Lesson 10: Reflection on Past Practices

Jalen Holston| jalenh4@vt.edu

Design:

Before enrolling in the ITMA program, I failed to really observe design and had a narrow view of
one of the five task in instruction. I didn’t understand yet that planning needs to be emphasized and in
depth before anything, so the desired outcome will be reached and your audience needs will be met. In
May 2020, student-athletes were restricted from entering facilities due to COVID-19. I was given the
opportunity to work in a group to design workouts for student-athletes on the football team that would
be posted on a social media page for them to access at any time. I requested to plan to feature a part in
the program that would allow student-athletes to interact and share workouts with each other. The
project did not succeed in its intended way, but there were areas of the program I felt good about. Some
workouts covered weren’t designed to fit the settings of different individuals as all had something
unique from each other. Some individuals were not able to obtain equipment needed because of
quarantine. There were other issues too. I didn’t plan on the project being wanted by so many people
with different athletic backgrounds. I only planned to use elastic band workouts for football players, but
the program grew to also reach the men’s basketball team and some track & field athletes. The problem
with the design of my program was that my view was narrow and I only designed to what I thought the
learners needed and did not design something that would fit my learners best. I spent no time thinking
about my audience as the centerpiece or didn’t consider them as much as I should have. The results
were good at the end as both Virginia Tech men’s football and basketball teams were able to
successfully show each other how to perform effective workouts at home. I learned a lot from this
experience. I found that is very important to analysis who you are doing something for. I need to plan
the conditions for my learners and the context around it before jumping into starting something.
Reflecting on things I should have spent a lot more time learning information about my audience and
planned accordingly.

Development:

Reflecting on the past I do think my previous practices with the development task of instruction
could have been a lot better. I performed this task by creating an Instagram page and online module
that student-athletes could go to complete various workouts at home. The project was somewhat as a
success, but could have been so much better. The project was a success due to the fact that learners
were able to share and interact with others to show each other different workouts they could perform.
The student-athletes were able to access the Instagram fitness page to view various workouts to and
receive updates on new workouts. My role was to develop a portal outside of Instagram that would
allow the users to create and exchange videos. I was able to create a website that would allow users to
do just that and made a link that would give them quick access. On the program’s Instagram page, the
linked was included that allowed the student-athletes to create their own workout videos to post and it
would be sent directly to others post feeds to view. The program’s success could have been improved if I
spent more time developing its intent. I felt the program was used by student-athletes for its feature of
interacting and learning from others. Some learners did use the workouts the program offered, but most
performed workouts others offered. If I did spend more time developing the final product to feature
more workouts that fit a variety of different athletes instead of elastic band workouts for a specific
sport. Instead of having learners access the portal through Instagram I should have made the portal to
feature the program tutorial videos too. This would have been easier for learners to navigate around
instead of accessing two different websites. I learned that it is important when producing something you
want to design you need to consider who is it intended for, how it will be used, and what will be
displayed on what you produced.

Utilization:

As a participant in the quarantine workout creation group, it was my job to find ways to get at
home workouts to the football players at Virginia Tech. The problem I faced was being able to find
something that would influence users to interact with the program to learn the at home workouts. To
performed the utilization task, I encouraging student-athletes to use Instagram to access the workout
program’s page. They could enter the student-athlete portal through Instagram to share with others. I
analyzed my learners and mostly all of them we’re very active on this media outlet. This ensured that
learners would be encouraged to use the program as it was compatible with one of their favorite
applications used.

Management:

In my previous experiences with management, I had the responsibility of being one of eleven
members on Virginia Tech’s leadership council. The leadership council was made of a small group of
people that would represent the team as a whole. My job was to manage the running backs meetings,
film sessions, workout participation, practice management, and team events outside of the sport.
Problems I faced during managing the running backs were managing what key information the position
needed to look at during film study and setting up group film study times outside of practice hours. To
solve these problems as I had to take several initiatives. I had to spend extra independent film time with
my coach to point out key information I could transfer to my teammates and I had to manage my
teammates practice schedules to find times where everyone could meet as a group. What led me to
finding these solutions were the many times before I’ve failed trying to manage other things. I’ve
learned from my experiences and noticed that you have to direct your attention to details when
managing things.

Evaluation:

Reflecting on this past practice, I remember be having the job of coaching high school athletes I
worked with at a Virginia Tech football camp. Some of my responsibilities were to evaluate the athletes I
worked with to give a report back to coaches, give feedback to the athletes, and to instruct drills to the
athletes. The problems I faced in this evaluation was that there was no checklist or written criteria to
judge participants in the football camp. I had to judge the participants in the program solely off of what I
know coaches looked for in the position and my own personal opinion of athleticism. To the best of my
ability I solved this problem by having the coaching sessions recorded for my coaches to view after the
camp. I also suggested that a checklist be created for evaluating high school recruits that they target at
football camps. I was able to evaluate the athletes off my own opinion and give feedback, but I thought
it would be fair to have a second opinion considered and a discussion. I learned that it is important when
evaluating to make sure that the intended use for something or someone matches the need they would
be responsible for. From working with the coaching staff I also learned how to make objective based
criteria.