How to Unleash your PE Superpowers

I’m a firm believer in the fact that in order to improve something, then you 100% need to be able to see it. Take the classroom environment for instance. Imagine I’m the expert PE Teacher and I see my students struggling with the correct way to kick a soccer ball, how best should I convey this to them? Well I could start by explaining the imperfections or take it to the next level by providing a demonstration. All of these things are good, but they only go so far, it doesnt help you paint the full picture of the performance.

So if you wanted to take this to the next level and improve their performance and understanding, how about showing them on video exactly what it is they’re doing, and better yet take their video and compare that against an Elite Performer.

That’s the power of video analysis, and that’s exactly what you can do in seconds inside of video analysis tools such as Vidalyze. See the image below for a look at how the side by side feature could help boost the soccer skills of a young student.

So from the above, its obvious how powerful seeing a video performance can be. But as powerful as it might be, a superficial, eyes only assessment, of ones activity could result in only some improvements. But what if the feedback you provided could be rich, more meaningful and even include quantifiable information to back and support the judgements you’re making?

More on this later, but first a little story from my experience as a weekend hack golfer.

In 2012, I signed up for a golf membership, and worked hard to improve my game. This resulted in me playing as often as possible and shaving strokes of my handicap. Eventually however I got to a point where no matter what, I just wasn’t getting any better. Enter Video Analysis and my game went to a whole new level.

You would think that judging by my excitement I stumbled across some magic secret, however to be honest, It was really quite simple. I actually saw my swing for the first time on video. 

As you can imagine, seeing your performance slowed down frame-by-frame and being able to draw on, and highlight key aspects of the performance is without a doubt amazing. An incredibly powerful way to seek improvement. So powerful in fact, that I wanted to make it accessible to all PE Teachers and students via Vidalyze.

So as you can see Video Analysis enabled me to take my golf game to the next level. With this in mind, I wanted to share with you the tools (my superpowers) which can make this all possible. Best part is, they’re accessible to you too.

But first an introduction….

The Team from Left to Right

1. Introducing the square/rectangle tool with the superpower of highlighthing and focusing points of interest like no other
2. Right beside the square tool, is the elipse, who’s been known to pinpoint the most intricate technic faults
3. Next up we have the angle tool, who’s 360 degrees can measure the angle of anything in a video with extreme accuracy
4. The two pencil tools (who argue about who’s more powerful) enable you to draw freehand on your videos
5. The color palette makes it possible to change the color of any of the other tools
6. Shrink or Grow the video to suit your needs with the % tool
7. Had enough of your drawings and annotations? DELETE
8. Combine and sync important video moments together for playback

And last but certainly not least is the all powerful ‘record’ tool, which upon clicking allows you to record your screen, voice and drawings into a nice video file that is easily shared with others.  This super power makes it possible to share and highlight areas for improvement in a multi modal way.

So why exactly did I build Vidalyze?

This year my Grade 7 students were involved in a skill development activity that centred around them improving one aspect of a sport of their choice. In the past they had completed this activity with no real way to measure this improvement. With this realisation, I set out to change this and got working on Vidalyze. My ultimate goal was to make a tool that would make dealing with student and user management, video storage, teacher feedback and the assessment process completely realistic for all.

Enter September 2014 and Vidalyze had reached the stage where it was ready for the ultimate test, My Classroom. The process to have my students using it was as simple as this;

1. They recorded footage using the Vidalyze App (although this is not necessary it does speed up the access to the videos)
2. Upload the videos from inside the Vidalyze app or via the www.vidalyze.com website in seconds
3. Students then logged in with their unique username and passwords to begin exploring their performance using the super powers identified in the last email

The net result of this activity, was an improvement in their holistic understanding of the performance. This made it possible for them to take their skills to a whole new level by bridging the gap between how they thought they were performing, and how they actually were. To cement this understanding, the students identified 3 key traits that could be enhanced, based on the elite models and their analysis. These were then used within practical sessions and activities to enhance their performance.

The final aspect of the task occurred a whole month after the original recording, with a re-recording taking place. This was then made available for students to complete a pre and post side by side comparison of their performance. By doing this it became strikingly obvious that improvements had been made. These video recordings were then automatically made available under the students account for me the teacher to review and assess. Absolute perfection.

As Benjamin Franklin once said “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn“. Vidalyze makes it possible to involve learners in the learning process on a whole new level, one that only technology can provide. Combine Vidalyze with all of the other elements of good instruction and you have a game changing recipe for learning.