The Healthy People of Tomorrow Play Video Games

Let's Move - with Gamercize!

What can Gamercize and active gaming do for health and fitness, after all it's just a game isn't it? There's a serious side to exergaming, even the White House is taking a look to find out what the benefits of "gamer burn" can be.

Reported by WTSP 10 News, executive directors of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Melissa Johnson and Shellie Y. Pfohl (pictured left), had a first hand experience of exergaming at the University of South Florida’s active gaming laboratory in Tampa.

The USF Active Gaming Lab was started by Asst. Prof. Lisa Witherspoon Hansen three years ago with full support of the universities College of Education department. The lab facilites on campus are used to educate PE students in active gaming with another facility "in the field" at a local local elementary school.

The kids in the practical environment get moving."Why not take what everyone is deeming the enemy [video games], why not let them play the games that they love just make them more active?" says Lisa.

Students are not just playing games, they are having fun, being active and learning too.

Jasmine says, "When you play the game it increases your heart rate, makes your legs stronger." 10 Year old Edgerrin James has taken more than 1,400 steps in 25 minutes. "I feel great. I know I worked hard but I feel very tired," describes Edgerrin. Does he feel energized? "Yes Ma'am," he adds.

It's not just the kids that love the onsite lab, "The more we can push the fact exercise is fun with friends, social type of thing, the more likely they will do it," says Lynda Correia, PE Teacher at Witter Elementary.

Check out the video from Ch10 here, and see Gamercize and exergaming in action improving health, fitness and awareness! Lisa also contributes to PE Central as the editor of the Active Gaming section for PE educators.

(Originally posted at http://gamercize.blogspot.com/2010/11/healthy-people-of-tomorrow-play-video.html)

Active Gaming: Oh, You Mean the Wii?

PE Central recently launched their active gaming website and http://pecactivegaming.blogspot.com/. The below article was posted in order to provide a brief description of active gaming and its intended, appropriate use in the physical education classroom:

I cannot tell you how many conversations I have had with individuals discussing active gaming when they say something similar to, "Oh, you mean like the Nintendo Wii?” While my answer is "yes", it has become more and more frustrating to realize that superb marketing of a popular brand has really conditioned many minds to not properly understand active gaming. Active gaming is more than just the Wii...much more!

Active gaming is an umbrella term with a modern concept of combining technology + games + physical activity. Exergaming is also a popular term associated with active gaming that some refer to as "active" video game play. Yes, Nintendo Wii is an active game; but, so are a variety of virtual bikes, rhythmic dance games (dance dance revolution), martial arts simulators, HopSports, Gamercize, gesture tracking games, other virtual sports games, etc. Simply stated, there are numerous active gaming activities available on the market- commercially and for residential use. Review the "What is active gaming?" section of our website to learn more.

While many physical activity advocates, and maybe I should include traditionalist, view active gaming as a potentially negative tool to be used to promote physical activity; I am not so sure these technology driven physical activities have been given a proper chance to be successful. A large reason for much misconception is due to a lack of knowledge and or negative experiences with the inappropriate implementation of active gaming. Both of which are understandable and will be discussed further on the PEC active gaming website as well as in our blogs.

The question: "What should active gaming really be?" Active gaming should be a "tool" (in physical education) used to get children physically active while accomplishing learning objectives. Active gaming should not replace traditional physical activities; only accentuate them if that makes sense? A popular facet of active gaming is that the children consider the games fun because the technology aligns with the current generation's interests. If they are going to spend time playing video games why not let them choose an active video game? So I ask you, what is wrong with "fun fitness" if a child will choose to be active playing an active game opposed to a more sedentary behavior? Our goal is to educate children about physical activity in hopes they will become voluntarily active for a lifetime. Active gaming is simply one type of physical activity to help accomplish this goal!

The PE Central Website is intended to assist physical education teachers with implementing active gaming in the classroom using best practices; however, the information provided may be of value to others interested in learning more about this contemporary movement in physical activity.