http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snYM2Artq9M
Video games as I remember them were games that you sat down to play. They were based around hand controls that didn’t require much movement or to exert much energy, unless one felt the urge to shout at the screen. The notion of sedentary video games came crashing down when Nintendo released the gaming console the Wii. From personal experience with a Wii console, you stand up, move about and can become quite active through many of the games that have been designed to be more interactive than previous, more traditional computer and video games.
One game in particular, Dance Dance Revolution has been adopted by Lincoln Middle School (Todd, 2008) as a game used during physical education to help build up the physical fitness of the students. How is this educational? Executive Director Shellie Pfohl of the President’s Council of Fitness, Sport and Nutrition (President’s Council of Fitness, Sport and Nutrition, 2011) states that if children are physically active, they have greater classroom performance. She continues to state student concentration levels increase while also becoming better behaved. Lieberman (2006) states that dance games help to improve leadership skills and keep absenteeism low. Lieberan (2006) also stats that students have greater enthusiasm for physical education. I know that from personal experience, I would have been excited to attend my physical educational class if I knew we were to play video games.
The game Dance Dance Revolution has also been adopted by 765 schools in Virginia (Yi, 2006) to motivate students to exercise and help combat obesity. It is clear from this that video games are creeping their way into other areas of education. I speculate how long it will be before the Dance Dance Revolution game is thrown into the physical education store room to collect dust along with all the other trends and games that did not work. How long before students become bored with it?
(Jacqui Long)
References:
Lieberman, D.A. (2006). Dance games and other exergames: What the research says. Retrieved October 4, 2011 from http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/faculty/lieberman/exergames.htm
President’s Council of Fitness, Sport and Nutrition. (2011, August 29). Using Video Games to Get Fit [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEnBOJqnVWM
Todd, J. (2008, July 17). Dance dance revelution in gym class [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snYM2Artq9M
Yi, M. (2006). Playing games in school: using videos helps students love to learn their lessons. Retrieved October 4, 2011 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/20/CLASSROOM.TMP&ao=all
This is an interesting topic about video games and exercise, and I have the same feeling that when people play video games, they usually sit in front of a computer or TV. In addition, your article delivers information about the other way of connecting video games with education which is physical education. The game Dance Dance Revolution you mentioned in your paper is a good example to show video games have not only the potential to increase psychological education, but also the physical education (Trout & Christie, 2007). Despite the lack of research, some schools in the U.K and the U.S.A. had enough confidence to purchase and use it in public school physical programs.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like that the traditional physical education is also facing challenges by these now media and technology. Children are more likely to be inactive and overweight now than ever before. Therefore if they are not motivated by traditional methods of teaching sports and physical education, then conceivably it is time to find ways to employ a new medium that many young people are familiar with and already enjoy. Video games may attract youths who are not typically interested in gym class and offer and alternative transition into sports and physical activity, because these games embody unique qualities such as adaptability, individualization, collaboration, experimentation, and role-playing as professionals (Hayes & Silberman, 2007). I believe these games are a valuable addition to the current instructional activities at least.
(Nan Li)
Hayes, E. & Silberman, L. (2007). Incorporating Video Games into Physical Education. Journal of physical education, recreation & dance. 78 (3) p. 18.
Trout, J. & Christie, B. (2007). Interactive Video Games in Physical Education. Journal of physical education, recreation & dance. 78 (5) p. 29.