Creating a Fitbit, by Louise Dowson, UoN.
During the first international day we used a range of different technologies to discover if we could combine exercising and technology. The focus of this day was to allow the pupils to try out the different technologies to see which would be best to use to create an exergame. I worked with a rage of different groups to use micro-bit technology to create a Fitbit.
Follow the link to create your own Fitbit: link.
This piece of technology required the children to follow instructions to create a code which would be transferred on to micro-bit to create this in to their own Fitbit. Although this was difficult to begin with, the children quickly grasped how to create the code effectively. Once the code was complete, we used tape to secure this on to the pupil’s wrist to track how many steps they had taken. The pupils turned this in to a competition and began to challenge each other to see who could get to 100 steps first. While working with the pupils it came to my attention that they could see how this type of technology could be used for exercising. Once they had made their Fitbits, they did not want to that them off, and wanted to carry on tracking their steps. This highlighted that the pupils enjoyed using this type of technology for exercising as well as showing their enthusiasm to learn something new.
Below are some images of the children creating and using the micro-bit to count their steps: