Using iDANCE Exergaming in Student Teaching

Posted by Andrew Snide
This Friday, April 27, Professor Yang allowed me to borrow the iDANCE system to bring to my student teaching placement in State Street Intermediate School in Skaneateles, NY.  This school is grades 3-5 and the class sizes range from 18-48 kids in one class.

Having the opportunity to use this system took a lot of planning and plenty of time training with the materials.  Going to Boston, MA with Professor Yang in March to present the Exergaming systems was the start to this opportunity.  This was followed by many days in the Exergame lab using the system and getting used to how it works and how to set it up.  After it was all over, the only way I could describe the success to this program was "It couldn't have gone better".  I have never seen students so engaged in activity dealing with music.  As soon as they stepped in the gym, their faces brightened up and I knew I had their attention.  The best moment of this lesson was having one student who never participates, dancing like crazy with a smile on his face.

The plan for the day was to only use the iDANCE system with my two smaller classes of 18 and 24 students.  However, it was so successful that I ended up having the all of my classes using the program, recess classes, and teachers all coming in during the day to use it.  The largest class I used it with was with 38 kids and was still a success.

My host teacher has been interested in purchasing one of these systems for his school for a while now but has never got a chance to use it and present it to the administration.  I had the principal come in for about 20 minutes during the lesson and within 10 minutes he had my host teacher bring out a catalog to see how much it was worth.  The principal, both P.E. teachers, and all other teachers thought this program would be great for the school district to use within the four Skaneateles schools.

I have found out that it pays to take the extra time and do different things within the P.E. program.  Anything that you do can lead to something greater.  This experience that I had was by far the best in student teaching yet.  Yes, the amount of planning and stress before the lesson took a lot out of me, but by the time I was teaching, I was in the best mood and was having a blast.  So, if there's any advice that I would have to give, it would be to take chances and ask for things that may be out of reach because you never know the opportunities that could arise.   

Special Thanks to Motion Fitness / Exergame Fitness for the iDANCE equipment!

Active Gaming For Fitness and Learning - Video

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.

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.

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/

Advice: teachers guide to exergaming in school

Exergaming has a place in school, but this place can be different, from school to school. The investment in exergaming equipment gives best return by maintaining high usage rates. In this post we share the uses of exergaming that have been shared with us from schools we know.

Exergaming can span many disciplines and activities within the school environment, all of which could be very different from the initial purchase intention. The obvious choice for exergaming is within core curriculum PE classes. We have covered the various options and techniques in this previous post here.

Looking beyond this core activity we have five other options for the exergaming equipped school to explore.

Option 1 – School Clubs
Out of schools clubs are especially popular for exergaming, with schools using breakfast, lunchtime or after school time slots. These clubs allow a more unstructured use of the equipment than PE class, emphasising the fun element of exergaming. Without set goals, the children can bring in their own games to play and develop the social skills of exergaming. Breakfast clubs encourage school attendance while lunchtime club attendance can be used as reward for academic or behavioural excellence. All time slots are useful to add extra physical activity into the children’s lives.

Option 2 - Day Care
When school is closed for holidays, equipment can be used in supervised child care sessions to provide another activity for the youngsters. To keep children entertained for long periods of time the use of exergaming is invaluable. Parents can testify to the length of time children are engaged by this media. Adding exercise also adds physical limitations on time playing, to ensure rotation of children on the equipment. The exercise burns off excess energy, especially on days when the weather precludes outdoor play.

Option 3 – Cross Academia
Most computer based exergames can be used in IT lessons (computer classes) to add physical activity to IT learning. The addition of exercise has a positive effect on learning, stimulating the mind of the user through physical activity. Both computer and console based exergames can be used in math, history, geography and many other academic disciplines by the appropriate choice of game played. A simple example would be card games used in math lessons, powered or controlled as exergames.

Option 4 – Special Events
From time to time unique opportunities arise for your exergaming equipment. School open days are an excellent chance to showcase the equipment and generate interest. Children trying the equipment will look forward to joining the school while the physical wellbeing of students is clearly demonstrated to the parents. Competition days can also be used to widen the use of your exergaming equipment. These events can be used with inter-school events and alongside traditional sports days.

Option 5 – Employee Wellness
The children should be considered first, but also the health and wellness of the staff is a school priority. During teacher training days or after school, when the children have left, teacher’s use of the exergaming equipment improves employee health and can be used for team building.

