Where is the Education in P.E from Exergaming?

Active Video Gaming uses in Physical Education

I've just spotted a new comment on a Gamercize YouTube video that opens a critisim of exergaming that a lot of active games struggle to answer - where's the education component? The overriding answer to this question is there is none, as the game is just a tool for the PE teacher to use. However - some games give the teacher more to work with.

Here's the video that was commented on:





The comment says "I like the overall idea and objective of this, but how are kids working on fundamental movement skills and such. Sure this is getting heart rates up, but not actually teaching them any skills or ways to stay active throughout their lives."

Yes, Gamercize does raise HR to moderate to vigorous levels, so that's a tick in the box for physical activity, but what of  the skill component? True, Gamercize is not teaching kids how to catch, but we're looking at more advanced kids - the ones that are engaged by video games.

Gamercize in this implementation is being used to teach

• Sport strategy - seeing the big picture of team interaction and how tactics can be employed
• Team play - co-operation and communication between teams of 2 to achieve a sports objective
• Physiology - which muscles are working and how energy is being created for them 

I'm not a PE teacher, so that is just first impression view and I'm sure those more experience in PE will be able to find different modes of implementation that lever the power of engagement into video games to reach lesson objectives!

As for the second part of the question above, kids are like wind-up toys - just give them the opportunity to get moving and give them a start and they'll keep on moving :)

Originally posted at http://gamercize.blogspot.com/2013/03/where-is-education-in-pe-for-exergaming.html

Nationwide PE Exergaming Survey Open!

Jennifer Krause, Ph.D

I can effectively facilitate students’ safe and appropriate exergaming technology use in physical education. Do you agree? Do you disagree? The University of Texas at San Antonio is asking for the opinions of PE teachers in a nationwide PE Exergaming Survey into exergaming beliefs and behaviors in physical education.

"We want to learn how physical educators feel about and their experiences with exergaming in physical education. The knowledge gained from this study may contribute to our understanding of the current state of teachers’ beliefs and experiences with exergaming, which will allow professionals to make decisions regarding future training and implementation." says principal investigator Jennifer Krause, Ph.D.
 
Exergaming Technology is defined as a video game system that requires gross motor physical exercise or movement to play the game. Examples of exergames include, but are not limited to:
• Dance Pad Games (Dance step games or games that use a dance pad or similar pad for input, such as DDR)
• Controller tracking (people have to use a controller, such as Nintendo Wii or Playstation Move)
• Motion Tracking (people use their bodies, camera, such as Xbox Kinect)
• Bikes / Rowers / Steppers / Treadmill / Balance Boards as controllers


The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete and is confidential. If you include your email address you will be entered into a drawing for a Wii gaming system. In-service physical education teachers can start the survey by clicking on this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M3D265W


Those also attending the AAHPERD convention in March 2012, that indicate a preference, can meet the research team and may be invited to participate in focus groups or interviews at the convention.

TEN's Commercial Exergaming Project

The Exergame Network (TEN) has been focusing on off the shelf consumer exergames in it's advocacy of exergaming, until recently. The majority of TEN members and supporters are involved in delivering exergaming to wider audiences, such as schools, gyms and YMCAs. The knowledge exists within the network to provide information for those end users and the network has matured in credibility and impact to the point that it can make this project a success.

The project is to create an Exergaming Encyclopedia/Almanac/Compendium with useful information about exergaming delivered to group or commercial settings. Origins of the project dates back almost 12 months, but the first TEN Skype Call was last week to really get the project moving (so to speak!).

The output of the project is a fact sheet per exergame of all the products available and capable (to varying degrees) of providing an exergaming experience for many users.

TEN Admin kicked off the project with emails to selected TEN members for feedback on what exactly should the "facts" of the factsheet include? On the call the various options were debated, categorised and tweaked into a working document on Google Docs. The current list for the factsheet includes some 14 questions in 5 categories that answer the questions end users ask. The key aspects of the facts are they should represent factual information(!), that is not subjective, not dependant on use or implementation and easily demonstrated or readily evident to the public.

In the factsheet the cost of an exergame was debated, and how to best represent this in a manner that was not commercially sensitive but provided users with the ball park numbers needed. Although it was not possible to align the tiers of cost to the more practical examples of funding (i.e. Can you buy this exergame with a PEP grant?) the nominal brackets appear sufficient for everyone's needs. The commercial input on the call was as vital as the representation from the end user groups.

