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We’re no longer trying to sell magic potions out the back of a tub-trap
Fig.1. We’re no longer trying to sell magic potions out the back of a tub-trap.
Still playing catch-up after the Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)
Through week six writing and most activities (a few hours left to wrap)
I’m on my seventh Open University Postgraduate module – six on e-learning, one from the MBA programme.
I’m familiar with week 7 as we begin week 8.
I’ll catch up over the weekend.
Perhaps.
If it rains a good deal and my son’s football is off (again). This will come back to haunt me – with all the bad weather they are moving to two matches a week. The Daddy Taxi might be busy.
For H809 conjured up the ‘Perfect Storm of Online Research’
- Young people, including minors
- Online – gamified if not virtual worlds, with social aspects (whether wanted or not)
- Medical – not a medical market research but ostensibly an ‘intervention’ of sorts that would require expertise, training and sign off for everyone involved.
- Global – what isn’t if it is accessible online?
The good news?
- They haven’t found life on Mars yet so I can keep it contained to Earth.
My plan
- Set further parameters.
I’m looking at use of e-learning to improve uptake of preventer medication by young people with severe moderate asthma (i.e. they are supposed to take a daily preventer inhaler, like me, I do – they don’t).
I may ‘contain’ the research to a group where in some cases a step has already been taken to ameliorate the situation – swimming. I’ll talk to the ASA (hypothetical) and have participants as UK swimmers with asthma
This on ethics and permissions relating to research will be of value.
University of Oxford Research Integrity
By entering medical research I have entered a minefield!
There are pages of protocols and procedures, training and checks with personnel and so on from the universities, the NHS and UK Government legislation.
Fig.2 A foothill just turned into climbing Olympus Mons, the 21000m largest mountain on Mars.
A picnic just turned into a medieval banquet for Henry VIII and all his six wives … (I’m off to walk the dog).
If I’m burying my head in sand then it is the red sand of Mars. In any case, why climb Olympus Mons when I can land on it in a Twitter / PayPal sponsored Mars Rocket.
In truth I am reassured by the scope and comprehensive nature of the guidelines, protocols and legislation.
Related articles
- Artist Rendering of Olympus Mons on Mars (myscienceacademy.org)
- Olympus Mons: Giant Mountain of Mars (space.com)
‘Lego Education’ are worth looking at.
Fig.1. Coach training with Bill Furniss, Nottingham
The Amateur Swimming Association, who train all our swimming teachers and coaches up to the highest level through the Institue of Swimming, have a hundred or so Open Learn like modules that take typically 2-3 hours to do including things like ‘Coaching Disabled Athletes’ and ‘Working with athletes with learning difficulties’. And other important refresher modules such as child protection.
Fig.2. Learning for disabled students needs to be tailored to their specific needs
As we have now seen on H810 : Accessible Online Learning – far more so than in the general population, there are specific and complex needs. The general disability awareness for sport says, ‘see the ability not the disability, play to their strengths’ – as a coach you have to identify strengths from weaknesses.
Fig.3. Using an endless pool to examine swimming technique
Once you are working with an athlete then you find you need more specific knowledge on a, b, or c – which might be an amputee, someone with cerebral palsy, or no hearing. Each person is of course very different, first as a person (like us all), then in relation to the specifics of their disability so a general course for tutors and teachers then becomes a waste of time.
Fig.4. Lego Education using Lego Techniks
If we think of this kind of e-training as construction with Lego Techniks, then once you’re past the introduction a ‘set of bricks’ should be used to assemble more specific answers and insights – even getting users – in this instance a coach and athlete, to participate in the construction based on their experience i.e. building up hundreds of case studies that have an e-learning component to them. The Lego Educational Institute are an astute bunch, their thinking on learning profound, modern and hands on.
Perhaps I should see what I can come up with, certainly working with disabled athletes the coach to athlete relationship is more 1 to 1 than taking a squad of equally ‘able’ swimmers. Then apply it to other contexts. And Lego are the ones to speak to.
‘Lego Education’ are worth looking at.
The thinking is considered, academic and modern – written in language that is refreshingly clear and succinct given the subject matter. The idea of ‘flow’ – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – is included while the ‘Four Cs’ of learning is a good way to express the importance of collaborative, self-directed construction and reflection:
- Connect
- Construct
- Contemplate
- Continue
How to improve access to learning for disabled students in tertiary education and e–learning – take a look at how a UK swimming club achieves access for disabled athletes.
