Armed with a Kindle with the Swim Drills book loaded I was poolside teaching and coaching swimmers for three hours.
For the last year I have run programmes based on drills in 'The Swim Drills Book' and have relied on lesson plans and sometimes laminated print outs.
Today I took the Kindle
Never before have I found the swimmers so attentive, coming close to the side of the pool to look at the pictures.
Here is a great drill to develop streamlining
They start in what we call 'Dead Swimmer' then straighten up, arms first, then legs into the 'streamline position.' They then kick off, add a few strokes and continue up the pool.
They got, far quicker than my efforts to demonstrate and talk them through.
Simple.
The pictures say it all.
Is this mobile learning?
Whatever it is, this works.
Next step to blog about in my Swim Coach website www.thewellyman.wordpress.com.
We bought a dozen copies of the Swim Book.
Perhaps we need a dozen Kindles.
Could we have waterproof versions?
And perhaps A4 clipboard in size?
With a wireless link to a poolside whiteboard.
Better still, an LCD screen on the bottom of the pool!
REFERENCE
Guzman, R (2007) The Swim Drills Book
Comments
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I don't see the difference having a Kindle should have made with showing the swimmers pictures. Surely other than the novelty (which would soon wear off), paper pictures would be just as useful?New comment
You're right - handy to use the device this way. If these swimmers build there own session plans in a collaborative blog that I share with them (on a Kindle or any device) does this help?
The size and convenience of the Kindle helps. I'm not going to take a laptop poolside.
If instead of still images a series of 16 can be shown like a flicker boot the exact movements?
If data on each of the swimmers is updated from what they do in the session.
Still just data handling and convenience of portability.
Having data currently online or on a laptop as a PDF file does give me detail on each swimmer that I cannot keep in my head ... or necessarily refer to in a file without working with an assistant.#
I guess I'm only starting to explore what is possible.
Any ideas or thoughts??
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PS Naomi ... contentedly clicked through the photographs for ages. Thirst for knowledge can have its downside ... trying to cover too much. You may have noticed from other blogs that I have an interest in History --- which was to be my first degree until I changed after a term to Geograph, only to want to change after a year to Fine Art (or Law)
In relation to old houses for a 16 year period I had the extraordinary experience and privelege of living in a building going back to 1179 with substantial renovations from around 1640s. That contact with the past I enjoy.