This debate sparked an addition to the project, an excellent idea to put in the listing of funding sources available for exergaming, and some help in gaining such funding. Although many commercial exergame companies deliver funding applications as a managed service it was felt that the basic information would benefit the output of the project and the industry in general.

The final point of debate was how to collect the information for the fact sheets following the finalisation of the fact questions. It was felt that the best method of doing this would be to put up a survey via surveygizmo.com (that TEN has used before for collecting The Exergame Network Award votes). This survey would be open and accessible to all exergame manufacturers (providing some protection from commercial poetic licence with its in built validation).

It was also decided that the exergame distributors such as Motion Fitness, iTech Fitness and others, would be best placed to engage manufacturers in this process. Exergaming distributors that are active in The Exergame Network display a TEN logo and link on their websites (see http://exergamenetwork.blogspot.com/p/supporters-of-ten.html), and it is with this commercial experience and help the project keeps moves forwards.

This project is one of many the The Exergame Network is engaged in, for a full list see the wiki at http://exergaming.pbworks.com/

Exergaming putting PE in the news (Video)

Children are supposed to get 60 minutes of exercise a day, and that's often not happening. With child obesity rates rising and kids interest in physical education dropping, educators are constantly trying to craft new and exciting ways to get kids pumped about fitness.

Lisa Hansen is leading the way with research and practical application of exergaming in schools. The USF Research Labs are showing that technology and PE can co-exist with results that the kids love!

Video games and physical fitness: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Positive Gaming sponsors TEN at AAHPERD 2011

iDANCE and TEN in San Diego!

Positive Gaming is the sponsor with TEN T-Shirts as the Official uniform of the Exergame Workshop: Oceans of Opportunities 4 Better Health, spearheaded by SUNY Cortland.
This experiential multidisciplinary workshop will focus on how exergames (video games that require physical exertion to play) can be used as a means to accumulate more physical activity in today’s sedentary society. Our panel will lead live demonstrations and competitions on the use and benefits of exergames in schools, fitness clubs, and at home. Don’t miss your chance to meet the leaders in exergaming from education, health care, advocacy, fitness, research, manufacturing, and marketing.
The sessions will include presenters from many different aspects of the exergaming world, with support from SUNY Cortland students running demonstrations on stations such as iDANCE2, Gamercize, Xavix and Exergame Station.
The event will take place on Tuesday 29th March from 8:00AM in San Diego and has a Facebook group where you can ask the experts, pick up information and follow the sessions if you cannot attend in person.
Huge thanks to Positive Gaming for the sponsorship of the TEN uniforms with their showcase product iDANCE2, which will be in the forefront of the workshop. Thanks also to Jill from www.bstreethill.com for helping TEN out with the production of the Tees at seriously short notice!

Study: Exergaming shown as an effective tool for engaging PE Students

Research undertaken at the University of South Florida Active Gaming Research Lab in Belle Witter Elementary, FL, has been published in the Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis demonstrating how exergaming may be able to motivate hard-to-reach kids in PE.

The study was lead by Victoria Fogel, MS in an Active Gaming (exergaming) room set up by Dr. Lisa Hansen in 2008, examining “inactive” children’s behavioral responses to exergaming. The data collected included the physical activity of the kids while using exergames in class and contrasts this with regular PE lessons.

The results demonstrated that exergaming produced substantially more minutes of physical activity and more minutes of opportunity to engage in physical activity than did the standard PE lesson. When exergaming the student showed an average of 9.2 min of physical activity per session, while in the PE class they achieved a lower 1.6 min average of physical activity.

The publication of this study adds to the evidence base supporting the appropriateness of using exergaming in the physical education classroom. Because many different exergaming activities were involved in this study, the results show the variety of the genre and the ability of exergames to engage kids. The study can be accessed via PDF download at The Exergaming Network’s wiki site, filed under Exergaming Evidence Base, here.

USF’s College of Education uses the Active Gaming Labs not only for research, but also to demonstrate modern, innovative physical activity approaches to future PE teachers, government departments, and health specialists. Representatives from The President's Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition recently visited the research facilities; click here for videos of the exergames in action.

