The First Week......

Assignment 1

So, I may have over estimated my knowledge and abilities in Microsoft word, Excel, Powerpoint and imovie. The saying "you don't know what you don't know" is proving very true! Luckily, youtube is proving to be very helpful.

This week I have been focusing on the Excel, Powerpoint and video editing. I will provide a brief summary of each.

Excel

I have really learned a lot working on this task. It seems that people on blogs are very helpful and often have quick ways to solve problems that would take me along time. 

I can see value in developing my skills in Excel, particularly in my school teaching and in the evaluation and analysis of dressage tests. The thought of being able to easily flag particular movements if the score is below the average would be useful. I also started thinking about my effectiveness as a school teacher and if this could be increased by providing the students with data - through excel on their scores in tests and particular sections in tests. I think it is a powerful reflective and motivating tool. 

I am also looking forward to using mail merge as a tool to provide feedback. I would like to know if you can set it up to email the results directly? I am sure I will discover this along the way.

PowerPoint

After the tutorial on Thursday, I re-structured my initial PowerPoint presentation. I think previously I have used it like a black board to convey information to students. To see an example of one which provided a simple structure and diagrams or pictures, highlighted that if I am going to be successful in this task then I need to clearly map out the structure of my presentation and identify the key ideas. This was more difficult than I thought. To write less was very challenging! 

I am still a little confused about slide master. I watched a youtube clip about it, however I don't really see its purpose at this stage. We have a media specialist at school so I will speak her to hopefully gain more understanding of its purpose. 

I love how easy it is to insert video footage into PowerPoint. Next year I hope to start my own business in providing equestrian specific presentations to local clubs. This project has helped me gain more understanding about  the type of presentations that I would like to produce and I am excited about the quality of presentation I can produce on my Mac.

Microsoft Word

At this stage I have elected not to do the Microsoft Word assignment, purely because I thought it looked the easiest. However, after seeing all the things you can do with word at the online tutorial - such as identifying all the headings and subheadings and then instantly producing a table of contents, I can see the value in developing my skills in this area. 

Video Editing 

I am really interested in developing my skills in this area. I have discovered so many new tools - such as adding text to video. I have begun thinking about producing educational material for my students. I just need more hours in the day! The video editing is also an essential tool as I am often selling horses for myself or my students and to learn how to produce a professional video is essential. 

Visual Coaching

I ordered a sample CD online which arrived on Friday. I have asked the technician at school for a program to make my Mac Windows compatible, however apparently it is illegal. So, I will borrow my Mum's computer and explore the visual coaching program, if I think it has something to offer my coaching then I will continue with this as an assignment.

Dartfish

I have used Dartfish before, however I had no idea it could do all the things that Donna demonstrated in the tutorial. I only played with the slow motion and split screens. I again need to sort out access to another computer before I start this task. It will have significant implications to my coaching so I am exciting about learning the program.

Assignment 2

I have still not decided on my selection for assignment two. I did ask Donna if it was okay to do the iphone app "Coaches Eye". However, after searching for some of the other software that is available, I came across "coachmyvideo". This app is found on the ipad. The ipad provides the added advantage that the rider is able to see a bigger picture of themselve on the screen. The iphone was often difficult to see for riders as the screen was so small, plus,  I have smashed two of them in three months. So, I am off to buy myself an ipad this week in order to investigate the apps available.

I am also not sure if the video analysis apps are okay to use in this assignment as they are so similar to Dartfish, however I can not find anything else that I want to investigate that I think has specific benefits to Dressage Coaching. I will continue to look.

Assignment 3

This week I also watched two of the presentations at the Technology Conference. One was on using statistical analysis of speech to predict the likelihood of an athlete of being arrested or suspended. Although it was interesting it was not one I wanted to critique as I felt its application to dressage riders was limited. I did mention it to my year 9 class though in an attempt to have them reflect on the language they use. The video mentioned that it was initially based on CIA technology to distinguish terrorists from Presidents. Of course my year 9 class then suggested I had called them all terrorists.......

The other was on video analysis apps available on iphones. However, they did not video the app being demonstrated, they just continued to video the guy providing the lecture, hence I could not evaluated the quality of the app and will not use that one either. I plan to continue to watch a few more this week and hopefully find one that I am interested in.

The Online Tutorial

The online tutorial was quite a novel experience for me. It was beneficial to gain clarification on several points and also experience the technology. I started thinking about ways in which I could use it in the future.......