Inclusion of Swimmers with a Disability – the lessons that could be shared in education and business
As the ‘Swim21 co–ordinator’ for one of the largest swimming clubs in Southern England (Mid-Sussex Marlins Swimming Club) I compile a report with supporting evidence every four years to achieve various Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) national accreditations. This includes provision for disabled swimmers. The award is used as a management tool – the club is a limited company with over 1000 members, some 26 paid staff and 60+ volunteers.
Swim21 – which stands for ‘Swimming for the 21st century’, goes beyond national legislation regarding disability, equality and inclusion – so much so that it impinges on the Data Protection act – those party to the information we make available have a current CRB check and have signed various documents agreeing to abide by certain disclosure rules, an ethics policy and an equity in sport code of practice.
Educational institutions would benefit from taking a look at this – I can see that it would, if permitted, cover far more than they do or are prepared to do in Tertiary Education. Would they carry the cost, even the potential risk?
The Swim21 report is divided into three parts: Compliance, Athlete Development and Workforce Development. In each of these there are criteria the club must reach regarding disabled swimmers. I believe that most institutions – universities and businesses, tick boxes for compliance but fail to address the development of and support of their people – including disabled staff. There are notable corporate exceptions, but I can’t think of a university other than The OU that champions learning for disabled students … or provides so well for disabled staff (I worked on The OU campus for a year).
What I find interesting in relation to H810 and ASA policy is the close interplay between various apparently innocuous or tangential criteria that make what the club does such a success – in fact our club is a regional centre of excellence or ‘Beacon Club’ for disabled swimmers. It is this weave that integrates what we do that makes provision, and therefore access for disabled swimmers possible.
Crucial to this is a good working relationship with the pool operator, local schools for disabled students and a couple of champions who hold on tenaciously to what we can provide.
The relationship with the pool operator, meetings, adherence to their emergency and health and safety policies, provision of appropriate facilities and so on is a starting point. Tangential, but crucial to have in place. There has to be physical access for disabled athletes to changing rooms, toilets and the pool(s) with trained, sympathetic staff on hand.
The fundamental ingredient is what we call ‘water time’ – access to the pool or pools at times that suit the swimmers, rather than being marginalised to an evening slot on a Saturday or Sunday which is the policy in many pool operators when it comes to disabled swimmers. In relation to H810 then access to ‘air time’ is key, access to include the right, motivated, experienced and educated tutors, with appropriate resources – with access ring–fenced, protected and treasured.
Our disabled swimmers, themselves divided into two ability groups, have slots on a Saturday morning and a late afternoon/early evening on Wednesday. We integrate certain disabled swimmers into mainstream learn to swim and teenage swim groups and when they come along or develop would include them in squad sessions too. Here too Tertiary Education needs to understand the need not only for total, or part time integration, but also the provision for full or part time specialist, niche provision. This is provided by and should be informed by national organisations for sight, hearing, physical and learning impairments.
Provision for disabled swimmers is ASA Swim21 policy and includes: self–assessment on the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), attendance by coaches on an ASA approved Disability Awareness Course and partnership with local disability organisations.
Supporting this, coach/athlete ratios are moderated to match the needs of the swimmer with 1:1 for some disabled swimmers, even 1:2 or 1:3 at times. We have to declare these ratios and demonstrate that they meet criteria by swimming level, age group and disability. There is a club Child Protection Policy and Equity Policy, and coaches agree to abide by a Code of Ethics – these embrace all swimmers.
In relation to H810, and where Tertiary Education might learn something – we maintain a record of club personnel which includes CRB and current relevant qualifications, as well as safeguarding and protecting children training. Most significantly with membership we capture medical conditions of all participants, disability information and emergency contact information. Teachers and coaches, on a need to know basis, have this information too (though it is wrapped in a data protection statement). We attend ASA approved workshops on Swimming for Disabled Athletes. All members, which includes parents and other volunteers, agree to a code of conduct. Anyone working with or likely to work with children have a current CRB check whilst every three years the club puts on a Child Protection Workshop which includes working with vulnerable and disabled swimmers. This is now supplemented by several ASA e–learning modules that include niche topics on coaching swimmers with visual impairment, physical disabilities, learning difficulties and/or behavioural issues.