USA Today article on Exergaming!

10-12-10: This article just came out after the recent Obesity conf. down in San Diego. Check it out here.

Some colleagues of mine were featured in this article, like Drs. Barbara Chamberlin, Emily Murphy, and Bryan Haddock.

Dr. James Sallis was also featured, and here's something interesting he said about exergaming and PE:

"But Sallis isn't convinced that these activities should be included in PE classes. "Whenever possible, we want to get the kids outdoors, where they can run around more freely. We actually need to teach kids activities such as basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball. We need to teach them teamwork."These are the kinds of skills kids need for a lifetime of physical activity, he says. "Doing some kind of exergame may be better than no PE or bad PE, but I don't think it's as good as good PE."

I respect Dr. Sallis's work with the built environment and all, but I disagree with his comments on PE. Teaching kids team sports does NOT teach the kind of skills they need for a lifetime of PA! Learning how to do a lay-up when I was in elem. school (which included a lot of standing around, waiting for my turn to do a lay-up) did NOT teach me life skills for PA. I never played JV or varsity b-ball in highschool or college, and I don't play b-ball now. But we sure spent a whole lot of time learning about these and other sports.

That's why we have the growing movement that PE4Life has started, with the late Phil Lawler. They saw that "traditional" PE was not teaching skills that could be use for PA in life after PE, so they started a movement of change in PE and thankfully, it's spreading.

Teamwork is important, and there are lots of other, more inclusive ways of teaching teamwork besides team sports. Team sports only appeal to those who are are good at it; if you're not good at that particular sport, beware! You are relegated to the bench or worse off, not picked for a team unless you're "force" onto a team. If anything, team sports turned the majority of kids OFF of being part of a team, because of these dynamics, and only appeals to the jocks and jockettes who were good.

Exergames in PE is more inclusive (even handicapped and disabled kids can perform and compete with able-bodied kids), can instill teamwork (we've done teams with the makoto, 3-kick, and they have teams with iDance, etc.), and more importantly, they can be done for LIFE!!! (Seniors are doing exergames when they've stopped playing team sports a long time ago--if they even played them as adults!).

The only point that Dr. Sallis might have over exergames is the "outdoors" point...but I'm sure PE is held indoors when we have smog alerts or it's over 100 degs...or below freezing outside, so even traditional PE can't be done outdoors all the time.

As someone said in the article, a key point to exergames is that it can meet kids where they are at, so for many patients that I see, exergames CAN take the place of traditional sports. Many of these kids won't do team sports for many reasons, but they'll play exergames, especially if we have a similar system of teams and leagues for exergames like we do for b-ball, swimming, etc.

Physiologically, the heart doesn't care if you're running down first base line, or if you're running fast on a Xavix mat. All it knows is that this person is moving their feet fast and needs more oxygen and glucose to power their leg muscles!

Once overweight and obese kids get in shape and lose the excess weight playing exergames, maybe they'll try some of the more traditional activities, sports, or even some other ones that are outside and very physically active--like paintball!!! (that's a form of a non-digital exergame). I don't believe that kids and adults who start off on exergames as their main form of PA will stay on that only. I believe that they will venture out and try other forms of PA....but that is something for future research to prove or disprove!

Call for QUALITY PE!

7-29-10: Check out what the new Exec Dir. of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition says about the need for quality PE. She didn't mention exergaming, but you can see how it could fit in several areas of PE.

Ernie

*************************
Fighting Childhood Obesity

Posted: 28 Jul 2010 05:22 AM PDT


As the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition I am profoundly aware of the importance of making physical activity and nutrition accessible and affordable for all Americans, especially children. This is a multifaceted problem, and I’ll address several dimensions of this issue in this discussion.

Availability of facilities that provide healthy, affordable food in our communities is a necessity. If we do not have facilities within our neighborhoods where we can obtain fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices, then kids are going to continue to buy the Twinkies. We’ve got to incent our retail establishments to be able to come into communities. I think we’ve seen success where we’ve put forth the effort in this area.

The school environment has a strong influence on whether physical activity and nutrition are accessible to children. Kids spend a good part of their days, weeks, and years in school. We’ve got to continue pushing for policy change as it relates to physical education and school meals.

