title: Applying an ecological approach to practice design in American football: some case examples on best practice

authors: Yearby, Tyler

abstract: In this paper, we outline an ecological approach to practice design in American football to support coaches in helping players to coordinate skilled movement behaviours in dynamic performance environments. This approach may require moving away from some long-held practice approaches traditionally employed by some coaches across all performance levels. To guide this progression, we present two novel case examples to support coaches interested in moving towards more contemporary pedagogical frameworks that support the notion of their role as a practice designer, centralising athlete-environment interactions. Distinctively, through the utilisation of a constraints-led methodology, coaches could design practice tasks to offer opportunities for players to interact with challenging performance problems. Our case examples range from high school players to National Football League standouts to support the implementation of alternative approaches to practice design, exploring what an ecological dynamics rationale could look, feel and sound like in the context of American football.

text: Applying an ecological approach to practice design in American football: some case examples on best practice In this paper, we outline an ecological approach to practice design in American football to support coaches in helping players to coordinate skilled movement behaviours in dynamic performance environments. This approach may require moving away from some long-held practice approaches traditionally employed by some coaches across all performance levels. To guide this progression, we present two novel case examples to support coaches interested in moving towards more contemporary pedagogical frameworks that support the notion of their role as a practice designer, centralising athlete-environment interactions. Distinctively, through the utilisation of a constraints-led methodology, coaches could design practice tasks to offer opportunities for players to interact with challenging performance problems. Our case examples range from high school players to National Football League standouts to support the implementation of alternative approaches to practice design, exploring what an ecological dynamics rationale could look, feel and sound like in the context of American football.

year: 2022

title: Dynamics, Determinability and Configurative Audience Involvement: The TV Drama Series in the Era of Social Media

authors: Fleet, Matthew

abstract: The dramatic television series, like many other mediums, has traditionally adhered to a consistent set of text variables over it’s development as a form of media. These variables are Dynamics, Determinability, Transiency, Perspective, Access, Linking and User Function, and television series has typically maintained a fixed quality for each of these categories. However, with the era of social media, the potential for these variables to open up arises, and it is possible that the way we view a dramatic television series as a text is no longer governed by these guidelines as strictly as it once was. Social media has already been utilised by the television industry in regards to marketing or establishing fan-bases, but it’s rarely been employed in such a way that it can reshape how we view and analyse television.
While there are several different ways that this potential can be explored from a narrative perspective, many of these present very clear drawbacks to utilising them from a production standpoint. While a choose-your-own-adventure type television series where the audience votes on decisions would certainly shake up these variables a great deal, it also represents a huge increase in production costs and effort, as splitting paths result in a lot of unused or unaired footage.
The goal is to find a concept that shakes up the traditional television format with its integration of social media, that doesn’t result in a huge shift in production costs. One concept that potentially achieves this was the idea that the actual content of the television series remains fixed, while the order of the episodes shifts around depending on audience interaction and feedback via social media. This represents an extremely interesting narrative concept, where the story has to make sense regardless of the order the episodes are viewed in, while still shifting the narrative structure enough to be interesting for audiences.
Based on this concept, Kleptoes is born. Kleptoes is a dramatic serialized television series focused around a group of friends who develop a taste for burglary after seeking revenge for a robbery of their own house. Kleptoes starts and finishes with a traditional pilot episode and finale episode, while each episode in between focuses on a different character across the same timeline. These episodes can be viewed in any order and make sense, as we see what each character has been up to in the time span between pilot and finale, often seeing the same scene from different perspectives with different details revealed or hidden.
Not just an interesting and innovative format for storytelling, this concept also succeeds in reworking some of the earlier variables to separate itself from the traditional manner of viewing television as a text. Dynamics, Determinability and
User Function in particular are all impacted greatly by this integration of social media, and prove that the way we view the television series as a text can be reshaped greatly by incorporating digital media in it’s development.

text: Dynamics, Determinability and Configurative Audience Involvement: The TV Drama Series in the Era of Social Media The dramatic television series, like many other mediums, has traditionally adhered to a consistent set of text variables over it’s development as a form of media. These variables are Dynamics, Determinability, Transiency, Perspective, Access, Linking and User Function, and television series has typically maintained a fixed quality for each of these categories. However, with the era of social media, the potential for these variables to open up arises, and it is possible that the way we view a dramatic television series as a text is no longer governed by these guidelines as strictly as it once was. Social media has already been utilised by the television industry in regards to marketing or establishing fan-bases, but it’s rarely been employed in such a way that it can reshape how we view and analyse television.
While there are several different ways that this potential can be explored from a narrative perspective, many of these present very clear drawbacks to utilising them from a production standpoint. While a choose-your-own-adventure type television series where the audience votes on decisions would certainly shake up these variables a great deal, it also represents a huge increase in production costs and effort, as splitting paths result in a lot of unused or unaired footage.
The goal is to find a concept that shakes up the traditional television format with its integration of social media, that doesn’t result in a huge shift in production costs. One concept that potentially achieves this was the idea that the actual content of the television series remains fixed, while the order of the episodes shifts around depending on audience interaction and feedback via social media. This represents an extremely interesting narrative concept, where the story has to make sense regardless of the order the episodes are viewed in, while still shifting the narrative structure enough to be interesting for audiences.
Based on this concept, Kleptoes is born. Kleptoes is a dramatic serialized television series focused around a group of friends who develop a taste for burglary after seeking revenge for a robbery of their own house. Kleptoes starts and finishes with a traditional pilot episode and finale episode, while each episode in between focuses on a different character across the same timeline. These episodes can be viewed in any order and make sense, as we see what each character has been up to in the time span between pilot and finale, often seeing the same scene from different perspectives with different details revealed or hidden.
Not just an interesting and innovative format for storytelling, this concept also succeeds in reworking some of the earlier variables to separate itself from the traditional manner of viewing television as a text. Dynamics, Determinability and
User Function in particular are all impacted greatly by this integration of social media, and prove that the way we view the television series as a text can be reshaped greatly by incorporating digital media in it’s development.

