children who are eligible for special education services receive an individualized education program (IEP). Adapted physical education (APE) professionals who teach physical education to children with disabilities are challenged with how to best collect and monitor student performance data in order to report student IEP goal progress. The purpose of this article is to inform APE professionals about effective methods for using tablets to more efficiently monitor physical education IEP goal performance and progress. More specifically, the article will describe the development and implementation of electronic data collection worksheets on tablets. The customization and implementation of these worksheets on tablets allows APE teachers to easily collect student performance data. Analysis and justification of student learning in a variety of settings with technology reduces the challenges of meeting diverse student needs and caseloads often encountered by APE teachers. Electronic data tracking on tablets is well worth the time and effort because it will ultimately result in more effective compliance, instruction and student learning.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Ellen Ichinaga for her help in creating the Microsoft Excel workbooks with complex formulas to automatically transfer data into customizable worksheets.