news: Exergaming is coming to PETE

The NASPE Physical Education Teacher Education Conference occurs every three years and is the premier professional development and networking event for university PETE faculty.

The focus is always on current and future issues, initiatives, and research that impact physical education teacher education programs. Attendees will learn from the many workshops, roundtables, poster sessions, paper sessions, general sessions, and featured speakers. .

For this conference the future issues will be the first to include a dedicated active gaming presentation in the pre-workshops of October 7th. Within the "Using Technology in Physical Education Teacher Education" workshop Dr Lisa Hansen will present "Active Gaming and Interactive Fitness: implementation strategies ".

This workshop was given at the national AAHPERD Conference in Tampa earlier this year and along with the provided handbook is an excellent resource for physical education teachers, including examples of lesson plans.

Read more on the workshop here and here

More about the organisations involved : AAHPERD, NAPSE, PETE

news: exergaming steals the show at AAHPERD

The national physical education show in Florida last month was full of exergaming, not only on the exhibition floor but also in the seminars, poster sessions and workshops.

Even before the conference began there was a special NASPE session "Using Technology in Physical Education Teacher Education" in one of the conference hotels. The use of technology to as a tool to make PE teachers life easier included Web 2.0, electronic student response systems and online assessments. Multiple sessions were presented by Derrick Mears (Western Washington University), Lisa Hansen (University of South Florida), Joanne Leight (Slippery Rock University) and Patrick Fine (Chesterfield Elementary School).

The highlight of the pre-conference was an excellent, in-depth presentation by Lisa Hansen on exergaming (Active Gaming) and Interactive Fitness. This started with issues around obesity, the decrease of general levels of physical activity and the role Recreational Screen Time (RST) has to play in this decline. The obvious choice of using technology for fitness instead of against fitness was presented, backed by research.

The most important aspect of the presentation for me was the thinking around implementation, to ensure exergaming is as effective in the real world as it can be proved in the lab. Gamercize was used as a demonstration piece for a lesson plan to illustrate "hands-on" the key of the presentation. Using Gamercize and running through the lesson plan showed a subject's resting heart rate of around 60 peak at 130 with an average of 120 throughout the 30 minute piece.

The first of the two formal sessions that delivered the exergaming message at the conference was "#351 - A Critical Look at Fitness Technology for Kids" by Dan Drury of Gettysburg College, parent of two and exergame evaluator. This session concentrated on the factors that make exergaming work, Intensity, Duration, Mode, Frequency and Progression.

Both the exercise physiologist view and kids perspective had equal billing to give a presentation that woke the delegates up to the fact not all exergames are created equal. Giving PE a structured approach to evaluation is an excellent idea and the entire piece was well received.

The second session that shook the halls of the Tampa Convention Center was "#551 - Exergames: Bridging the Gap between Video Games, Activity and Fun" by Stephen Yang of SUNY Cortland, parent of two and long standing exergame guru. This session focused on doing rather than talking and included short introductions by notables such as John Foley (SUNY Cortland), Lisa Hansen (USF), Richard Coshott (Gamercize UK), Andrea Oh (iTech Fitness) and Aaron Hart (Station PE).

The workshop started with brief introductions and key messages from Stephen's team before breaking out into Q and A sessions with the presenters. All the time the students from SUNY Cortland were getting their game on with DDR, Gamercize and Gamebike - while wearing heart rate monitors which were displayed on the big screen!

The common theme for the sessions was - oversubscription! Dan's presentation had delegates sitting and standing in the corridor outside while Stephen's workshop had attendance well beyond the capabilities of the PA system and even had exergaming spilling out into the concourse!

Wait and see what impact exergaming has on AAHPERD and the regionals in 2010, it is sure to be much bigger based on the demand from Tampa

news: exergaming wiki launched

Exergaming has a new collaboration wiki project. http://exergaming.pbwiki.com/

This is a growing resource focused on the academic and emerging theories around exergaming. It is growing rapidly and can be used for information and to share your experiences of exergaming in schools, colleges and research.

Read more at http://exergaming.pbwiki.com/

News: foundation started to promote exergaming and deskercise

We have been lucky enough to secure sponsors for our blog from the Active Gaming and Working Foundation. This will enable us keep giving free and impartial advice for physical education professionals in the use of exergaming for health and fitness.

The Active Gaming and Working Foundation seeks to reduce sedentary screen time including, but not limited to, video game play, computer game play, television watching and use of desktop and laptop computing for online internet and general offline office working. The AGWF objective is to add physical activity to existing inactive screen time to promote health, fitness and weight control to individuals, places of education and work. The AGWF seeks to fund, implement and facilitate the addition of fitness technology to existing screen based pursuits.

Read more about exergaming and deskercise from the AGWF here.

News: $44 Million initiative supports comprehensive solutions to childhood obesity

Exergaming is changing lives and having a positive effect on the engagement of youngsters in to extra physical activity. These great benefits are slowly being realised across the world, with the help of initiatives from bodies such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the trend can continue. Here is the latest funding news from RWJF.

As the first investment of a new $44 million initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded grants of up to $400,000 to nine communities across the country that will serve as leading sites for its most ambitious effort yet to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities will support local action to increase opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy, affordable foods for children and families. The goal is to catalyze policy and environmental changes that can make a lasting difference and be replicated across the country.

The program is a major part of RWJF’s five-year, $500 million commitment to reverse the epidemic in the United States by 2015. The Foundation is also focused on building the evidence about what works to prevent childhood obesity and on supporting advocacy to educate policy-makers and leaders at all levels about the best solutions.

We see exergaming playing a big part in delivering RWJF's objectives. To find out more, read more here, and check back for news on the exergaming projects that will be funded.

News: $10,000 Contest to improve middle school physical education

In its first year, Keep Gym in School is funding refurbishments for Physical Education programs at select schools, hosting NFL minicamps to get kids active and assess their fitness levels. NFL teams supporting Keep Gym in School in its first year are the Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals.

Keep Gym in School has chosen schools in-need for adoption to help deliver quality physical education opportunities to all students. Keep Gym in School will refurbish facilities; provide funding for physical education instructors and supply equipment, as needed.
Each adopted school will engage in an "In-School Fitness Challenge" to assess student fitness, motivate students to stay active and allow physical education teachers to monitor student progress throughout the year. The challenges will be kicked off with "minicamp" events that will be run by the participating NFL players.

To expand the program nationally, Keep Gym in School will provide one additional school with a $10,000 grant to improve its physical education program. NFL Network will offer an online adoption contest open to any middle school nationwide. Students, parents, teachers and other community members can nominate their school for the grant online at the website.

Keep checking http://www.keepgyminschool.com/ for updates to the contest.