New Online Resources for PE

afPE has launched the new PE zone website the blurb states

The association for Physical Education has just launched a BETA version of the PE Zone – http://www.pezone.co.uk This site is a compilation of resources along with a PE social network and project management tool. With enough collaboration and networking this website will become the one stop site for all Physical Education teachers needs.

 There are also free PE resources available  at the free teaching resources website.

Dartfish “how to” blog

Rob Carroll has started up the Dartfish How to blog http://tocasports.blogspot.com/ check it out there are some great tips and explanatory video clips.

Dartfish Users Conference Engaging The Video Generation

I was invited to present at the Dartfish users conference at Bedford University. I had 2 inputs to the day and was able to attend some of the other sharing practice sessions. Yet again I picked up some more tips, short cuts and uses of some of the more advanced features. You can view my first presentation via slideshare below

After my presentation I attended a couple of sessions led by Neil Melville which were excellent the first was about sharing analyser projects and the second was about using the measurement and data tools. You can learn more about using the measurement tools and data tables in this online tutorial. There are some more online tutorials on some of the other Dartfish features available here.

My second presentation was all about extending learning beyond the classroom through the use of online spaces and tools. I promised the delegates that they would not have to take any notes (other than the address of this blog) as I would write about my presentation and post links to everything I made reference to through the blog. I deliberately set out not to use a PowerPoint presentation as I wanted to demonstrate that you can deliver your content through other vehicles. I also wanted the delegates to return to my blog to experience for themselves what I was trying to get across i.e. you can extend the learning and the engagement with your learners beyond the restrictions of the actual lesson/presentation. By coming back to the blog the delegates have the opportunity to: read this post and reflect, click on the links to learn more and do further research or post comments to me thus extending the impact of the conference and this is exactly what our pupils doing in a number of schools. If you are a conference delegate welcome back if not read on anyway you might find something that engages you.

I was conscious that my workshop had a slant towards PE and not every delegate was from a PE or sports background, but all that I talked to could be replicated for any subject. I started by visiting the Learning and Teaching Scotland PE website and directed the group towards this case study about using blogs and wikis as there are links to videos and tutorials on how to set up a blog and information about wikis. 

I then introduced the wonderful free  web tool delicious to create online book marks for sites that you find interesting and useful it can then be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. For a simple guide watch the video below (You probably will be unable to view the video in school as it is hosted on YouTube). You may find my PE bookmarks  useful. You may want to consider setting this up for your course or in a department to tag interesting sites or share frequently visited sites with pupils and or staff. This can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.

 

I moved on to talk about Blogs for those of you who want to know a bit more about blogging I previously posted this video explaining blogging in simple terms . If you want to give blogging a go check out this set of tutorials for using wordpress the provider I use for this blog. If you look on the “links” section on the left hand side near the top of the page I have links to several PE blogs that you may find interesting.

The main point I was trying to establish is that blogs can provide a fantastic conduit for communication and collaboration with your learners. You can extend the learning beyond the confines of the lesson. Your learners can communicate with you leave you questions or work to look over etc and you can deal with these communications wherever you can get online. At this point I  spoke about RSS feeds and aggregators. You may find this video on using RSS feeds useful. The aggregator I demonstrated was netvibes a great bit of software to keep track of all blogs and websites that have content which is regularly updated. I find netvibes very useful as there are loads of plug ins that you can add and you can personalise it to your own needs and the best bit is that it is web based so if you sign up for your own account you can access it form any computer with an Internet connection. Ideal for use at home and school. Here is a video  about netvibes 

The next part of the presentation focused on wikis the following video (also on YouTube) will help you understand a little more about what a wiki is.

I used the Banchory H/Int2 wiki and explained that the content was there for people to download and use and share as long as they were willing to reciprocate and acknowledge the source. Yet again I was trying to demonstrate how we can use an online tool to extend the learning experience and provide additional support.  Wikis can also offer real scope for collaboration between teachers for resource development and between teachers and pupils for learning. I explained that teachers can sign up for free wikis that are advert free at wikispaces. Wikispaces also has video tutorials to help get you started within their help section.