The note on a swimmer is vital to a teacher or coach – just a line or two and we can seek further advice and of course speak to the swimmer themselves leading to conversations on what they want to do and where they have problems to overcome. We improvise, compromise and accommodate. The context poolside is of course very different to e–learning if we think of e–learning as distance or independent learning, however, if we think of it as social learning online and do more supported synchronous and quasi–synchronous learning, then there are close parallels. The mistake is to think of e–learning purely in terms of ways to get 1,000 people a year through the same induction process or 2,000 through the same postgraduate module – wherein lies the importance of access to and the engagement of the tutor, and other people in support. People create access, improvise, accommodate difference, find ways around barriers … and come to understand one person to another, what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Reflecting on this, there is another vital component – we very often know the disabled swimmer from age 9 or 10 into their late teens – volunteers who work in specialist schools may well have known the swimmer for even longer. Some stay on to swim as adults. Given that there are so many kinds of disability and such a spectrum for each, this knowledge is vital. For example, it helps to know that a swimmer who is barely able to walk can, with assistance, balance on a starting block long enough to start a race. I’m starting to wonder where the equivalents exist in higher education and for e–learning in particular – perhaps this same swimmer using a specialist keyboard to be as active on social networks online as anyone else, not quite an avatar, but as ‘free in the airwaves’ online as they are in the swimming pool.
Working with swimmers with educational difficulties
Short Description
An introduction and overview of commonly seen barriers to learning when teaching children. This presentation explains the conditions, syndromes and disorders and gives strategies for managing the behaviour in a swimming teaching environment. To help non-specialist swimming teachers work with a class containing one or two children with special needs. It is intended to assist teachers to recognise some conditions they may encounter and offers some coping strategies which may enable the teacher to meet the needs of all the children in the class.
Integrating disabled swimmers into a mainstream coaching environment
Short Description
To give coaches a better understanding of coaching disabled swimmers, whose disabilities fir disability swimming and highlight ways that coaching practices can be adapted to ensure that disabled swimmers get the best from training in mainstream clubs.
Integrating Swimmers with a Physical & Sensory Impairment into Mainstream Swimming Lessons
Short Description
To give L1 and L2 teachers an understanding of integrating disabled swimmers into mainstream swimming lessons and highlight ways that teaching practices can be adapted to ensure that disabled swimmers get the best from the learn to swim or school swimming environment.
Web access – lessons from working with disabled athletes and the Open University postgraduate module H810: Accessibility
As I am studying H810: Accessibility for disabled students I have naturally become tuned into my environment in a more sensitive way – there is a good deal on the Radio (especially coming through the Paralympics).
I am engaged with disabled swimmers at various times during the week, both those who are able to train in the mainstream groups (physical disability, cerebral palsy, MS – some ‘lesser’ learning impairment) and swimmers who come along to specialist sessions, split between two major and minor categories, though it is immiediately apparent, were you to use say the Disability Categories used in the Olympics that the individual differences are often so great that one would ideally have as many sessions as there are swimmers – we try to have as many coaches and helpers poolside as can be found. Ratios are adjusted according to needs from at most 6:1 but often 2:1 or 1:1. There are always people, guardians, parents and helpers to increase the ratio to 1:2 or 1:3.
The facilities meet accessibility criteria in relation to changing facilities, toilets, hoists and so on. However, I wonder if the pool operator, or the staff on duty, realise how insensitive in how they responded to someone using the disabled lavatory (which has access poolside) when they pulled the emergency cord. A light flashed poolside visible to all swimmers and anyone on the balcony – and then an announcement went out on the tannoy to the entire leisure complex.
‘Assistance required at the disabled toilet. Someone is stuck in’.
Do anyone of us want a dozen or more heads to turn as we are then ‘rescued’.
I bring this up as an indication of the sensitivity required, for anyone. What I have learned so far and know from experience is that people with a disability want access to be in place and obvious so that they can join the mainstream without fuss or favour. The last thing they want is to have a spotlight put on them.
The second issue is with labels and categorises, how with sport and education, depending on the disability, a person is ‘lumped in with all the other disabled swimmers’.
To create access takes time, consideration and the right people – with some training and experience. As a coach I find it is the disabled swimmer who arrives in good time and will listen to ‘notes’ after the swim. It should be considered normal that disabled swimmers take part in ‘mainstream’ training sessions.
