Tag Archives: education

Journey through SJSU History: Dr. Reekie’s Recent Book Documents the History of Kinesiology at SJSU


Our department chair, Dr. Shirley Reekie, recently published a labor of love: Bean Bags to Bod Pods: A History of 150  Years of San José State University’s Department of Kinesiology.

The book is a chronicle of the 150 year history of physical activity, physical education, and Kinesiology  Department at San Jose State University, believed to be the first public system of physical education (kinesiology) in  higher education in the West. The release of this book could not have had better timing as the Department of  Kinesiology celebrates its 150th birthday this semester.

The book was written to inform SJSU students, faculty, alumni, and friends about the rich heritage of SJSU and to  celebrate the growth of the KIN department. By locating the narrative in the context of the major social and political  movements of the times, Dr. Reekie provides a glimpse into U.S. history observed through the lens of physical  activity and its study. As a majority of the students in the early years were women, this history devotes significant  time to women and their important contributions to the institution.

“Bean bags I know. What are Bod Pods?”

Bean bags were a staple piece of low tech, inexpensive equipment used by most early physical educators and, similar  to many good ideas, are still in use today, particularly by elementary educators to teach catching and throwing  patterns. Bod Pods are modern, high tech devices used by researchers to determine the body composition (percent  fat and lean) of a participant by means of a highly accurate measurement of body volume in a sealed chamber. These  two pieces of technology are examples of the dynamic changes that have taken place in our subject area.

Although the book narrative is centered on the story of San José State, it also provides a window to better understand the growth of physical education across the past two centuries.

Copies of the book can be purchase on Amazon.com or in the Kinesiology Office (SPX 56, 9am – 4pm., M-F). Join us  on a journey through higher education in the US, and share in the amazing story of how physical education and  activity have helped shape SJSU.

Layering Technology into Educational Practice.

Layering Technology into Educational Practice.

How can we use social media platforms and tools to enhance educational practice, while building connected SJSU communities?

We are engaged in this question in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, in the Departments of Kinesiology and Justice Studies in particular.

And we are not alone.

Researchers, educators, students, administrators, politicians, parents, lobbyists, and opinion makers…and some guy I talked with at the local campus coffee shop…have filled digital space with petabytes of research and opinion on the topic.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus blog folks posted a list of their top technology articles for the year, giving us a tantalizing view into the types of education-technology news topics floating through the educational digi-space.

Here’s a sampling of interesting interwebz news bytes for the inquisitive types.

Faculty Reluctance.

Message Impact.

Online Universities.

Technology Skepticism.

A sampling of content shows that two tribal academic camps are emerging. One is reminded of the show Lost: on the island are the techno-education enthusiasts who are in tension with education traditionalists weary of techno-promises and the digitization of the human educational experience. Many quiet educational avatars occupy the spaces in between the dominant nodes. Meaning, there are not enough voices adding texture and balance to the polar ends of the discussion.

Techno-media is ubiquitous. Whether you email, tumble, text, tweet, like, flip, pin, or comment…we are sharing information. Some inane, some insightful, some funny, some illuminating.  We share. We can share better data, better information. Therein lays a beautiful circuit on the motherboard of social media tools: the power and importance of the online community is driven by the community’s creativity and connectivity. What better place to harness the creativity occurring in digital spaces than in higher-education communities?

We can use technology (in this case social media tools) to enhance university life (educational and social), if those social technologies are accessible, dynamic, integrative, flexible, scaleable, and sustainable.

We can use digital technologies in dialogue with traditional pedagogy – use technology as enhancements to our current brick and mortar systems. Ironically, we can use technology organically.

We are in the process of integrating social media platforms in CASA.  To enhance the interactivity of this process, we will be writing a series of blog entries on our experiences in hopes of opening up larger dialogues, in SJSU digital space in particular, about technological integration with social media tools.

We’re interested in hearing from the campus community. Faculty, students, staff, and administrators. Contact us at KinesiologySJSU@gmail.com. Share your ideas, solutions, and apps with our technology communications group!

Join our online communities.