iMovie and Coaching

So I know that a few of you who read this blog may be wondering why so many blog posts in one day, sorry for the overload! With coaching and life being super busy the first thing to go in my life has been study time, hence the cram to get in all the necessary work for my current COETAIL course on visual literacy.

What I have learned during this course is that to do things 'visually well' takes time. To be a master at all the different technologies out there is unnecessary and means far too much time on the keyboard aiming for perfection. In talking to some other people in the course it was concerning to hear people mention that 'presentation zenning' one PowerPoint took them eight hours... to me this is over the top. When is too much, too much? To answer this I have to pose the question of what will people get out of the time I am investing into each visual improvement. If the person will gain much then perhaps it is worth our time.

In my final project I used iMovie as a coaching tool, something which was very time consuming to say the least, but in my mind incredibly valuable. I wanted to create an instructional video for each of my runners so that they could see themselves running and understand what aspects of their technique needed to change. Here's the process I followed to create a personal instructional video for each of my runners:

1. I videoed all my Cross Country team running using a flip camera (I used four different capture angles)
   
2. The download from the flip camera was super easy through the USB connector. I imported straight into iPhoto, then transferred the footage across to iMovie.
   
3. From here I trimmed each clip so that I had only quality footage.
   
4. I removed the sound from the footage as it didn't aid the instruction
5. I played through the 'movie' and found key points in each runners technique at which I split the clip, created a still or slowed the video even more in order to give time to provide quality feedback.
6. I recorded the voice over directly into iMovie, which was essentially the instructional piece
7. I created some end credits, which summarised my coaching points
8. Played with the sound to ensure it was loud enough, final check...
   
9. Exported to a DVD (or in the case below to You Tube)
   

What I feel I have created is worth my time primarily because of the possibility of change in each of my runners technique, based on the feedback I am giving them. It was enormously time consuming when you add up all the videoing time, editing, voice overs and final touches, however I think it was worth it... I guess I will tell you next season when my runners come back with hopefully improved technique!

Here's an example of the finished product for one of my runners:

Jing... it can't get any easier!

One of the great little things that I have discovered and used a lot over the past 6 months has been Jing. Jing is basically a screen casting software available free off the web. The crew at Techsmith have done a great job at putting together a program which is super easy to learn and even easier to use! I think it took me about 5 minutes to get a good understanding of how to screen cast.

How have I used this?

• As part of our new staff wiki, I was able to put together a couple of videos on how to log onto the wiki and how to update a profile picture, both proving to be helpful for people to whom technology doesn't come easily
• For our department it has provided me with a way I can help others use programs and new technology without having to physically show them all the time (e.g. using google doc's)
• For homework which is to be completed for Physical Education we try to reduce the amount of time in class which is taken up to teach technology required in the homework. Jing provides a chance for us to provide clear instruction to students out of the class
• An example of this is in health where the program has allowed me to take screenshots easily, which I have then been able to upload to moodle to provide clear examples of 'what to do' for students e.g.
  

There is no doubt that this simple to use, quick to download tool has saved me time and allowed for my instruction to continue out of the classroom.

Web based video... it's all at our fingertips

When John Logie Baird first transmitted light to create an image which was not made from a shadow (this was a big thing back in the early 1920's), the television was born. However I don't think John would have guessed how influential such an invention would be over the next 90 years. In education the introduction of such technology has allowed students to see into cultures, environments and historical periods that they were never privy to prior to this invention. It's no surprise then that explosion of web based video has had an even greater effect on learning and education.


As a teacher of Physical Education I regularly use You Tube to assist in teaching sports and skills which are not common to the students I teach. When teaching a new sport to young athletes it is often helpful to show them what the real game looks like, and in an international school where we try to have a balanced curriculum with sports from all around the world it can be hard to find DVD's for each sport we teach. Unless you have a fantastic range of DVD's available in your department or school library, then the first place most people now turn is straight to the web and in particular to You Tube.


Recently I taught some circo-arts to my grade 6 PE class; one of the skills I taught was the diabalo, also known as the Chinese Yo-Yo. While teaching this to my class I soon found that one of the boys was especially gifted at this skill and after spending some time with him I found out he had self taught himself through you-tube. This was no surprise to me as I often find myself going online looking for coaching videos, dynamic warm up ideas, technique videos etc... I also find when I get in the classroom I often rely on You Tube to pull in a short piece of video to help the lesson have a range of learning mediums.


In our grade six Health Education class we teach a small unit on smoking and in particular we focus in one lesson on what the cost is to a nation and what governments are doing to stop this. In order to get something useful for the class I managed to go online, find 5 different videos, which I downloaded and imported into iMovie, edited, added some questions for the students and what I have now is a usable, effective video to assist me in my smoking lesson...