THE ROLE PARENTS PLAY
The parents, for the most part (siblings too, both brother and sisters) form the larger part of qualified swimming teachers or helpers working with disabled swimmers – all CRB checked, members of the club, often Level 1 or Level 2 assistant or full swimming teachers who have attended an ASA workshop ‘Swimming for disabled athletes’. I know too from family experience the extraordinary lengths a parent will go to in order to press for what they know is right – ensuring a child with aspergers did NOT get put into mainstream school.
A final observation here, because behaviours in public have to be taught, rather than ‘picked up’ I find the swimmers with learning difficulties extraordinarily polite – with introductions, introducing other swimmers, making conversation and thanking me after the swim. It’s as if in ‘mainstream’ teachers have given up on such things as teaching good manners.
Working with swimmers with educational difficulties
Short Description
An introduction and overview of commonly seen barriers to learning when teaching children. This presentation explains the conditions, syndromes and disorders and gives strategies for managing the behaviour in a swimming teaching environment. To help non-specialist swimming teachers work with a class containing one or two children with special needs. It is intended to assist teachers to recognise some conditions they may encounter and offers some coping strategies which may enable the teacher to meet the needs of all the children in the class.
Intergrating disabled swimmers into a mainstream coaching environment
Short Description
To give coaches a better understanding of coaching disabled swimmers, whose disabilities fir disability swimming and highlight ways that coaching practices can be adapted to ensure that disabled swimmers get the best from training in mainstream clubs.
Integrating Swimmers with a Physical & Sensory Impairment into Mainstream Swimming Lessons
Short Description
To give L1 and L2 teachers an understanding of integrating disabled swimmers into mainstream swimming lessons and highlight ways that teaching practices can be adapted to ensure that disabled swimmers get the best from the learn to swim or school swimming environment.
We all benefit from 1 to 1 coaching -is this what we get from a parent or grandparent?
Who taught you to read, to swim, to ride a bike or cut a branch off a tree? To make an omlette or a cake.
Learning a musical instrument gets the ratios down, so does private tuition. At times I wonder if e-learning instead of aspiring to mimic this one to one relationship is nothing better than an interactive leaflet. Somehow the learner needs to be profiled before they start and the learning tailored, with student analytics an outcome. The e-learning needs to be smart and integrated.
National Policies on provision for people with disabilities
I work for a global e–learning company Lumesse which has 73 offices spread around some 40 countries. It would be interesting for me to see what accessibility policies exist (I’ll search online) probably a nod in each case to national or regional policy and legislation.
Of greater interest and relevance and running in close parallel to education at all levels: primary, secondary and tertiary and beyond – is the policy for sports in the UK and for swimming in particular. (I’m familiar with Swimming Governing bodies in the US, France and Australia so could check these too).
As the ‘Swim21 co–ordinator’ for one of the largest swimming clubs in Southern England I compile a report with supporting evidence every four years to achieve various Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) national accreditations. This includes provision for disabled swimmers. The award is used as a management tool – the club is a limited company with over 1000 members, some 26 paid staff and 60+ volunteers.
Swim21 – which stands for ‘Swimming for the 21st century’, goes beyond national legislation regarding disability, equality and inclusion – so much so that it impinges on the Data Protection act – those party to the information we make available have a current CRB check and have signed various documents agreeing to abide by certain disclosure rules, an ethics policy and an equity in sport code of practice.
Educational institutions would benefit from taking a look at this – I can see that it would, if permitted, cover far more than they do or are prepared to do in Tertiary Education. Would they carry the cost, even the potential risk?
The Swim21 report is divided into three parts: Compliance, Athlete Development and Workforce Development. In each of these there are criteria the club must reach regarding disabled swimmers. I believe that most institutions – universities and businesses, tick boxes for compliance but fail to address the development of and support of their people – including disabled staff. There are notable corporate exceptions, but I can’t think of a university other than The OU that champions learning for disabled students … or provides so well for disabled staff (I worked on The OU campus for a year).
What I find interesting in relation to H810 and ASA policy is the close interplay between various apparently innocuous or tangential criteria that make what the club does such a success – in fact our club is a regional centre of excellence or ‘Beacon Club’ for disabled swimmers. It is this weave that integrates what we do that makes provision, and therefore access for disabled swimmers possible.
Crucial to this is a good working relationship with the pool operator, local schools for disabled students and a couple of champions who hold on tenaciously to what we can provide.
