Hands On Support in Shropshire

Again Barrie Fisher at Idsall comes up trumps for innovative use of ICT.  Today’s HOS session was aimed at delving into digital video; we toyed with the idea of looking at Pinnacle but instead went for Movie Maker 2 which amply fulfils the requirements that Barrie had for it.

Barrie worked through the different aspects of MM2 including the titling and the voice over.  Then we hit on the idea that this would be useful to pupils assessing their own performance - they watch a video of themselves and add a voiceover as they watch.  This could be so powerful in the classroom, as well as meeting targets for GCSE (particularly the AQA specification) where pupils need to provide analysis of their own or others’ performance.  And the nature of a Movie Maker 2 project means that they can add the video of their improved performance at the end after they’ve done it.  I can imagine moderators being highly impressed with a DVD of pupils assessing their own performance.

Today I worked with the PE staff at Thomas Adams school, giving support using cSwing performance analysis software in a gymnastics lesson. We were only expecting to be using the “Live” mode of the software for pupils to replay their techniques instantly and improve on their performance, but moved on to using the motion analysis techniques also. I helped out by the “forward roll and cartwheel” mat where pupils worked in pairs and we saw some real and rapid improvements in performance due to the use of the video replay software.

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Working with a PE department today in the north of the county who are very keen to adopt performance analysis software as a means to enhance learning in their classrooms. We looked at using cSwing as a way to allow pupils to assess their own performance on-the-fly, to make an instant appraisal and make improvements. The use of this software addresses a number of points in raising achievement through assessment for learning, notably in learners measuring their own improvement against stated goals.

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The word is spreading about blogging. I introduced the concept to some heads of department today and they were very interested in using blogs in a number of ways. It’s about time that the read/write web came into the popular consciousness, where people can start using it in innovative ways to enhance learning. Topics we discussed today included the use of blogs for pupils to interact with their learning materials in new ways, and the benefits and inherent dangers of allowing a public publishing medium.

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