Week 3 Reflection

Using video or audio as an assignment in PHE actually makes a lot of sense to me. Students are already recording things all the time, so using this for education feels quite normal. I could have students film short clips of skills, movement patterns, or even personal fitness check-ins. They could explain what they are working on and why it matters for their health. This kind of assignment gives them choice and makes learning feel more real instead of just filling out a worksheet.

Multimedia Learning Theory helps explain why this works. People learn better when visuals and sound support each other instead of overwhelming the brain. In PHE, showing a movement is often better than just talking about it. A short, clear video can break skills down and help students replay what they need. How often do students struggle because they cannot see what success actually looks like? Or better yet, how often does a PHE teacher ask a student to demonstrate something to the class that the teacher can’t do for one reason or another?

I also think platforms like Google Classroom are useful, but students should not only rely on one system. If we only teach them how to use one major platform, we limit their comfort with technology. Exposing students to different tools helps them build confidence and problem-solving skills that transfer outside of school. In PHE, this could mean submitting videos through different platforms or exploring new ways to share learning. How can we better prepare students for a digital world if they only ever learn one way?

For this assignment, I screencast a video of myself playing Rocket League, which is basically car soccer. The idea was to talk over the gameplay, but the video doesn’t work as well as I hoped. I tried many times to get the audio to record, but it never came through properly in editing. The video also looks laggy, which I think is because Zoom does not always record at 60 fps. Even with the issues, the process helped me understand how tricky video can be and how much planning it actually takes. Below I have included some videos of professional Rocket League players, they can do some pretty cool things.

Even though the video had problems, it reminded me that students will run into tech issues too, and that flexibility matters. Multimedia Learning Theory pushes us to keep things simple and focused, which is something I would stress with students. If I ask them to make videos, I would keep them short and focus on learning, not perfection. How can we design media-based assignments that focus on learning instead of tech stress?

Questions to think about
How often do students struggle because they cannot see what success actually looks like?
How can we better prepare students for a digital world if they only ever learn one way? How can we design media-based assignments that focus on learning instead of tech stress?