The relationship with the pool operator, meetings, adherence to their emergency and health and safety policies, provision of appropriate facilities and so on is a starting point. Tangential, but crucial to have in place. There has to be physical access for disabled athletes to changing rooms, toilets and the pool(s) with trained, sympathetic staff on hand.
The fundamental ingredient is what we call ‘water time’ – access to the pool or pools at times that suit the swimmers, rather than being marginalised to an evening slot on a Saturday or Sunday which is the policy in many pool operators when it comes to disabled swimmers. In relation to H810 then access to ‘air time’ is key, access to include the right, motivated, experienced and educated tutors, with appropriate resources – with access ring–fenced, protected and treasured.
Our disabled swimmers, themselves divided into two ability groups, have slots on a Saturday morning and a late afternoon/early evening on Wednesday. We integrate certain disabled swimmers into mainstream learn to swim and teenage swim groups and when they come along or develop would include them in squad sessions too. Here too Tertiary Education needs to understand the need not only for total, or part time integration, but also the provision for full or part time specialist, niche provision. This is provided by and should be informed by national organisations for sight, hearing, physical and learning impairments.
Provision for disabled swimmers is ASA Swim21 policy and includes: self–assessment on the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), attendance by coaches on an ASA approved Disability Awareness Course and partnership with local disability organisations.
Supporting this, coach/athlete ratios are moderated to match the needs of the swimmer with 1:1 for some disabled swimmers, even 1:2 or 1:3 at times. We have to declare these ratios and demonstrate that they meet criteria by swimming level, age group and disability. There is a club Child Protection Policy and Equity Policy, and coaches agree to abide by a Code of Ethics – these embrace all swimmers.
In relation to H810, and where Tertiary Education might learn something – we maintain a record of club personnel which includes CRB and current relevant qualifications, as well as safeguarding and protecting children training. Most significantly with membership we capture medical conditions of all participants, disability information and emergency contact information. Teachers and coaches, on a need to know basis, have this information too (though it is wrapped in a data protection statement). We attend ASA approved workshops on Swimming for Disabled Athletes. All members, which includes parents and other volunteers, agree to a code of conduct. Anyone working with or likely to work with children have a current CRB check whilst every three years the club puts on a Child Protection Workshop which includes working with vulnerable and disabled swimmers. This is now supplemented by several ASA e–learning modules that include niche topics on coaching swimmers with visual impairment, physical disabilities, learning difficulties and/or behavioural issues.
The note on a swimmer is vital to a teacher or coach – just a line or two and we can seek further advice and of course speak to the swimmer themselves leading to conversations on what they want to do and where they have problems to overcome. We improvise, compromise and accommodate. The context poolside is of course very different to e–learning if we think of e–learning as distance or independent learning, however, if we think of it as social learning online and do more supported synchronous and quasi–synchronous learning, then there are close parallels. The mistake is to think of e–learning purely in terms of ways to get 1,000 people a year through the same induction process or 2,000 through the same postgraduate module – wherein lies the importance of access to and the engagement of the tutor, and other people in support. People create access, improvise, accommodate difference, find ways around barriers … and come to understand one person to another, what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Reflecting on this, there is another vital component – we very often know the disabled swimmer from age 9 or 10 into their late teens – volunteers who work in specialist schools may well have known the swimmer for even longer. Some stay on to swim as adults. Given that there are so many kinds of disability and such a spectrum for each, this knowledge is vital. For example, it helps to know that a swimmer who is barely able to walk can, with assistance, balance on a starting block long enough to start a race. I’m starting to wonder where the equivalents exist in higher education and for e–learning in particular – perhaps this same swimmer using a specialist keyboard to be as active on social networks online as anyone else, not quite an avatar, but as ‘free in the airwaves’ online as they are in the swimming pool.
Creative Technique: Working with Dreams and/or Keeping a Dream Diary
This from B822 Creativity, Innovation and Change which ended in April.
Several reasons why as a technique it is out of the reach if most of us and impractical as a management tool.
a) What good is it ‘dreaming up’ something at random.
b) That has nothing to do with the course.
I found myself giving a presentation to an eager group in a crowded boardroom. I don’t know why.
‘and Jonathan is going to give you the criteria’.
And up I step, in a two piece suit with the manner of Montgomery addressing the troops – effusive, informed, consided and persuasive.
It went something like this:
“We human are blessed with an innate ability to float in water, though not necessarily fully clothed, or carrying a backpack and rifle.”
Laughter.
