Taking a leap of faith for Exergaming

The Exergame Network Fundraiser

A couple of days before Thanksgiving Richard Coshott took a “leap of faith” out of an airplane to raise money for an organization that he is very passionate about, The Exergaming Network (TEN).

Coshott raised nearly $400 using Fundraise.com and that money will go towards paying for research that needs to be done. One of the biggest challenges in growing TEN is trying to convince organizations, schools, educators and anyone involved with making decisions on how exergaming isn’t just video games.

Exergaming is very beneficial to students and it is great way to keep students active. Coshott was nervous about the jump, but knows that it help raise awareness for TEN’s goals.

“When you have a door open to an airplane at 3,000 feet it goes against every natural instinct to jump out,” Coshott said. ”We have raised the profile of the initiative, and the knock on effect is we have some great partnership relationships in construction.”

He is excited about creating more fundraisers with Fundraise.com in the future and loved working with the team on creating a successful fundraiser.


“The great part about using Fundraise is that we can add to our activities, so we’re expecting to add more fundraisers,” Coshott added. 

There is a lot of research to be done in the coming months, and some of the topics that need to be tackled include: Positive Behaviour Effects, Gateway Effect, Comparative Enjoyment of Physical Activity, Health Benefits of Exergaming, Family health benefits of Exergaming, Cognitive benefits of exergaming and Improved social confidence from Exergaming.

Coshott is hoping that exergaming will continue accross the globe in the United States. One of the biggest challenges in the US is that with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, money has been diverted away from physical education and the arts and towards teaching to the test to try to meet the requirements of of NCLB.

But Coshott sees exergaming as a great way to keep kids in shape and educate them at the same time. Some studies show that students who regularly exercise perform better academically.

“Exergaming is brilliant to give all kids a chance to be active and successful in physical activity,” Coshott added. “One goal of TEN is to educate these schools so that they can implement a successful and rewarding experience for the school and the students. The good news is that exergaming can help; so long as we know how to use it and we have the proof that it does say what we say it does.”
And that leads back to the reason why TEN needs financial support.
 “Hence the reason TEN is doing all the work to get the gaps filled in exergaming research and hence the reason I jumped out of a plane last weekend,” Coshott exclaimed.

Here is video of Coshott taking his “literal leap of faith” to help support the TEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXZje4axsk&feature=g-all-u
To read the previous entry on this fundraiser, visit: http://blog.fundraise.com/post/35724102079/growing-the-exergaming-network-one-player-at-a-time, to read more more about the Fundraiser, visit: https://www.fundraise.com/the-exergame-network/active-gamer

Originally posted at :
http://blog.fundraise.com/post/36427724320/taking-a-leap-of-faith-for-exergaming

Games for Health Journal - Insider

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	The Internet has been abuzz this week due to the surprising results from Tom Baranowski’s team at Baylor, which found that children, left to their own devices, get no more health benefit from exergames than from other videogames. The paper, Impact of an Active Video Game on Healthy Children’s Physical Activity, was published in the Feb. 27 issue of Pediatrics. According to Reuters who had the initial report on the study, some public health researchers have hoped that active videogames might be an alternative to outdoor play and sports for at least some of the physical activity kids need -- especially for those who live in unsafe neighborhoods where playing outside isn’t always an option. To test this idea, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, gave Nintendo Wii consoles to children who didn’t already have one. Half of the participants were given their choice of an active game -- such as Wii Sports or DanceDance Revolution-Hottest Party 3 -- and the other half their choice of an inactive game, such as Disney Sing-It Pop Hits or Super Mario Galaxy. Halfway through the study, the 78 participating children, all nine to 12 years old and above average weight and BMI, were given their choice of a second game from the same category as their first. The research team tracked the youngsters for 13 weeks, testing their physical activity levels with a motion-measuring device called an accelerometer. Results showed that throughout the study period, participants with the active games got no more exercise than those given inactive video games. If one simply refers to this statement of findings, it is a short step toward believing that exergames have no health value. In fact, the actual conclusion of the study was “results provide no reason to believe that simply acquiring an active videogame under naturalistic circumstances provides a public health benefit to children.” In other words, like having a bowling ball, simply owning a potentially beneficial asset doesn’t ensure success. It requires coaching for goals, motivation, technique, discipline, and so on. Many bloggers and the more sensational publications failed to read the fine print of the story which resulted in headlines such as “Wii Motion Gaming Won't Guarantee Better Fitness”, “Just because it's Wii, doesn't mean it's exercise,” and “Study rubbishes Nintendo health benefits”. The take away from the Baylor study remains powerful. The health benefits and expectations for videogames lie not within the game itself but how one chooses to employ the resource. Medicine sitting on the shelf and untaken; un-followed post-surgery exercise regimens; ignored recommendations for smoking cessation; and exergames without assistance don’t achieve the expected outcomes -- not at the fault of the medication, prescription, advice, or game. So the question becomes, given the resources, how are exergames best supported to achieve the desired results? My sense is that we have not heard the last on this study and, hopefully, other researchers will build on the results of the Baylor study to better understand exergame potentials. Meanwhile, we have received excellent feedback from our first issue of the Games for Health Journal. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, please visit the website to see the Games for Health Table of Contents and to subscribe. Warm Regards, Bill Ferguson, PhD Editor-in-Chief Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications

