When I went to the Sports Psychology lab, I learned a lot about how trainers keep their athletes' minds' sharp and strengthen their mental ability when it comes to playing their sport. The guide showed us numerous pieces of technology that they use to exercise their players' brains, including multi-focus technology, eye-tracking devices, motion sensor simulations, and even GoPros. He showed us examples of how they use the technology during sessions with a player, and tried to give examples of how we could use the technology in our classrooms. One great example of classroom application involved the eye-tracking device. It could be used to analyze behaviors and tendencies of newer teachers and help them grow in their field. We could look at what aspects of the classroom newer teachers focus the most on or which students they pay the most attention to, and watch those first-person videos together with the teacher in order to train their abilities to be more well rounded when it comes to classroom scanning and student supervision, as well as be more aware of classroom activity as a whole. It could also be used to analyze more experienced teachers to see what they focus the most on and how they divide their focus across the classroom in order to gain insight on what newer teachers need to be focusing on during the class day. I think this is an incredibly great use of technology in the classroom, and I would totally be willing to be a subject of this type of activity in order to improve my teaching and classroom management abilities. He also showed us how GoPros can be attached to and record athletes during practices in order to critique their movements and improve their skills, as well as to see where they may be going wrong during a play.
There weren't too many technologies we could all try out on our own this time, but we did go through one specific one together, which was somewhat of a multi-focus piece of technology, where players are required to look at a small screen in the middle of a board that asks them to complete math problems or read passages, while also trying to press buttons that light up all around the board. This gets them to strengthen their ability to multi-task and pay attention to multiple different stimuli, which is incredibly valuable in sports, since you always have to be focusing on your movements as well as the players around you.
Overall, I really enjoyed going to the Sports Psychology lab and seeing how we use technology in many different aspects to improve skills in our everyday lives. I'm always astounded by what we are able to create to train our minds and advance our capabilities within a field.
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