“We should encourage swimming for a number of reasons: for the love of it, as a life skill, as a competitive sport and for fitness’.
At which point I am full conscious, which from a dream state meant ‘I lost it’.
Why this dream?
I am reading a good deal on the First World War and I am swimming four or more times a week again after a long, slow easing back into the sport over the lt five months. I even got papers through yesterday which I only opened late in the evening before going to bed to say that I had passed the ASA Level 3 module on Sports Psychology (which makes 10// modules down on that ‘Front’.
Where old meets new: paper and handwriting vs e-learning
Paper Assignments
I have in-front of me an Amateur Swimming Associations (ASA) paper for the Level III Senior Club Coach certificate. There are 12 sheets, facing side only. The paper is waxed, copyrighted and stamped with the ASA logo. Having attended a day long workshop on the topic, done some reading and from my own experience I complete these assignment and submit. It ought to be submitted as is; this is in part a test of authenticity. I have handwritten my responses. My habit and way of doing things is to have it in a word document, so I load the text and tables, complete the required questions/tasks, print off and submit both parts. Invariably I get a note about the typed up/printed off version being so much better … it takes skills that even I lack to write something in some of the minuscule boxes.
I was discussing on Monday with the ASA how to avoid plagiarism with e-assessments.
I mentioned Nottingham University medical students attending a computer-based assessment. I mentioned software that can spot plagiarism. I struggled however with the kind of forms the ASA uses as these tests seem to be have written with the EXAMINER in mind … i.e. to make them easy to mark. Which also makes it easy to cheat. The answer is the same, not open to interpretation. More or less. This isn’t strictly fair … papers are returned covered in red ink – I have redone one paper.
There has to be a sign in process that is used to identify a person.
How many people cheat? Is it such a problem?
Apparently so. Even with certificates and qualifications it appears easy to falsify documents. And often, these determined people are excellent teachers/coaches who have learn their trade as competitive swimmers and/or on the job, so they know what they are doing, they simply don’t have the piece of paper.
Memory Cards
I also have in front of me a set of handwritten cards given to me by a colleague who has just taken her Level II Coaching certificate. She failed the written paper. She used these cards to test herself. My intention is to put these into Spaced-Ed, as an exercise, possibly to create or to begin to create a useful learning tool.
I like the way Space-Ed prompts you over the week, tests you on a few things, then leaves you alone. You have time to assimilate the information. Is it easy learning? It is easier learning … nothing beats a period of concerted effort and self-testing to verify that you know something or not.
Whether electronic, or paper … or the spoken word, there is always a bridge to gap, a translation, as it were, of the information a person wants or needs to assimilate and this assimilation process.
Common to all is EFFORT.
Do you work hard at it for longer periods of time … or divide the task up into smaller chunks? Which works best? For you, or anyone? Is there a definitive answer? No. It will vary for you, as with anyone else. It will vary by motivation, inclination, time available, the nature and importance of the topic, the degree to which this topic is covered in print or online, or in workshops and in the workplace. In deed, my contention, would be that the greater the variety of ways to engage with the information the better it will be retained and the more useful it will be when required in a myriad of ways to be applied or is called upon.
On reflection
I learn from writing something out by hand. I learn again when I type it up. I may not be engaging with it ‘in the workplace;’ but there is engagement non the less through my eyes, hands and fingers. Similarly the person who wrote out this pack of 71 cards (both sides written up) was preparing themselves, afterall, for a written exam. She knows her stuff poolside, her struggle (as I know is the case for many) is translating this into exam-like responses in a highly false setting, away from a pool, from swimmers, having to read words to respond in text, rather than reading an athlete (observation) and responding with a fixing drill or exercise.
Whether on paper or online, learning requires effort
Paper Assignments
I have in-front of me an Amateur Swimming Associations (ASA) paper for the Level III Senior Club Coach certificate. There are 12 sheets, facing side only. The paper is waxed, copyrighted and stamped with the ASA logo. Having attended a day long workshop on the topic, done some reading and from my own experience I complete these assignment and submit. It ought to be submitted as is; this is in part a test of authenticity. I have handwritten my responses. My habit and way of doing things is to have it in a word document, so I load the text and tables, complete the required questions/tasks, print off and submit both parts. Invariably I get a note about the typed up/printed off version being so much better … it takes skills that even I lack to write something in some of the minuscule boxes.
I was discussing on Monday with the ASA how to avoid plagiarism with e-assessments.