When Good Exergaming Research Goes Bad

Another Exergaming related study deriving inconclusive results based on an incorrect premise: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21353635


The Abstract of the study points out 4 activities, 2 of which require significant aerobic capacity. The conventional aerobic activity was 'running' (verb) on a 'treadmill' (equipment/noun), the other was referred to as an Exergame? What Exergame and what physical activity or activities were required by the Exergame?!

Exergaming is a genre, a methology. Exergames vary as much as any other physical activity. This is akin to saying "I did sport the other day", the immediate response to that is "What sport did you do?". So what was the Exergame, was it chosen completely randomly, was it meant to also replicate running, was it a highly cognitive exergame such as DDR or iDANCE etc etc.

The complete study may well point out the exact nature of the Exergame used, but it is obvious to the researchers that this fact is of little importance in summing up their findings. This is extremely irksome, as they DO stipulate the nature of the conventional aerobic activity! (they also leave out the nature and platform required of the seated videogame).

This is simply inequitable and unfortunately, all to annoying common. Quite obviously the researchers misunderstand 'what is an Exergame'. This is misinformed at best and incompetent at worst. This is further exemplified in their conclusion and significance, "....exergames..may not exert the same benefits..", again which Exergame was used? From this, the conclusion would change to "....XXX Exergame ..may not exert.....". Extrapolating the results of 'one' Exergame does NOT predict an outcome for ALL Exergames!

All Exergames are NOT equal, of course not, why on earth would they be! In the same way as not all sports, video games, fitness equipment etc are 'the same' or 'produce or require the same responses'. This is a gross and insipid generalisation.

The massive cross section of Exergames available today all 'require' different and sometimes unique physical, cognitive, social, emotional, logical, musical etc abilities. Exergames can engage specific, local or compound muscle groups; lower limb movement, limb extremeties, upper limbs only, combinations of both, full body along with running, jumping, twisting, stepping, punching, dancing, and so on......

Please researchers, we encourage you to pour your expertise into this rapidly developing genre. The research potential here is massive, but get your facts straight on Exergaming. For a lesson in Exergaming 101: http://exergaming.pbworks.com/

The Exergame Network (TEN) is a not for profit advocacy resource that is dedicated to getting the best out of exergaming.  Resources relevant to this post are TEN's Rating System (TRS) and the Researcher's Resource. Details of both projects can be found on our wiki.

The Researcher's Resource project in particular highlights studies that exhibit either very good or very poor design and/or exergaming understanding from the researcher. The product of this resource will be the Top 10 exergaming studies, to show researchers "What good looks like" and to bring out the best of exergaming implemention to the public eye.

Exergaming Research for Everyone

Over the past month The Exergame Network has been working on a new concept, to take Exergaming research out of the journals and put it in front of the public. The project has been the subject of two TEN Skype calls so far and work has begun on TEN's Wiki.