When I was discussing the wikis I highlighted using Youtube to incorporate inspirational and interesting videos. There is actually a lot of very good content on Youtube and other video hosting sites such as google video. We use the videos as a hook for the pupils and also to make the wiki more attractive and lastly to engage the children though adopting a piece of their own culture. Our pupils are creating their own environments outside school with video, audio text and many other applications in sites such as bebo and myspace and facebook and we want our wiki to reflect some of that cool. I also demonstrated  Youtube annotation showing how value can be added to your you tube videos. This is the direction that Dartfish are moving through the Dartfish Moves platform where you can upload and annotate videos. I was gutted that I had to leave early and could not see the presentation on Datfish moves. Something else for you to check out is the Dartfish channel on YouTube.

I punctuated my first presentation in the morning with videos I had saved to my computer from YouTube using Zamzar. This is a very useful tool as most schools block video sharing sites or you may want to play a video on a laptop in an area with no access to an Internet connection. This article form Wired explains explains some other ways of saving videos to your computer. I like Zamzar as you can save videos to your computer in different formats and you can convert videos to different formats, it can also be used to convert many different types of files and documents from one type to another.

I hope you find this a useful summary of the day and i hope it continues your learning beyond my presentation. Please feel free to post comments about the day or ask further questions for clarification.

Youtube Video Annotation

Here is something really cool that can add value to Youtube videos. Youtube video annotation

Video Annotations are a new way for you to add interactive commentary to your videos! Use them to:

• Add background information about the video.
• Create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene)
• Link to related YouTube videos, channels, or search results from within a video
• All of the above!

You control what the annotations say, where they appear on the video, and when they appear and disappear. Think of all the wonderful possible educational applications for this. Oh that’s right Youtube is blocked in most schools what a pity!

We Are Few But We Are Many: Another PE Blog is Born

Andy Cunningham has just alerted me to his PE Blog http://harrisacademype.edublogs.org/ Its great to have another colleague joining us and providing an online area to extend his pupils learning. I like his use of the Youtube clips to provide evaluating questions for the pupils. Another positive educational use of the much maligned site. However I bet the pupils cant access the video clips at school as they are more than likely blocked.

New PE Blog

Catherine McGourty has just alerted me to the PE blog she has developed for Holyrood Secondary http://holyroodpe.edublogs.org/ Welcome to PE 2.0 and the collaborative environment feel free to help yourself to any of the resources on the Banchory Blogs and wikis, links on the side bar on the left. All I ask is that you credit us as the originators if you use our materials and that you reciprocate by allowing us access to your resources.

Human Kinetics UKPE Newsletter June 2008

The June edition of the Human Kinetics UKPE Newsletter has just been published and features the following:

 

Product of the month…

Learn how to use technology to increase physical activity

Help your pupils bounce their way to fun and fitness

New career guide from BASES and Human Kinetics

Largest school sport event in history

Protective parents deny children the chance to get on their bikes

Government gives green light to National Sports Skills Academy

Exercise ‘does not make obese children slim’

Design your own play space: Ministers launch website to get kids’ views on play

Obesity crisis ‘will lead to children having their stomachs stapled’

Cycle Friendly Schools Award (Primary)

Cycling Scotland recently launched the Cycle Friendly schools award for primary schools. The aim of the new scheme is to encourage cycling as part of the whole school culture and contribute to increasing the number of children cycling to and at school.  The Award is part of a whole school approach to cycling which can contribute to health promoting school and Eco-School initiatives.  Additionally, the scheme links directly with cycle training that is offered at school in particular the Scottish Cycle Training Scheme and Cycling Scotland’s Ready Steady Bike and Go ByCycle programmes.

 

Human Kinetics News letters

Human Kinetics UKPE April Newsletter contains some interesting articles and references to resources summary below

·  International Dance Day discount!

·  Help your pupils learn essential social skills through character-building activities

·  Achieve maximum fun and fitness in PE lessons with new physical education resource

·  Parents ‘too scared to let children play outside’

·  £5.5m plan to inspire new generation of Billy Elliots in schools

·  Obese children to die younger than parents

·  Labour’s 187 broken promises on playing field sales

·  Heart disease risk ‘increases for children who are inactive’

·  School-gate fast food ban urged

·  More children are watching junk-food adverts despite ban

There is also lots of lots of interesting reading and resources identified in the April FitNews the April Academic News the May FitNews and the May Academic News. Happy reading

New PE videos on Teachers TV

In the first video Estelle Morris meets Sue Campbell, who has been given the task of completely reinvigorating British sport, to discuss the importance of sport to school children. http://www.teachers.tv/video/26185

The second video looks at how a primary school teacher has introduced Yoga into her teaching. http://www.teachers.tv/video/26328