I mentioned Nottingham University medical students attending a computer-based assessment. I mentioned software that can spot plagiarism. I struggled however with the kind of forms the ASA uses as these tests seem to be have written with the EXAMINER in mind … i.e. to make them easy to mark. Which also makes it easy to cheat. The answer is the same, not open to interpretation. More or less. This isn’t strictly fair … papers are returned covered in red ink – I have redone one paper.
There has to be a sign in process that is used to identify a person.
How many people cheat? Is it such a problem?
Apparently so. Even with certificates and qualifications it appears easy to falsify documents. And often, these determined people are excellent teachers/coaches who have learn their trade as competitive swimmers and/or on the job, so they know what they are doing, they simply don’t have the piece of paper.
Memory Cards
I also have in front of me a set of handwritten cards given to me by a colleague who has just taken her Level II Coaching certificate. She failed the written paper. She used these cards to test herself. My intention is to put these into Spaced-Ed, as an exercise, possibly to create or to begin to create a useful learning tool.
I like the way Space-Ed prompts you over the week, tests you on a few things, then leaves you alone. You have time to assimilate the information. Is it easy learning? It is easier learning … nothing beats a period of concerted effort and self-testing to verify that you know something or not.
Whether electronic, or paper … or the spoken word, there is always a bridge to gap, a translation, as it were, of the information a person wants or needs to assimilate and this assimilation process.
Common to all is EFFORT.
Do you work hard at it for longer periods of time … or divide the task up into smaller chunks? Which works best? For you, or anyone? Is there a definitive answer? No. It will vary for you, as with anyone else. It will vary by motivation, inclination, time available, the nature and importance of the topic, the degree to which this topic is covered in print or online, or in workshops and in the workplace. In deed, my contention, would be that the greater the variety of ways to engage with the information the better it will be retained and the more useful it will be when required in a myriad of ways to be applied or is called upon.
On reflection
I learn from writing something out by hand. I learn again when I type it up. I may not be engaging with it ‘in the workplace;’ but there is engagement non the less through my eyes, hands and fingers. Similarly the person who wrote out this pack of 71 cards (both sides written up) was preparing themselves, afterall, for a written exam. She knows her stuff poolside, her struggle (as I know is the case for many) is translating this into exam-like responses in a highly false setting, away from a pool, from swimmers, having to read words to respond in text, rather than reading an athlete (observation) and responding with a fixing drill or exercise.
The Coaching Philosophy of Bill Furniss: coach to Olympian Rebecca Adlington
Fig. 1. Coach Bill Furniss taking a group of prospective ASA Level 3 coaches
The following notes were taken at a talk given by Swimming Coach Bill Furniss, Nova Centurion Head Coach and Coach to Olympians such as Rebecca Adlington.
This talk was part of the UKCC/ASA Senior Club Coach course.
WHAT IS COACHING ?
Produced a great long list between us which Bill simplified to being performance driven. i.e. if you’re not improving competitive performance you are not coaching, you are teaching (or supervising).
‘Coaching is a process which involves a rational approach to the improvement of competitive performance through a planned and coordinated programme of preparing and competition.’ Bill Furniss
‘This process embraces both direct intervention strategies and the manipulation of contextual variable affecting player preparation and performance.’ Bill Furniss
e.g. A swimmer doing 20 x 100 reps on 65 dong them on 67 told to increase stroke count, reduce weight work and/or go faster over the last 15m
Only two people count; the coach and the athlete.
Some Essential skills:
- Plan
- Organise
- Direct
- Observe
- Evaluate
- Instruct
- Communicate
- Demonstrate
- Share Knowledge
- Strategies
- Counselling
- Motivator
Some Personality traits:
- Having total belief
- Being intuitive
(It makes me realise why directing TV & coaching swimming have so much in common – the targets of the coach working with athletes to produce a result like the targets the director has working with actors to produce a result).
‘Coaching is NOT a haphazard, trial and error affair, but involves a series of orderly, inter-related steps.’ Bill Furniss
‘The coaching process designates the steps the coach takes in determining, planning and implementing coaching action.’ Bill Furniss
The steps involved in the coaching process:
- Data Collection
- Diagnosis
- Prescribed plan of action
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Adaptation
- Overload
- Progression
- Specificity
- Both short & long term
Where have all the boys gone?
They find it too structured and methodical
It does n’t allow boys to be boys.
