Ski Easy at InterSki congress 2023

The activities of the “SKI EASY” project will be actively presented at this year’s INTERSKI CONGRESS 2023, which will be held in Levi, Finland, from March 26 to 31.

A KEY NOTE introductory lecture and two SKI EASY workshops will be given by SKI EASY team members with the IAESS Board to an audience of over 39 countries and their national ski schools.

 

The programme is as follows:

KEY NOTE Lecture:  LET’S DO IT EASY – inspiring future generations of snowsports participants

Lecturer: Rado Pišot et al – IAESS board and SKIEASY partners (EN language)

Target group: All INTERSKI participants

Venue: Auditorio

TIME: Tuesday, 28 March2023 at 17:30-18:30

More:

The evolution of snowsports has dramatically changed sliding techniques, enabling higher velocities, and providing less safety. In addition, due to major changes in lifestyle with increasingly longer periods of physical inactivity, unhealthy nutrition, and other health risk factors, we are encountering more and more snowsports participants with diminished motor and functional skills, a higher incidence of chronic and acute injuries, and different expectations. Thus, the general interest in outdoor activities is decreasing, especially when more funds have to be raised for travel, equipment, lift passes, etc. for this purpose.

For the above reasons, focusing our professional efforts on finding new opportunities for incentives and raising awareness of the importance and value of physical active in nature is in all our interests. The development of services that appeal to individuals, families and groups and allow them to enter the world of snow sports in a quick, easy and fun way will help to address the above challenges. It is essential to improve the guest experience through adapting and improving procedures, tools, and teaching methods to inspire people to engage in physical activity, generally, and snowsports, specifically, as lifelong activities. Developments in globalized alpine winter tourism with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds make it necessary for snowsports instructors to expand their knowledge and competence. Further, recent experience with the pandemic COVID -19 prompts us to look for new approaches based on mobile platforms and multimedia technologies. How can the scientific work and methodology based on it help to attract more children to winter sports so that parents and families are satisfied? This keynote presents a European collaborative project addressing these challenges across eight countries using the following acronym SKI EASY:

E – Promoting education in and through sport with special emphasis on developing the skills and competencies of snowsports instructors and learners; Enriching (self)employment opportunities for professional and dual career development; Teaching module – SKI EASY Certificate;

A – Accessible learning and promoting participation in outdoor sports; Reaching the population of deprived children and enabling snow sports experiences with the help of local communities and volunteers;

S – Simple communication: implementing a 5-steps model for teaching skiing (ski alphabet, dictionaries and manuals) to beginner skiers in different world languages to facilitate interaction in teaching skiing;

Y-youthful: a state-of-the-art IT -driven approach to teaching (ICT applications – SKIEASY MOBAPP for smartphones in different world languages and multimedia technologies to overcome language and cultural barriers).

WORKSHOP 1:

Title: SKI EASY – INTERNATIONAL 5 STEPS LEARNER CENTERED MODEL OF TEACHING SNOWSPORT

Hosts: members of SKI EASY partners teams

Target group: Demo teams, Ski instructors, Ski trainers

TIME: Wednesday, 29 March 2023 at 10:00 to 12:00

Venue: Auditiorio (Indoor) / Outdoor- Ski slope: Low steepness (polygon)

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It is important to get to know new ways which will enable teaching snowsport in easy way and more fun, not just new approach with SKI EASY equipment (skis and ski boots) but also scientific background on early acquisition of teaching skiing is the main idea of the workshop.

The aim of the workshop “SKI EASY” in to provide deeper view in to the simplified, internationally agreed 5-step model for ski teaching – basic facts and conceptual framework of the SKIEASY curriculum. In 90 minutes, interactive approach with presentation, demonstration and practical work gives you basic information of the whole idea of unified teaching SKI EASY curriculum.

Most of the demonstration will provide useful games as tools in the of the basic motor tasks in 5 levels model of ski teaching acquisitions.

In practical part on the snow a special attention will be given to the outdoor: social and ice-breaking games to enhance group dynamic and games related to the familiarization to the snow environment and the equipment.

After the presentation from the SKIEASY team, the participants will act as ski instructors in groups of 4 participants according to the presented model. Practical work on the snow will offer the best experience to the participants. In addition to evaluate the workshop; five ski teachers- judges from the participants will evaluate the SKIEASY teaching model.

Indoor discussion: a critical reflection to the workshop content will be organized with the help of “gallery walk” (creative learning) and then compare the SKIEASY model with the practices of the participants from different countries – positive and negative experiences will be discussed.

WORKSHOP 2:

Title: ENHANCING TEACHING SNOWSPORT THROUGH DIGITAL TOOLS – SKIEASY MOBAPP

Hosts: members of SKIEASY partners teams

Target group: Demo teams, Ski instructors; Ski trainers

TIME: Thursday, 30 March 2023 at 10:00 to 12:00

Venue: Auditiorio (Indoor) /Outdoor- Ski slope: Low steepness (polygon)

More:

Alpine skiing has dramatically changed not just in skiing technique, but at the same time, we are facing with lower motor and functional abilities of students and different motive to learn skiing. That why it is essential to adapt and upgrade the procedures tools, and teaching methods to such changes. Globalized alpine winter tourism with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds also make it necessary for ski instructors to expand their knowledge and competence. In the frame of the project, we will present the SKIEASY MOBAPP (with dictionary – languages, manuals), in the 5-step SKIEASY teaching model and its scientific background and application value for teacher and students.

Indoor: The basic presentation of main idea and framework of SKIEASY MOBAPP to the participants

Outdoor: Practical work. Presenting practical value of mobile apps for facilitating learning, interacting with learners, and bridging language barriers in knowledge transfer.

Support of MOBAPP when introducing basic tasks of SKIEASY teaching model (games related to the familiarization with the group, snow, and equipment).

Participants will use the SKIEASY MOBAPP in their mother language or one of the world languages in the short lecture in the ski instructor’s group (participants will be homogenized in groups by language – English, German, Spanish, …)

Indor: group reflection on the workshop in the shape of “Gallery Walk” (creative learning) – presentation of the shortcomings, suggestions, will enable constructive feedback about the application value of SKIEASY MOBAPP in the different national ski schools.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.