The first call started with the brief; Build an evidence base of exergaming research and define studies that are missing

On the first call we had exergame manufacturers and distributors put forward "wish-lists" that they would like to see covered by the research community. The purpose being to give prospective users of exergaming an applicable evidence base of what would work well form them.

The researchers explained some of the difficulties around copyright, non-disclosure and funding to people on the call. They also explained some of the limitations that create the gap between what is required and what is possible at the moment, as well as the skills gap in exergaming experience.

During the call it became obvious that there was not only a need to build an evidence base for exergaming users, but also put together a resource of key exergaming studies that would inform and lead future research projects. It was decided to use the TEN Wiki as the method of collaboration in the first instance.

Projects that TEN undertake are open and transparent, which is an important consideration to give subsequent media releases credibility and satisfy the public's desire for unbiased and uncompromising information. Of course, projects that are open in nature tend to take a little longer, but we think that's worth it!

The Researchers Resource is being built on the Wiki at http://exergaming.pbworks.com/Exergaming-Evidence-Base for everyone to see. The key aspects of the research lists here are to show both good and poor research methods to give not just what's worth building on, but also to show what errors to avoid. At this stage it was noted that the TEN Rating System (TRS) will become a more and more useful resource for researchers in choosing appropriate exergames for the populations being studied.

This list will form the basis of the studies put forwards to the public as keynote research forming evidence for the best practices and best value outcomes. The public list itself was defined with the ais of being simple, clear and unclutter from academic jargon. The list is underway on TEN's Wiki at http://exergaming.pbworks.com/Helena. Clearly this is a working title!

The second skype call on the project focused more on getting some examples into the public list, and deciding on how to put this message across. The call was very much about "doing" rather than "talking" and members of the call started eagerly editing the wiki with ideas and information.

It was clear that the public facing list of exergaming research has some challenges ahead. On the call we talked about how to reference the studies, something very important in the academic world, but not of interest to the vast majority of the readers. We defined the target audience further, being anyone in the public domain that would not get this information from journals. This also includes members of the media, that often misreport research abstracts, typically with inappropriate headlines.

We also talked about referencing the actual exergame used, as this is a key factor in "making it real" for the reader, and for them to be able to take ideas forwards. This concept was universally accepted by commercial people and the academics on the call.

It was not all plain sailing, happy agreement though. The ideas around how to report (in the public list) the energy expenditures was a hot topic. One camp argued for the straight reporting right out of the research publication, while the other camp argued that this information needs to be simplified (as it is in public health promotion). There';s still some ground to cover on this subject!

Lastly, the call failed to conclude on who's studies / who's exergames should be reported in the public list. Of course in an ideal world, no one would be left out, but for an information piece we are trying to be concise while giving all the information relevant. This will be the subject of the next call this Friday, along with many more worked examples into the pubic list and plenty of "active discussion"!

Can Wii Make You Fit? (Answer)

The Effect of 6-Weeks Active Video Games on Body Mass Index and Physical Activity During School Recess

View more presentations from Richard Coshott

Can exergames replace treadmill?

5-12-11 Thx to Exergaming Evangelist from Down Under, Brett, for tweeting and posting this on FB!

Heart Rate and Perceived Exertion During Self-Selected Intensities for Exergaming Compared to Traditional Exercise in College-Age Participants

Kraft, Justin A; Russell, William D; Bowman, Tracy A; Selsor, Clifford W III; Foster, Grant D

Check out this just published article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, March 2011.

They compared workouts on DDR and Gamebike to treadmill and here's what they found:

"Results support that exergames are capable of eliciting physiological responses necessary for fitness improvements. Practitioners might consider exergames as periodic activity options for clients needing motivation to be regularly active."

The evidence just keeps coming out that certain exergames CAN reach the MVPA level!

Wii Boards used to rehab kid's walking

4-17-11: Check out what engineering and computer sci students at Rice Univ. have done to help kids at Shriner's. They've modded together several Wii Fit boards and created a game to help kids who are getting rehab to walk! Great job to these students!!! Click on the article here.