Final Reflection

The vast content and learning from this course has been at times overwhelming however I feel like I have had the 'push' I needed to gain exposure to tools and programs that I wouldn't have ordinarily gone out of my way to look at. I have enjoyed it and have found it invaluable however I know that unless I now 'use it I will lose it'. As I am not full time in the classroom( PE x 2 days,Year 3/4 x 1 day and Year 5/6 x 1day) and my opportunities to apply my learnings in my planning and teaching appear limited, I need to take stock of what I have learnt and try to extract what is practical and best for me to use. It will be a task on the holidays that I will undertake. Putting what I have learnt during the course and ensuring that my students are engaged, happy and supported at school is the challenge for me. Already I know that I would like to use Prezis to present photos from different sporting events and will get students to be involved in this creative process.I am also interested in continuing with Twitter with special programs and events at school. I have heard colleagues talk about using Glogster and Animoto in their classrooms so when I have the chance I would like to see how this looks and decide if it is something that interests me. Although I had quick chats with some of my work colleagues who were doing the course because we worked at different paces it was not often we were on the same 'screen'. Although we had good intentions of all working together on a Thursday afternoons it didn't work out that way, and as we only had a skeleton staff actually doing the course it was hard to keep up the momentum. 'Techie Brekkies" and other such collaborative learning opportunities would have been more motivating and would have been helpful when some tasks were extra challenging. I admire my work colleagues who have put over and above the necessary hours and have taken their learnings straight to their classrooms. I have enjoyed hearing about this and have looked and commented on several blogs. In particular I commented on Nerissa Kinnairds blog(Module 7) and chimed in on her thoughts about the usefullness of techie brekkies. This course has been a real beginning for me but has captured my attention personally and professionally. Although I feel a sense of achievement I still acknowledge that I need to do a lot more research and application of my learnings.

Module 10- Learning Communities

All of these tools remind me of the Google Docs however I feel there must be a difference which I will discover as I use these more. The video explaining Wikis with the 'camping' example was great and made it easy to understand the concept. I also liked the video about Nings and it was inspiring to set up 'open' learning communities like this in schools. I have joined Web 2.0 Classroom and am keen to get a sense of being part of a learning community before I try to set up my own at school with students. I see these tools as a great opportunity to plan and bounce ideas off colleagues as in my PE/Sports Coordinator role I currently plan programs and events in isolation because of time contraints. This appears to be a good way to connect with colleagues without having to set aside face to face time.

Module 9- Social Networking

Unfortunately I didn't have my login details and didn't have the chance to access it through my elearning coordinator. I attempted to get into Scootle via our school intranet page however still required login details. I haven't used it before but clicked on a couple of things to try to get a sense of the layout and what it offered. It looks very comprehensive. To try to get more of an idea of what it was about I googled Scootle to get some information. I asked a few people on staff whether they used it and they seemed to indicate the 'mini programs' in Scootle have been superseded by a process of accessing and embedding resources in their programs from other useful sites. On hearing this feedback I think Scootle would be very useful in combination with other sites. My next step is to get my login details so I can have a more in depth look at what it has to offer. I have 2 Twitter accounts, one personal and one professional. I never seem to have the time or inclination to 'invest' in my personal one but certainly give credit to 'Twitter' as a great social networking tool for schools. A great example of this is when we were on camp earlier this year. Parents appreciated the connection that 'Twitter' created for them when their child was away from the 'nest',many of them for the first time. I am happy to tweet special events that are happening but have found that most of the time I take photos at the time and send tweets at a later time as my priority is supervision when I am teaching not being focussed on a smartphone screen. To this end my 'Tweeting' is not instant updating and sometimes I can't see the point. To me Facebook is a personal networking tool and have never thought of it as a professional forum and in fact my preference is to keep the two very separate. Having your own Facebook account is a way of seeing how 'Facebook' ticks and why it and other social networking sites are so popular and so engaging for people to use. My Linked In account lays dormant however I have a friend who has had quite a lot of success with her account being 'head hunted' for roles based on her profile information. Whoa!!!!! The Second life physical images of women and men and the activities they were engaged in were very inappropriate and unrealistic. I can see the importance of trying to tap into the 'gaming' generation however my initial impressions are that the creators of Second Life have created violent,unsuitable, sexist and unrealistic images and content, particularly for Primary School students. It could be a platform for discussion with students however so they can learn to critically analyse content on the internet and become a little discerning about what they choose to engage in. The short video I have included summarises the pros and cons of social networking and I feel the priority for us as educators is to remain current with the different social networking options that our students are accessing so that we can support and skill them in safe and healthy social networking.

Module 8-RSS Feeds

Tried to get a Feedly account with no luck so went with Dig and added the following sites to my Reader. It was good because you can easily register with your google account.


AFL Latest News
ourinspiredclassroom
The Wellness Couch
Mr Robbo-The PE Geek
Popular Science 
Ted Education
National Geographic
Ted Talks

 

What a great way to organise and keep up to date with the latest news,information and ideas.
 

