Over the past four weeks I have been learning how to use the app Coach’s Eye by TechSimth via YouTube videos and discussion forums. ( To see my progress read my first blog post and my second blog post.) My overall goal for leaning how to use this app was to be able to use it while I’m coaching to help my athletes improve their form and overall athletic performance.
Before I started using this app with my athletes, I wanted to ensure that I knew how to appropriately use it to help a person improve their athletic performance. So I volunteered my friend, Susan, to serve as the individual that I would use as a tester to see if I could use the program to help a person improve an aspect of athletic form. Over a series of days, I filmed Susan’s overhand throwing form. After each filming session, I watched the video and analyzed (recorded audio and drew lines, arrows, and circles) it to show her pieces of her form that she needed to improve.
Then I shared the video with her via text.
She would watch the video to see the adjustments she needed to make. Then I would capture video of her again, and we would repeat the process. In some of the videos I shared with her, I compared her throwing form to an expert’s throwing form to better emphasis parts of appropriate throwing form.
The snap shots don’t really capture the entire essence of the video so I have included the video for you to watch.
Coach’s Eye is a fascinating video analysis app with huge potential. Before I began learning about and using Coach’s Eye, I thought the user could only annotate (draw) on the video. However it is much more than that. After you, the user, captures a video, you are able to manipulate the speed of the video. You can play back the video in regular speed, slow motion speed, or you can control the speed of each frame of the video using a fly wheel. This allows you to speed through parts of the video, go extremely slow through other parts, pause the video as needed, and smoothly flip between forward and backward play of the video. The app also allows you, the user, to create an annotated video from the original video. The annotated video is a screen and audio capture of the video including any marks made on the screen, any audio said during the screen capture, and any speed adjustments created during the screen capture. Also by comparing the form of my individual to an expert, I was able to give more concrete examples (in slow motion and paused) to emphasis form requirements. By completing this project I learned a lot about how to use Coach’s Eye to improve the form and performance of my athletes.
Throughout this process I also learned a few things about myself and the process of learning. This process of learning has not been overly difficult for me. I have found that I prefer and gain more knowledge from the videos than I do from the discussion forums. This is probably do to the fact that I learn better by seeing how something is done and trying somthing rather than reading about how something is done. In other words, I am more of a visual and kinesthetic learner than a auditory learner. By learning about Coach’s Eye by watching videos, the learning process became more of a hands on experience. While watching the YouTube videos on my computer I am able to locate the buttons and try them on the Coach’s Eye app on my phone. I was instantly able to try out parts of the app as the videos were playing. If I missed information or the location of a feature/button, I was able to rewind/pause the video to meet my learning needs. It just goes to show how powerful learning by doing can actually be.
The idea of networked learning can easily be applied in my classroom to review previously “learned” skills. In math, we spend time at the beginning of the year reviewing basic skills such as adding/subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. The students have seen teacher demonstrations and listened to teachers lecture on how to perform these skills. But for some reason the students still don’t remember how to do them. (Possibly because learning through lecture is too passive. Like reading a forum is for me.) So instead of lecturing about operations with fractions, I could have the students use their networks to review this topic. The students could be slit into groups of three and each student would be responsible for teaching/reteaching his/her group how to perform an operation (adding/subtracting, multiplying, or dividing) with fractions. The students could find videos using Khan Academy, YouTube, or the textbook website and/or example problems using the textbook website, Purple Math, or Wolfram to reteach themselves. Then they could use their new skills to teach their group members.
A similar idea could be applied when learning how to use a new skill or theorem such as Pythagorean Theorem. I could preselect 2 to 5 videos that demonstrate how and when to the theorem. The students could watch as many of the video as they needed to help them learn how to use and apply the theorem. To make sure they are learning and understanding the skill, I could have them complete a couple of practice problems.
The idea of network learning seems to fall in line with the idea of a flipped classroom. The students could use their network outside of school to learn the basic facts and skills. Then while in class, they can apply these facts and skills at deeper levels to solve real world problems.
There are many ways to use networked learning in everyday life and in the classroom. It doesn’t always have to involve watching videos. It could be using blog posts, discussions forums, video chats, curriculum resources, social media, ect. However, teaching students to use their networks to help them is a valuable skill that they will use for the rest of their lives.
stacyblemaster 