Push Technology in Practice - Part 2

The second item I created was an Audioboo channel. I haven’t tested this out with students yet but will be getting them to also create accounts and subscribe to my channel and vice versa. This will allow me to upload audio clips and they will then receive notifications when I upload a file, allowing me to send them clips as a whole group easily and also receive clips from them. This will be very useful as it will allow them to send me audio clips as well as I them. I can give them verbal instruction and guidance on tasks from a distance to give added clarity and depth to topics covered in lessons, such as this one I created on the Sliding Filament Theory of muscle contraction, which students usually struggle to grasp.

listen to ‘Sliding Filament Theory’ on Audioboo

Push Technology in Practice - Part 1

The first thing I created using push technology was a YouTube channel for our Basketball Academy. The boys are always asking for their games to be filmed so they can watch back their performances and do some game analysis and see which elements of their game they need to work on. As these files are usually quite large it is impossible to send them via email or is very time consuming to put a copy on each players USB device. So I set up this channel on YouTube and made all the players subscribe. They can now access the videos at any time at their own convenience. It’s also nice as it is a way of putting up all the photos that were taking throughout the year and highlight reels from the different events and tournaments they played in, including their Basketball Tour to Spain. The images I put together on the channel from the tour were taken on my iPhone and then uploaded to the channel.

What is Push Technology??

Push Technology is something quite common that most people will use on a day to day basis without realising it. If you were to subscribe or sign up to an information server, when new content is published, the subscriber will receive notifications. Examples of this can been seen in places such as; social networking sites i.e. Facebook, Twitter who send notifications when you are tagged in posts/tweets/photos; YouTube can send a notification if a channel you subscribe posts any new videos; news applications on smart phones send updates news stories; sports applications for smart phones will send updates on scores and game results; and even Email can use push technology if it is sync’d with a smartphone.

Video and Mutlimedia Technology in the Classroom - Review

There are many great benefits to using video in lessons. One of these benefits is definitley that my learners are very visual and respond far better to watching video clips than reading an article or listening to me talk. The other benefit, particularly for my subject area is that as a lot of the content involves looking at structures or movement, or the way things work, and have video clips gives greater understanding to the learners of these technical concepts. It is also a more interactive visual representation that learners find more interesting than plain images in books.

Multimedia use is a great way of ensuring inclusivity in lessons. By carefully selecting the tools you use you enable learners to work at their own rate, and easily allows you to stretch and support learners as needed, therefore supporting progress for all learners. It is also easily accessible so learners who are absent from the session can easily catch up via distance learning. The only issue with this might be if they do not have computer or internet access at home as this may then highlight this learners social circumstances to other members of the class which may be uncomfortable for them. The great thing is that they can access the information at any time, and unlike a simple PowerPoint or worksheet exercise, the context of the video and intended message it relays will be the same whether they access it in class with the teacher there or at home on their own. They will get the same level of information regardless. For those without computer/internet access, they will be able to access the information on either computers in the college, or in a local library, as the resources will not be on protected drives linked to a specific internet server.

The only other negative i have encountered with using multimedia resources is that it can be difficult to manage in a lesson with a lot of students - ensuring students are staying focused on tasks and not getting distracted by irrelevant video clips for example. I do however think it works well with my particular learner who has a short attention span as it grabs their attention far more effectively and results in increased participation in sessions.

Data Protection

There are lots of things we need to consider in terms of data protection as teachers as we are often dealing with a lot of confidential information such as students personal details, students disclosing sensitive information, grades, disciplinary records etc.These are generic data protection considerations when working with young adults and as teachers we need to make sure all of the records we have containing details about students are kept secure. All of our information is kept under password protection or in locked filing cabinets and cupboards. We also maintain records of student disciplinaries and grades/progress, and student/group profiles on the restricted access drive not the open access one. Specific to the sports department, as we use a lot of video and photographic evidence for assessment purposes we have to ensure we get the student and parents permission for them to be photographed and for us to use these images. We also do this as we use a lot of photographs of our academy players, and games for marketing, reporting of results, and media coverage.

Picture

Webquest

Box screen capture

Human Anatomy Dissection

I found a great clip on YouTube of a human heart dissection which talks through the structures and anatomy of the heart. As i conduct heart dissections with my groups as part of their anatomy modules this would be a great tool for students to refer to either before or after the session. I have considered in the future filming myself dissecting the hearts in the class which can be used as a recap or a catch up for students who may have missed the session. The only disadvantage is the hearts i use are obviously not human, so this is more real for them to see. As the clip was pitched at a higher level than what is required from my students, i used TubeChop to select the parts that were relevant which cut out approx 6 minutes of unneccessary video, so this is a great tool.

Acton Campus Tour Video Clip

Tonight Ahmed, Yvonne and I produced a series of short video clips about the Acton Campus. This video features Yvonne discussing the student shop at the college which is run by our supported learning students.