‘Swimming is becoming a girls’ sport.’ Bill Furniss
CF the US College System.
Coaching Philosophy
‘Your philosophy and style doesn’t matter … as long as it works and it works for you … and is appropriate for the context in which it will be applied.’ Bill Furniss
‘It is superhuman what we ask them to do – everything hurts, even their hair hurts.’ Bill Furniss
Ref: Coach: A Season with Lombardi. Tom Dowling. 1970.
The appropriateness of your philosophy to the context within which it will be applied.
Swimmers are starting to move around and leave coaches because they want a particular style.
‘This coaching lark is a bit more complex than you thought.’ Bill Furniss
What does it take to be considered an e-learning professional or a professional practioner of ICT-enabled learning?
At what point do you, or could you ever be a ‘Professional’ along the lines of a Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist, Accountant or Architect?
1. Full time or part-time … on sabbatical, resting or training? But engaged or prepared to be re-engaged?
2. Member of an appropriate professional association, or two or three. Ideally one with a Royal Charter, or at least National, State, Government recognition.
3. A prescribed and scrutinised code of ethics that if one if found wanting could lead to legal action.
4. Graduated in a relevant subject … so subject matter expert or a technologist or both? In ‘old money’ what counts, a university degree or a diploma from a polytechnic? I ask because their are hints of class-like status seeking snobbery regarding the differentiation of occupations and professions. If you’re a teacher or tutor in e-learning and want Professional status go and train to be a certified Accountant or licensed Lawyer.
6. Compulsory CPD … but in the case of ICT-enabled learning what exactly? Do you need to be a) a qualified teacher b) an electronic-engineer ?
Based on Neal and Morgan (2000) and cited by tutor group colleague Nick Purkis in his forum entry on H808 Core Activity 5.2.
I think if you are a ‘portfolio worker,’ in my case with two (some would argue three ‘jobs’) then being ‘full-time’ is unnecessarily restrictive.
My GP works part-time so that she can spend more time with her family, this doesn’t make her any less professional. Similarly I know accountants and lawyers who choose to work ‘part-time,’ the key to sustaining their professionalisation and legitimacy to trade is the compulsory CPD, and in some cases renewing licenses. I haven’t directed anything in ten years on a professional basis, to say that I have become rusty is an understatement, perhaps if ‘video, TV or film production’ were a profession, even if we went back to the unionisation of that industry, I would have had to keep my hand in … and by default kept up skills and been employable and therefore by default professional … with a professional attitude. I don’t feel that two additional post-graduate courses, one full-time, make me any the more professional (or employable) in a fickle creative industry. You’re as good as your last piece of work and my last professional output was in 1999. (See YouTube under jj27vv for some examples).
The professionalisation of sport
As a keen swimmer I took my children to the pool, we eventually joined a swimming club and I became a poolside helper, then an assistant teacher, then qualified teacher and through various stages I am now a step away from achieving what is currently the highest ASA (Amateur Swimming Association) award as a UKCC/ASA ‘Senior Club Coach’ (Level 3). Each of these stages requires passing a course that is nationally recognised and monitored, UKCC stands for UK Coaching Certification. To be licensed I need to refresh attendance on a Child Protection Course every three years and have so many CPD points as a result of attending additional courses. I have only been ‘professional,’ in terms of taking payment, for the last three years. My interest in swimming includes involvement running a 1000+ member club and liaising with the ASA. A simple way to explain the mission of an association that has 200,000 members, is to be the ASA in name but the PSA in practice … i.e. the Professional Swimming Association. This has seen the introduction over the last five years of a series of actions at the club, coach and swimmer level that by all accounts replicate stages of accreditation and recognition that are akin to learning in primary, secondary and tertiary education, as well as business best practice. i.e. I have witnessed the ‘professionalisation’ of swimming in the UK. Its relevance here is to witness the professionalisation of e-learning, within, or aggregated to the ‘learning professions.’ On a personal level, only with a recognised Sports Science degree, i.e. the need for degree-level qualification, might I consider myself to have become a professional coach.
A final thought, I have found a way to bring a love of film-making and swimming together, see short-film ‘Nightswimming’ (on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/jj27vv#p/a/u/2/36PDOeVrKhE).
Indeed an interest in e-learning, swimming and video-production has had me out with professional crew and kit working poolside and with underwater cameras to capture swimmers in order to support the instruction of swimming teachers and coaches.
Mind Bursts 