In many cases we are going in the wrong direction. Physical education is being cut out of schools, and it is so very important. Many states are passing policies mandating physical activity. This time could be recess, before or after school programs, or physical education. The unintended consequence we are hearing from school officials is “we are doing our 15 minutes of recess and then kids are walking between classes, so we are just going to cut PE because nobody said we have to do PE.” Physical education is a curricular area. It is an educational area that should be taught by a certified physical education teacher. It is not recess.

When advocates like myself come in and say we need more physical education, what we are really saying is we need more quality PE.

We know it can be done. Often we hear that test scores are the priority and we only have so many minutes in each school day, but we have examples of schools that have made it a priority where kids are getting 30 minutes of physical education every day and their test scores are increasing. For more information regarding this, reference the Centers for Disease Control and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education report on academics and physical education. There is an increasing body of research that shows definitively that kids who are physically active perform better academically. It can decrease their delinquency and behavioral issues, as well as help them concentrate so they tend to perform better on tests.

Has your organization worked to improve access to the health of America’s children through physical activity and nutrition? How? To learn how you can get involved, visit www.presidentschallenge.org and become a President’s Challenge Advocate today.

Note: The President’s Council’s name was recently changed by Executive Order from President Obama to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) in recognition of the fact that good nutrition must go hand in hand with fitness and sports participation in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Teachers Demand Physical Education Overhaul

Scientific research supports physical activity as an effective approach to minimize mounting health concerns and Physical Education teachers are using this research and exciting new methods to re-define "what is PE". PE teachers are the doing their part by rasing awareness that fitness can be fun, in a way that kids today understand - technology.

These technology skilled PE teachers of today are learning to use "exergames" in classes - exergames are video-games combined with fitness. Nothing engages today's school children more than technology, so it is no surprise exergames dramatically raise interest in PE class by making the class fun, challenging and rewarding. Exergaming is advocated throughout the U.S. by The Exergame Network (TEN). TEN's mission is to share information, success stories and act as a portal resource for exergaming via it's education wiki and blog.

Pioneering teachers PE encountered early challenges, sometimes experimenting with games consoles, like the Nintendo Wii, as a format to drive a PE class. Leading PE teachers now eagerly share the formula for success by using a wide range of exergame implementations. Successfully trailed exergames meet recommended exercise guidelines and can be integrated into structure PE lessons to the enjoyment and benefit of students. Many PE teachers have developed the skills to use exergaming in a developmentally appropriate way, according to guidelines from PE centers of excellence, as a tool can motivate and energize today's youth.

A Florida PE teacher spoke confidently in support of exergaming, "This is the first time in 11 years of teaching PE that I've had to kick kids out of class who don't want to stop exercising." One student summarizes the feelings of those involved in structured exergaming PE class "If the whole United States had a room like this, then this world would be a better place." This evidence, supported by peer reviewed research, comes directly from the University of South Florida's, Active Gaming Research Lab's web archives and represents just two of the many success stories of research into all ages and different implementations of exergaming.

The support for exergaming has reached global proportions, demonstrated by quotes from the BBC News posted in the Gamercize web archives. A PE student talks about the immersive nature of exergaming "Sometimes when you're playing netball or basketball you get a bit tired and then you say 'Oh I don't want to do this anymore' but this is really fun and I think I could do it all day." Her teacher is aware of how exergaming increases student involvement in PE, "Its certainly not physical education as we know it, but thats not what we're looking for. Some kids want to take part in this who wouldn't want to play football or other conventional sports."

Educators, researchers and editors alike are encouraged to use exergaming technology in their classes by first visiting the TEN resource sites to participate, ask questions to the worlds foremost experts, share news and ideas on exergaming in PE and PA. Resource information from TEN includes the five major categories of exergaming implementations, from dance pads to dedicated "workout" games, at http://exergamenetwork.blogspot.com/p/types-of-exergaming.html. TEN has also listed exergaming products available in the US with a collection of nearly 40 different exergaming choices covering aspects of PE with many different modes of physical activity at http://exergamenetwork.blogspot.com/p/exergame-products.html.

The Exergame Network can be joined or contacted via LinkedIn, Facebook, Wiki, Twitter or by email at info@exergamenetwork.org.