The Visual Scribe; podcasting for dance students with dyslexia

Nanette Kincaid, Dance Department, University of Chichester

I decided to undertake this particular project as I was becoming increasingly aware of my contemporary dance students with dyslexia at the University of Chichester being somewhat ‘short changed’ in the resources offered within a dance class. Actually there were none to speak of at all! It felt that it was just more boxes that needed to be ticked when I was informed by emailed about another diagnosis of a Learning Difficulty for a student of mine, yet I had nothing to put into place for these students. I was even unaware of the practical implications as I presumed (like most people) that dyslexia was only related to reading and writing difficulties.

I wanted to be able to offer the students with dyslexia the chance to view their classes back at their own pace (which is something that they can have problems with), processing information at speed and their ability to retain and recall the material. I decided to investigate the possibility of recording a class from the Focus Class (one of my 3 second year classes) and not the other two, to attempt to gage whether, there was any noticeable change using the developed pedagogical devices.

Podcasts are certainly not a new development, but within a technical dance class they are. As far as I am aware, there are no provisions made for students with dyslexia in this way at this time anywhere else, there is certainly the strategy for the student to record themselves on video camera, but there is no provision as part of inclusive practice or ‘reasonable adjustments’ which are clearly stated within the university handbook.

I looked at instilled practices within academic studies and tried to see where these could be adapted within my own class. The idea of a scribe held great appeal and I reasoned that as a mainly visually taught module, a Visual Scribe was what was needed. However, I also developed an Instructional DVD which I based on a reference book idea, which has three main chapters and the third is film of me demonstrating with a front and back view, as well as the choice of the demonstration with verbal instruction or with music. This was to understand if it was the visual trigger of the student watching me demonstrate material (as this is the way in which they learn) or watching themselves back on the Visual Scribe (as they might find more resonance with kinaesthetic learning).

I was awarded a digital camera and editing software from TechDis which has been used for both the Visual Scribe as well as the Instructional DVD, until recently when the methods used, as detailed below changed for the Visual Scribes process. The Visual Scribe began as a very time consuming affair and I encountered lots of technical difficulties along the way! Whilst I was recording the class to tape on camera, this proved problematic, as I had to remember to change tapes over (the tapes were 60 minutes and a dance class is 1 hour 30 minutes), so right at the outset, I could envisage problems as I could image that should this become regular practice , tutors would not be so happy to have to remember to do this in every class. I then had to capture all of the class onto the computer, even though this was the ‘computers time’ it still added to the whole process, bearing in mind that at the moment, I am only undertaking this research with one class and not all of my classes. After capturing, there was compression and eventual downloading of the class footage. So, quite a process all in all. This was revised drastically for the second semester, and along with help from the E-Learning team, it was felt to use a video broadcast of sorts could help to eliminate a lot of these ‘time’ issues.

We switched to using Quicktime Broadcaster, which meant that the video was streamed directly to my laptop’s hard drive and then using Cyberduck, I was able within a few minutes to put the class immediately on the web page for the students to view. The developments of the project include the possibility now of all classes being filmed and potentially the tutor being able to after every class add a question and the student being required to post a comment - a blog of sorts. This will have impact on all students taking time to reflect on their practical work and if a student is ill or injured can still participate in some form or other. This project was designed to offer resources to students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties within a practical dance class that are not generally available. The impact that the Visual Scribe has had on all students implies that this development actually offers a more rounded teaching and learning practice in general, using technology within the dance studio, that is not only beneficial to students with a Learning Difficulty but to all students and holds advantages for the tutor as well. Students in questionnaires have commented that they have been surprised ‘at how useful’ they found this aid and would definitely want it to be continued in all classes. It will be decided at forthcoming meetings if and how the Visual Scribe may become part of the university’s departmental procedure, which will be decided from funds available to enlarge the scope of continued e-learning strategies.

There is certainly a greater awareness now not only from the dance department, but now the possibilities are feeding into other departments. The university is looking at possibilities for the whole university, for instance, the setting up of fixed cameras in a number of studios, thereby reducing the need for the time consuming setting up and taking down, as well as carrying equipment round from class to class, which can certainly have an impact on tutors embracing this and other e-learning within their classes. Currently under investigation is developing links with iTunes U, which would allow for many more avenues of pod-casts, distance learning and even the exchange with other universities broadening the scope of future developments.

The areas that definitely still require further research is how to enlarge the screen that the students view the class back on, as it is coming at enhancing learning through visual, aural and kinaesthetic methods, the obvious problems occur when the image is slightly ‘smudged’, as most lectures do not have the amount of movement as a dance class, we are still ‘tweaking’ a lot of the time to address technical problems. There are also issues with sound quality which is still an ongoing process! There are questions as to the practical applications of this in a dance class, as to be able to view a class back on a full screen would obviously be the ideal, but in order to make it a viable tool that can be implemented quickly and easily and is accessible has taken me to this point. I firmly believe that technology has a place within a practical dance class and I am very happy to have had the opportunity to be able to investigate this exciting field, I can see very clearly that the benefits outweigh any negatives, this is still very much 'under development' and I feel that perhaps in a year pedagogical approaches could be altered to include these and other devices to offer an inclusive practice in a field that for the most part is still taught in exactly the same way that it has been for hundreds of years. Bringing dance classes into the present and all that technology has to offer is still an evolving process, but hopefully one that we have made steps towards in this recent project thanks to the support of the HEAT scheme.

This project was presented at the PALATINE event The Practice Pod: A Physical and Technological 'Work Out' on 22 October 2009.