year: 2015

title: Kaumatua Mana Motuhake Poi: a study protocol for enhancing wellbeing, socia connectedness and cultural identity for Maori elders

authors: Hokowhitu, Brendan

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Background: The Aotearoa New Zealand population is ageing, accompanied by health and social challenges, including significant inequities that exist between Māori and non-Māori around poor ageing and health. Although historically, kaumātua (elder Māori) faced a dominant society that failed to realize their full potential as they age, Māori culture has remained steadfast in upholding elders as cultural/community anchors. Yet, many of today’s kaumātua have experienced ‘cultural dissonance’ as the result of a hegemonic dominant culture subjugating an Indigenous culture, leading to generations of Indigenous peoples compelled or forced to dissociate with their culture. The present research project, Kaumātua Mana Motuhake Pōī (KMMP), comprises two interrelated projects that foreground dimensions of wellbeing within a holistic Te Ao Māori (Māori epistemology) view of wellbeing. Project 1 involves a tuakana-teina/peer educator model approach focused on increasing service access and utilization to support kaumātua with the greatest health and social needs. Project 2 focuses on physical activity and cultural knowledge exchange (including te reo Māori—Māori language) through intergenerational models of learning.

Methods: Both projects have a consistent research design and common set of methods that coalesce around the emphasis on kaupapa kaumātua; research projects led by kaumātua and kaumātua providers that advance better life outcomes for kaumātua and their communities. The research design for each project is a mixed-methods, pretest and two post-test, staggered design with 2–3 providers receiving the approach first and then 2–3 receiving it on a delayed basis. A pre-test (baseline) of all participants will be completed. The approach will then be implemented with the first providers. There will then be a follow-up data collection for all participants (post-test 1). The second providers will then implement the approach, which will be followed by a final data collection for all participants (post-test 2).

Discussion: Two specific outcomes are anticipated from this research; firstly, it is hoped that the research methodology provides a framework for how government agencies, researchers, and relevant sector stakeholders can work with Māori communities. Secondly, the two individual projects will each produce a tangible approach that, it is anticipated, will be cost-effective in enhancing kaumātua hauora and mana motuhake.

text: Kaumatua Mana Motuhake Poi: a study protocol for enhancing wellbeing, socia connectedness and cultural identity for Maori elders Background: The Aotearoa New Zealand population is ageing, accompanied by health and social challenges, including significant inequities that exist between Māori and non-Māori around poor ageing and health. Although historically, kaumātua (elder Māori) faced a dominant society that failed to realize their full potential as they age, Māori culture has remained steadfast in upholding elders as cultural/community anchors. Yet, many of today’s kaumātua have experienced ‘cultural dissonance’ as the result of a hegemonic dominant culture subjugating an Indigenous culture, leading to generations of Indigenous peoples compelled or forced to dissociate with their culture. The present research project, Kaumātua Mana Motuhake Pōī (KMMP), comprises two interrelated projects that foreground dimensions of wellbeing within a holistic Te Ao Māori (Māori epistemology) view of wellbeing. Project 1 involves a tuakana-teina/peer educator model approach focused on increasing service access and utilization to support kaumātua with the greatest health and social needs. Project 2 focuses on physical activity and cultural knowledge exchange (including te reo Māori—Māori language) through intergenerational models of learning.

Methods: Both projects have a consistent research design and common set of methods that coalesce around the emphasis on kaupapa kaumātua; research projects led by kaumātua and kaumātua providers that advance better life outcomes for kaumātua and their communities. The research design for each project is a mixed-methods, pretest and two post-test, staggered design with 2–3 providers receiving the approach first and then 2–3 receiving it on a delayed basis. A pre-test (baseline) of all participants will be completed. The approach will then be implemented with the first providers. There will then be a follow-up data collection for all participants (post-test 1). The second providers will then implement the approach, which will be followed by a final data collection for all participants (post-test 2).

Discussion: Two specific outcomes are anticipated from this research; firstly, it is hoped that the research methodology provides a framework for how government agencies, researchers, and relevant sector stakeholders can work with Māori communities. Secondly, the two individual projects will each produce a tangible approach that, it is anticipated, will be cost-effective in enhancing kaumātua hauora and mana motuhake.

year: 2020-10-02