PLAYBuilder mobilized by PL4C
When it comes to delivering quality sport and physical literacy programming, PLAYBuilder is useful in a number of different contexts.
The Physical Literacy for Communities (PL4C) initiative has been incorporating the cloud-based, lesson-planning system into its projects for several years now, and the working groups are beginning to see positive results.
“PLAYBuilder provides activities and lesson plans for a variety of contexts, including recreation, sport and school programs. We made it available to 20 of our PL4C projects, and 10 of them really took advantage of it,” said Drew Mitchell, Senior Director of Physical Literacy at Sport for Life.
“Some projects really got it involved in their sports systems, while others engaged in the school side of things. That’s where I see it having the biggest role, is with generalist teachers who do not have access to many quality lesson plans. PLAYBuilder fills that gap.”
With PLAYBuilder’s extensive catalogue of pre-existing content, educators have access to a number of lesson plans, games and activities, providing them not only with the confidence that the content is vetted by experts, but the competence to deliver programs with the platform’s live coach functionality.
“In an age of open source information sharing, PLAYBuilder provides quick access through tablets and handheld devices to access a platform, and puts the content in the hands of the practitioner in the recreation and school space,” Mitchell said.
The implementation of PLAYBuilder across a variety of organizations with the PL4C initiative has further increased the cross-sectoral adoption of the new software .
“We are always looking to promote the software cross-sectorally, inspiring other groups to utilize it. The educators have seen how it can solve issues for other sectors,” said Mitchell. As organizations share their success stories, it inspires those in a variety of sport and recreation sectors to utilize this available resource in novel contexts.
While the pandemic has presented a number of challenges, it has created a unique space for digital platforms to thrive.
“Those who were initially resistant to using virtual tools are now more open-minded to such tools in the pandemic,” Mitchell said. Essentially, the pandemic set the stage for PLAYBuilder to showcase its functionality, becoming a go-to resource for educators to create, share and digitize their content across one platform.
Mitchell observed how unique challenges, such as programming during a global pandemic, can fundamentally change the manner in which we can deliver sport and physical activity programming.
“The circumstance has helped. Sometimes you need that sort of circumstance to set the stage for the adoption of new technology.”
