Swimming, Multimedia software to help teach swimming, for Acorn A-Series and Research, Machines and IBM and compatible computers, Pounds 29.99 plus VAT (single, user), Pounds 39.99 plus Pounds 7 plus VAT (school or pool licence), Pounds, 14.95 inc for individual sections (PC version only). Minimum hardware requirements: Acorn A3000 (or above) with RiscOS 2 or 3 and 2 megabytes of memory; PC 386 with hard disc and VGA monitor (sound card desirable) CD Sports Ltd, 4 Wirral Business Centre, Dock Road, Birkenhead, Wirral L41 1JW.
The requirement of the national physical education curriculum that children should be able to swim just 25 metres by the end of key stage 2 is an absolute cop-out. I remember greeting that news with disbelief when I first heard it.
Still, given the overloaded curriculum teachers now have to deliver and the lack of time available for teaching swimming in schools, 25 metres seems appropriate for those who do not get extra swimming lessons outside school.
This situation disturbed Sue Douglas, a teacher whose mixed and varied experiences in education saw her well placed to design a system which would tutor children in correct stroke technique and to provide a model for imitation.
Having also grasped a vision of how information technology, sensibly applied, could provide a suitable vehicle through multimedia, she set to work to create Swimming, an interactive multimedia software pack which aims to support swimming and water safety for adults, child beginners and improvers.
As a result of personal experience, Sue Douglas fully understood that a key element in the learning and performance of any physical skill is visualisation and imitation. She set about looking for a suitable “shell” program to provide the vehicle for a multimedia tutorial. Not unnaturally, her search took her to Genesis (Oak Solutions) and Martin Wilson of Hampshire education authority (of Horizon Project fame).
From observations of instructors and helpers teaching swimming to primary children, she became even more convinced of the need for a visual resource to help ensure consistency, not only in the teaching of swimming strokes but also at the preparation stage: floating, gliding and getting the body horizontal in the water.
The final result is Swimming, an application which supports the national curriculum’s physical education requirement that an 11-year-old can swim 25 metres unaided and has an understanding of water safety, and meets GCSE and A-level requirements for physical education.
After installing the Browser, a main menu offers a choice of any one of four strokes, or water safety, survival skills or additional (science) activities. The program presents more than 40 animations demonstrating gliding, floating and the components of each stroke. The animations are particularly well presented and more than adequately demonstrate what cannot be seen underwater, allowing visualisation before and after visiting the pool. Learning points are clearly related to action, so that instruction given at the pool can be revised and understood more clearly at the computer afterwards.
A building-block approach is taken, with the whole stroke being co-ordinated via quizzes (multi-choice with digitised speech and sound effects) to test the learning required. The program sensibly introduces floating, then gliding before front crawl is attempted.
Practice in the pool is encouraged throughout. Survival skills are explained and emergency simulated situations test that this knowledge is understood. A water-safety game which can be played by up to four players, encourages reinforcement. Lastly, an Activities section presents some of the scientific reasons for floating and gliding and attempts to stimulate scientific thinking on forces and inertia.
The simulation has been enthusiastically received, gaining endorsements from both the Amateur Swimming Association and Royal Life Saving Society, and champions like Adrian Moorhouse. The level of language and numberscience concepts make Swimming suitable for upper key stage 2 pupils, and there is a good balance of gender and race representation.
There are one or two problems with Swimming, not the least of which concerns the eight discs and the inordinate amount of disc swapping installation on a hard disc is essential. In fact, Swimming is an application begging for transfer to CD-Rom, which would permit room for more “splashy”, “watery” sounds and some video clips of world-class swimmers performing the strokes depicted by animation.
A single step-through of each animation would also be helpful in order to highlight particular parts of a stroke. This young company needs one of the big publishers to come along and help produce a CD-Rom.
Swimming would be an important acquisition. After all, what other subject taught in school can directly save your life? With computer simulations, however, it is the manner and context in which the program is used which governs success. As a support to both children’s swimming tuition, in physical education, at club level or for adult learners, Swimming is second to none.
CD Sports - stand SN27.