YouTube Playlist

I have created a playlist on YouTube for my Sports Therapy students so they can see some examples of rehabilitation exercises, and get some additional information on some other types of sports injuries. As part of their course they have to write a rehabilitation programme for an athlete and so seeing a range of rehabilitation drills and ideas can help them to then devise their own exercises.

gnowledge review

I also tried out gnowledge to creat quizzes and again was a little disappointed that there was not a lot of existing quizzes for my field. I think this resource has a lot more variety in the features you can use to create the quiz and more variety in the question styles, howver i think it may take a little more practice than the others. I created a short general knowledge sports trivia quiz - see post below.

Welcome to Nicole Onyett's page -- Tests created by Nicole Onyett on Gnowledge

Welcome to Nicole Onyett's page -- Tests created by Nicole Onyett on Gnowledge

Quia Quizzes

Quia seems to be a very good tool for developing quizzes, however unlike a lot of the other quiz making sites i have looked at, this one does not have a lot of pre-existing quizzes for my subject area specfically. However, it does seem quite easy to develop your own, and perhaps not as time consuming as some of the other quiz-making resources. Here's a link to a good Basic Nutrition quiz i found which demonstrates the range of different types of questions you could use: http://www.quia.com/quiz/4267437.html

Structure of the Skeletal System - Definitions & Terminology

I created this tool using Quizlet.com which will be great for my students studying Anatomy & Physiology. A few of the main things I have found that my learners struggle with is getting to grips with a new medical, technical language and having to parrot-learn all the bones and muscles. By using this resource it will not only help their memory as they can use all the different activities to remember the locations of bones and the various structures, but will also help with their spelling of these words, which can be another difficulty they face, by using the spell tool. Having a lot of different ways learners can access the information ie. via flashcards, practice tests, games etc. there is something for every learner no matter how they retain their information. The test options have a whole variety of test types too so it is an extremley versatile tool that i think would really aid my teaching. I also like how i would be able to generate very quickly, short tests to assess how much my learners have learnt by the end of the session. I could even test them at the start to assess prior knowledge and then re-test at the end to see distance travelled. Its also a nice tool that learners could keep refering back to from home.

Poll - Do you think e-teaching works for all types of learners??

Digital Storytelling - Storybird review

The first digital story tool I looked at was Storybird which looks at creating a stroy based upon the images selected and making it fit to a certain topic. Whilst I think this could be a great teaching tool in some subjects I dont think it would work very well for me and my learners as I found it to be quite limited with the selection of images related to my subject area of sport. Having said this i did find a great Storybird relating to the cardiovascular system structure and function. I think the principles behind this in particular could be something i could use to get learners to really think about the various elements of our bodily systems and how they connect and come together.

Review of social networking tools in education

The social networking site I have chosen to review is Del.icio.us which is an online bookmarking tool. It enables users to link a variety of online resources under specific categories. For example, I created one specific to Sports Injuries where I added bookmarks to a range of websites, articles, research papers etc which students can refer to following our lessons to gain additional information if they require it, or to assist them with their assignments. This could work incredibly well with my learners as one of the common problems I encounter with learners is they have difficulty finding reliable internet sources and are unable to recognise what a reliable source is and therefore mostly select the first item that comes up on Google! By using this tool I have been able to filter what they look at and only signpost them to trustworthy and relevant sources of information. One of the main potential issues I have found is that I was unable to link any PDF journals which I found. In Sport we emphasise the requirement of students to use accredited and recognized sources of information, as most of what we discuss in the sport is scientific and fact based. This therefore limits me being able to showcase and highlight particular research studies undertaken in this field.

I have used both YouTube and Delicious as social networking teaching methods and have found them both fairly easily to setup and use, however from student feedback the consensus is that YouTube is far easier to use and navigate through than Del.ic.ious. For me the look of the sites are quite similar in the style/size of fonts used however learners found the layout and format of the site a little boring. They were however able to easily access the resources i was signposting to them to and so in the end the site did its job. I think they may side with YouTube somewhat as they are more familiar with it as they use it more frequently on a day to day basis and my learners also prefer to watch a video than have to actually read through a document or article!


Both of these sights are quite similiar in how they work to be classified as 'social networking' sites. It allows everyone to have create their own accounts and then create their own reading lists (delicious) or playlists (YouTube). You can see other peoples lists and then share them, or duplicate their links and place them into your own account.

Sports Injuries & Rehabilitation Links - del.icio.us

I created a Del.icio.us page dedicated to a Sports Injury unit i teach providing a host of links to articles and webpages to provide information on various aspects relating to sports injuries - https://delicious.com/#nicole_onyett

Risk Factors for Sports Injuries

Fitness Tests

Basketball Academy Discussion Forum

Created using Pirate Pad as an evaluative tool to get feedback from students on our Basketball Academy Forum

Sports Injuries Assignment - Rehabilitation Programmes

Cardiovascular system structures

Poll - What stops you from using elearning in your teaching?

Celtics vs. Knicks DMovie