The greatest benefit of web based video is the fact that it is at your fingertips. Here are just ten real benefits of using web based video:

1. In the past using video was an ordeal as you had to ensure that you had booked everything well in advance. Now with web based video multiple classrooms can watch the same video at the same time
2. Students can access any videos shown online at home, which is great for re-teaching or for make-up work
3. Online video selection is increasing all the time. As we contribute the range of quality video's increases all the time
4. Web based video gives up to date resources for students.
5. Storage space is not necessary, nor are tedious recording mechanisms to ensure we know what we have as a department

If you aren't using web-based video in your classroom, or if your school is too narrow minded and ban's You Tube or other sites hosting video then you need to change things! There is no doubt in my mind that correct use of web-based video greatly enhances the teaching and learning landscape.

Instructional Digital Story Boarding...

So it hit me after catching up from a session I missed recently for our IT class that the process of digital story boarding was a perfect way to teach physical skills within Physical Education. If students can put together digital story boards for fictional and non fictional stories, then why shouldn't we use the same tool in Physical Education and get students to put together a digital story for teaching a specific skill?

Why would we do this?

• We all know that teaching a skill requires deeper knowledge of the skill
• By asking students to create an instructional 'digital story' we are requiring our students to understand the skill to a deeper level
• Creating videos for different skills can provide useful teaching tools in the future
  

Here's the rather simple process to create a digital story...

1. Decide on a particular skill to teach in the instructional story
2. Get the students to break the skill down into the key stages of the skill execution
   
3. The students will take photos of themselves at each of the key stages while executing the skill
4. Students will write an instructional narrative which explains the key teaching points for each stage of the skill
5. Upload the photos into iMovie and record the instructional sound track in time with the key stages
6. Export the instructional movie to You tube ready for the teacher to assess. If students have an eportfolio or if they blog you could have them embed the video into their blog so that you can use a reader to pull all the video's into one stream for quick and easy marking.
   

What we provide for our students is an opportunity to really understanding the principles behind the movement, the knowledge they gain from this process allows them to then effect change within their own technique and their peers. Depending on the age of the child this process could be more guided with the skills and stages already set out by the teacher.

We are soon beginning a Tennis unit where students have to analyse technique and break a skill into its parts, this will be the perfect chance for the students to show their understanding of a tennis skill through digital media.

To zen or not to zen?

To be honest, I'm tired of PowerPoint. The number of times I have had to sit through presentations where students, other staff or presenters read through their slides has gone well off what I can count with my fingers and toes (and believe me I have been guilty of this too). Often the slides are unappealing, disconnected from the content being shared, cluttered and full of 'special effects', which turns what could be a great PowerPoint into distraction, disconnection and disillusionment.

Presentation Zen is a breath of fresh air for those who are in my shoes, however like all good fad's it has its downside. The idea behind presentation Zen builds on the premise that pictorial information is much stronger at conveying messages than textual. If we can build our presentations around images that stimulate deeper thought, then the information we are trying to convey connects to our viewers more effectively.

The idea of Zen stems from Mahayana Buddhism, asserting 'that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion' (answers.com). If our presentations are following a true 'zen' style then we must ensure our presentation itself, has sufficient time for meditation, self contemplation and intuition... essentially this is searching for a constructivist approach to presenting, the viewer constructs their own meaning from our carefully constructed PowerPoint.

How easy is this? in reality it isn't.

Many of us use PowerPoint to cover a lot of information in a short space of time, so the idea of reflection and time to meditate on specific content within a presentation is difficult to achieve. The mere fact that presenters speak throughout their entire presentation points to their being little chance for true deep reflection. I gave it a shot on a presentation I had done for our grade 8 Sports Education Unit, which focused on teamwork... here's how one slide completely changed...

The Old:


The New:

Coach

View more presentations from peteacher.

I think I know which one I would like!

7 ways I integrate IT...

Our COETAIL course has started again and I am going to be posting blogs a little more regularly over the next few months. Since starting the course last year I can see quite an impact in how I integrate IT into my everyday teaching.

So here's my top seven ways that I have used IT...

1. Google Forms: These have played such an important role in how I collect data. I use the forms in such a varied way and the fact that they are so easy to custom fit, has meant I have found many uses for them: collecting registrations for a monthly run that I organise in our local school community, collecting students choices for units, gathering sports team personal data and to gather parent feedback. Google forms have saved me enormous amounts of time and allowed me to focus on more important things.
   