I Dugg this article in ourinspiredclassroom feed.


iPads in Physical Education

Recently, I have been asked to assist my PE teacher with the integration of iPads into the PE curriculum. I am fortunate that the PE teacher at my school is quite forward thinking and keen to involve mobile technology into his lessons as we share the belief that the iPad and the available sport apps have huge potential for
improving student outcomes. In it’s simplest form, we wanted to see if using the iPad as a skills development tool would translate into students analysing and critiquing their technique and therefore improve their performance. Needless to say that the natives were very excited about the prospect of using their iPads during lessons.
After a brief discussion, we choose to trial 3 free apps into our PE curriculum.

The first app we asked the students to download was Slo Pro. Slo Pro is a great app that allows you to record up to 1000 fps and play back your video at super slow motion. This app also allows you to slow down a recording at variable rates, which means that you can play sections of your video back and changing speeds. The student were able to use this app with minimal support, the interface is simple and intuitive and the app works as described. The only thing that caused some difficulty was sharing the videos recorded. Even though the free version allows users to upload their videos to YouTube, doing so was very clunky and unreliable. Out of a whole class, 3 students were able to do so successfully. The free version of Slo Pro does not allow the user to save their video to their camera roll on their own device, to be able to do this, you need to purchase the full version, which costs $4.49. Buying the full version also unlocks some other useful features like altering the frame rates of your recording.

The second app that we asked the students to download was Coach My Video. This app also allowed the students to record and play back their videosn slow motion and with frame by frame accuracy. It also allows the user to draw lines, shapes and calculate angles on top of the video recording. This made analysing skills much easier as students were able to highlight areas of their technique that require practise. Another great feature of this app is that you can place two videos side by side and play them together. This feature, I believe, is what this app does best. When it came to sharing their work, the students were able to save their images with drawn overlays as jpgs which can then be emailed.
The third app we experimented with was Ubersense and is my personal favourite of the three apps discussed in this post for a few reasons. Firstly, Ubersense allows you to record your videos in slow motion just like Slo Pro, you can playback at frame by frame rate, and it also allows you to draw and annotate your videos as Coach My Video does. So in other words, it can does what the other two apps do. Secondly, when it comes to sharing your video, Ubersense just works! Users sign up for a free account, this then allows them to not only email their videos, but it also allows them to record audio on top of their video with their annotations. So what they can produce is a video, that not only highlights areas for improvements, it allows them to record audio reflection or commentary of their videos.
We are yet to see if using these apps and iPads within PE classes will result in improved student performance but what is evident, is that our students are already becoming more aware of their technique and are able to describe where they need to improve when watching their recordings. Watch this space for further developments.

Module 7

I was hoping to set up a Delicious account but on the registration page when I hit the Join Now button nothing happened so I have gone with Diigo instead. So I have an account now and am looking forward to being able to organise my favourite sites etc on different computers.  I have a home lap top , ipad and the school pc so it will make life so much easier when I'm using different computers in terms of being able to access my own resources. I have only begun to add some sites and will enjoy adding personal and work related links.

Commented on Nerissa Kinnaird's  blogsite

 

I think it would've been great to do the course more collaboratively as well. Love the sound of the 'techie brekkie' (more so for the food!!)so that you can bounce things off other people and learn from them. I have still enjoyed navigating my way through things that I probably would never have explored if I had not enrolled in this course and it has increased my confidence as well. I can see that you have got a lot out of the course as well and congratulations on your completion!

Module 6- Picasa

I used Picasa a couple of years ago to do some collage placemats for a friends 40th Birthday party.  I found it quite easy to use and enjoyable.  It would be a great way to organise photos and create different ways of presenting photos. I created a Picasa Web Album with some photos from a 6 day hike on the Overland track in Tasmania in November 2013.

Module 5 Reflection

I enjoyed exploring Bubble.Us and have previously used Prezi.  Bubble.Us would be good in the classroom for brainstorming with the class and other times when they have to organise their thoughts.  It would be a  be a good planning tool also.  Had a little bit of trouble loading up Glogster on 2 occasions so am not so keen to use it because of this.

Module 5 - Prezis

Module 5- Optional Activity was to embed a Prezi into your blog so here it is! Need to practice more on Prezis but I enjoyed doing it and can see that it can be a great tool.

Module 5

Bubbl.Us

Had previously mindmapped some ideas for our school sports day and just did a quick one on Web 2.0 learnings.  A good way to get ideas down in a clearly mapped out way but probably quicker on paper while still learning to navigate the bubbles.

Module 4

Animoto seems easy enough to use however I was limited because I had the  30 second Lite option and found it challenging to play the video I created.  Not sure whether this was because I needed to upgrade at a cost and decided not to or just couldn't find the play button!!!???  Regardless I got a sense of it and was happy with that.  I think this is something I could possibly use for sharing and presentations and definitely a good tool for students to use. My video was titled 'Cradle Mountain' and was unable to share it. Now I have now found the free upgrade for educators and have registered.

 

Wait for the video!!!

 

 

 

Enjoyed looking at Vimeo.  Not sure whether I personally would subscribe but useful for researching topics and finding interesting videos.  Liked this one about tennis.  We're doing Hot Shots tennis at the moment in PE. Check out the video I found on Vimeo -Where  we go after Hot Shots!!!!?