The following is a reprinting of my initial thoughts about developing a content management system that has since evolved into UniCommons.com and further development of PEvideo.org. The dialog below was written November 15, 2008.

A Content Management System (CMS), "is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A WCMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions" ("Web content management system," 2008, ¶ 1).

Question

Very few online venues exist for professional interaction and practical application of skills necessary to be a good physical education teacher or coach. My current collection of online video represents a good example of this concept in action. Coaches and teachers--even ones with experience--often fall short in their sport skill analysis proficiency. The video and website platform provides media for teachers to practice these important skills.

I plan to make this concept more comprehensively applied. I would like to build a multi-faceted environment that applies other practical applications for physical education in a dynamic learning and collaborative environment. In this online environment, students and teachers can practice and apply the theory that experts espouse. Furthermore, practicing professions can share their experience and best practices. Some of the ideas include collections of good unit and lesson plans; evaluation of teaching methods through video; instructional cuing (Fronske, 2005), testing materials; progressive models like sport education (Siedentop, Hastie, & van der Mars, 2004) and teaching games for understanding (Griffin & Butler, 2005); tutorials; and lecture presentations. According to the Web 2.0 paradigm, the users would be active contributors to the project. The project will continue to evolve over time and has a variety of possibilities.

Method

The key to employing these concepts is to build a viable web platform for the information. Lately, I have become rather proficient at the online content management systems that would be required to administer a dynamic user-interactive site. The actualization of this concept would take my continued attention and oversight, as well as eliciting the help of other professionals willing to review and direct the content.

The website will be developed with the Drupal open source platform. I currently have a number of websites developed using Drupal. Examples of my sites include PEvideo.org, PerformanceVid.com, and CyclingAnalysis.com. Development of my new ideas will take extensive work as I learn to employ new modules and develop content that will enhance the capability of the sites.

Video will be an important, albeit not exclusive, element in the content management system because of the value or visual feedback inherent in physical education and teaching (Franks, 2004; Hodges & Franks, 2004; McCullagh & Weiss, 2002; Rink, 2006; Schempp, 2003). I will be collecting new video that ads new aspects to the current collection of video I already provide. Producing video involves an intensive process. After the video is recorded, the next step is editing. We now have better laboratory equipment and video editing software. These should all be used while I am in La Grande, before going to Australia. Once the video is edited, it is then exported and uploaded to the websites. A software script called FFMPEG converts the video to flash format. The webpages developed will also include meta-tags that help search engines recognize the content. I especially would like to gather new video footage while in Australia specific to the sports that are popular there, and not in America.

Significance

Over the last decade I've developed a good repertoire of technological skills that I can now more fully apply in physical education. I see this work and international collaboration as an opportunity to expand by expertise and develop some of my ideas in a new venue.

This project serves as a systematic application of the principles of discovery, application, and teaching. This work will directly compliment my future teaching and provides a venue for students to contribute their work to the project. Physical education professionals, coaches, and students around the world will benefit from the production. My PEvideo.org site already shows the potential worldwide reach for such a project.

References

Franks, I. M. (2004). The need for feedback. In M. Hughes & I. M. Franks (Eds.), Notational analysis of sport: systems for better coaching and performance in sport (2nd ed.) (pp. 8-16). New York : Routledge.

Fronske, H. (2005). Teaching Cues for Sport Skills for Secondary School Students (3rd edition). San Francisco, CA: Pearson/Benjamin Cummings.

Griffin, L, & Butler, J. (2005). Teaching Games for Understanding: Theory, Research, and Practice. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Hodges, N. J. & Franks, I. M. (2004). The nature of feedback. In M. Hughes & I. M. Franks (Eds.), Notational analysis of sport: systems for better coaching and performance in sport (2nd ed.) (pp. 17-39). New York : Routledge.

McCullagh, P., & Weiss, M. R. (2002). Observational learning: The forgotten psychological method in sport psychology. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 131-149). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Miller, D. K. (2002). Measurement by the Physical Educator: Why and How (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rink, J. E. (2006). Teaching physical education for learning. New York:McGraw-Hill.

Schempp, P. G. (2003). Teaching sport and physical activity: insights on the road to excellence. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.Siedentop, D., Hastie, P. A., & van der Mars, H. (2004). Complete Guide to Sport Education. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Web content management system. (2008, November 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:30, November 16, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_content_management_system&oldid=251784977