2. Wetpaint Thai-ing in Wiki: As part of the role I shared with my wife as the new staff coordinators for our school we created this wiki to help people assimilate smoothly into Bangkok and our school. The wiki proved to be a collaborative space in which nearly 100 members came together to ask and answer questions, share knowledge and most importantly, connect. Although highly time-consuming in setting up the wiki the site answered numerous questions and the collaborative nature of the site meant that we weren't the only one's answering these questions! I used Google Analytics to track how much the site was being used and was surprised to see an average of 9 visits a day with over 12,000 page views in the past 5 months! Definitely worth it!
   
3. Google Docs: In our PE department we used a Google Doc as the 'virtual white board' to review our PE curriculum. It began with us all entering our thoughts about our current PE curriculum using 6 questions guided by De Bono's 6 thinking hats (we eached typed in a different font so we knew who wrote what). This rich document was then refined to create a list of things we liked and disliked about our current PE curriculum and gave us direction for curriculum changes. From here we created a new Google Doc which became the sketchboard for our new scope and sequence. The fact the document was shared, available for all to input, change, rearrange etc... allowed for much greater collaboration than would a static file.
   
4. Panthernet (Moodle): We are now using this school managed site in our PE department for information delivery, quizzes, and enrichment work. It isn't always the most simple to use, however once you know the ropes you can create a rich online support site for your classroom.
5. iWeb: From fooling around with iweb on my mac I created a static web-page which houses all our PE department's important documents on once site (Scope & Sequence, Standards, benchmarks, philosophy) and hyperlinks to all our units on our school shared server (which can be accessed from home). I then was able to email this to all our department (we all use mac's), and they were able to save this on their laptops. The idea is that this has the most up-to-date resources we are using and is user-friendly so that our fellow PE teachers who aren't so tech-savy can access the information they need swiftly and simply, saving time in the long run! They bookmark this static page and can access it directly through firefox.
   
6. My Google Reader: This has been a simple and effective way to receive relevant professional reading. I love the fact that I can get a quick summary of others blogs, read deeper if I wish, or mark as read as needed! My favorite two blogs include 'Mr Robbo -The PE Geek', a great blog from an Aussie PE teacher who has IT ideas oozing from his pores and 'Leadertalk', which sometimes provides some inspiration for aspiring leaders!
   
7. My Blog: This has given me a chance to be reflective to a wider audience. It has provided a reason to write and to share and it is creating a professional learning focus for me.
   

At the start of the course I set a goal in my first blog post: "My goal is to use technology so that I can do the things I REALLY want to do, it has to free up my time, not suck up my time." The reality is that technology has freed up much of my time, with the above examples really making life easier. The problem is that staying up with the technology has filed some of the time that has been freed up. The more I learn, the more realise how much more I could learn. The reality is that somewhere we have to draw a line... I'm learning this and drawing some clear lines with permanent marker... so don't worry, I'll never be tweeting you, I'll be out for a run.

Google Forms take the pain out of fitness testing... well at least for the teachers!

Ok, so we all know that PE teachers hate paperwork (well most of them), but there is one thing that seems to frustrate us all... when paper work takes away from activity time and our own time.

In my current school we have been using the FitnessGram tests to complete our triannual fitness testing. In the past all the results were taken manually and entered into either excel, the FitnessGram software or onto PowerSchool (our online reporting software). We thought we were pretty good at keeping the kids 'connected' by getting them to log onto PowerSchool to check there results and then use these in moodle via an online worksheet which allowed them to reflect on their results and where they were positioned with the different fitness zones. This proved to be a effective way for the students to reflect on their fitness levels out of class time, while also increasing activity time and integrating IT into our subject.

What was a hassle was the process of transferring the data from the little sheets the kids recorded their results on, into our online reporting system (PowerSchool). What should be an easy task tended to take a few hours going through each child's fitness result form, collating the results and then manually entering them onto PowerSchool... not any more.


All we did was create a GoogleDoc form, which allowed the kids to input their data, which was automatically collated, and then exported, sorted using excel, and finally uploaded into PowerSchool.

Very sweet, very smooth.



To ensure the kids didn't loose activity time we built the input session into a fitness circuit around the gymnasium. At one station we had 12 laptops ready to go with the GoogleForm bookmarked for each child to input their data into. Students referred to charts to work out their fitness zones and in a short time got a clear picture of their fitness level. This station served as a rest and drink station as well, which all combined to create a meaningful learning experience, while saving us time. Good times! We had class sizes from 30 to a combined block of four classes with 110 students in the gym entering data within the lesson. Never again will I manually enter this kind of data again!


If you haven't tried GoogleDocs check them out. They are very easy to use and effective in the classroom.