The options for exergaming are limited only by the imagination; please feel free to add your own experiences and share new applications in the comments below.

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.

Advice: teacher's guide to ratio of students per exergame

Exergaming is delivering physical activity very well but does not obviously fit in with the traditional teaching of Physical Education. Aside from specialist gymnastics or sports coaching, the majority of classes are based around the whole class being active at the same time.

The engagement levels of exergaming are very high, using technology that is more expensive and requires more space than traditional PE store equipment. The extra cost and space, for many, will reduce the number exergaming stations available compared with the number of students in the class.

This post explores the options to gain benefits from the technology within a physical education arena. The six options are based on a 45 minute class of 30 students. Using 15 minutes for briefing, warm up and debriefing gives 30 minutes for potential activity.

Option 1 – Play and Observe
Three two-player exergaming stations give a total of six available places for students. This represents a typical resource for a small or medium sized school without its own dedicated exergaming space. The 30 students will be just as happy watching the games in progress, often being quite animated and offering game play advice, as they are playing the games. No child will be left excluded by rotating the class through the 6 stations. A typical 5 minute game will involve one minute of changeover, especially as children don’t like to restart without choosing new characters! While the fun factor is high, each student will gain just 5 minutes physical activity and each student is able to play just one game. A high energy output exergame is essential in this scenario to improve fitness levels.

Option 2 - Multi Play
To increase the physical activity, without adding significantly to cost or the storage requirements of exergaming, the extended multi-player features of some games can be used. Increasing the number of players from two to four per screen doubles the places available to twelve. The number of games that support four players is less than those that support dual or solo play. In practice there are plenty of titles and genres to choose from and the restriction to four player only needs a little more care in selection, especially when children bring their own games to class. Now each student will get 10 minutes physical activity and is able to play two games in the lesson. Once again, the higher the calorific burn of the exergame the better.

Option 3 – Split Class
If the school employs teaching assistants or student teachers it is viable to split the class to further enhance the active time of children. Using the exergaming equipment as per option 1 the class can be split with 6 children playing supervised exergames for a lesson, with the remaining 24 children being instructed in traditional PE. The split can be rotated over a number of weeks, making sure each student has a varied curriculum. The intensity of the exergames must be reduced, and lower energy exergames can introduced in this scenario that makes sure all students are active for the maximum amount of time.

Option 4 – Skill Enhanced Reward
Exergaming can be used as the basis of reward for achievement in PE and still deliver physical activity. The imagination of the PE teacher can be used to the full by adding the exergame reward to skill based games. Three two player exergames can be used as the reward for six students. An example would be a team catch skill development game with 5 teams of 6 students, where the team who manages the most number of complete passes over a set course are rewarded with the exergame. While this team is being rewarded, the remaining teams play the skill task again to determine the next exergame rewarded team. The students are active throughout the class and more likely to be anticipating the lesson with PE wear instead of excuses not to participate.

Option 5 – Fitness Enhanced Plan
There is an existing traditional PE example where equipment spaces are limited, the fitness circuit. This has been successfully employed in teaching skill and fitness development since long before video games were invented. Using a small setup of two dual-player exergames fits in well with existing circuits and will raise the student’s enthusiasm for the entire class. The students will be keen to get back around to the exergame activity, so may need a little more supervision on the traditional activities. The children all get maximum activity during the lesson.

Option 6 – The 1:1 Ratio
The ultimate flexibility is open to those schools that have the resource and are large enough to dedicate a space for exergaming. With such a facility on site it is possible not only to engage all of the students in a PE class at once, but also introduce more specialist exergames that may have a lower spectrum of games that can be played. Unlike a team game, where one PE teacher can supervise a large number of children, the activities will be split and extra teaching resource will be required to supervise such a large unstructured play. To reduce this reliance on teaching staff the lesson can follow programming that is easily understood by the children and introduces a set routine that children enjoy.

From the options it is clear that exergaming has a place in physical education, and is a very flexible resource, but the applications have yet to be written into curriculum. This gives the PE teacher a chance to take these options as a basis, build on them, alter them and add to them.

Advice: teacher's guide to video game consoles

Most physical education teachers are physically active, having spent a great deal of time from their youth playing sports. When not playing they were training in the gym or on the field to raise their game and improve their best. This lifestyle left little time to indulge in the world of video game consoles.

The video game console is a key component of almost all exergames and this post explains the basics you need to know, so you can concentrate of delivering physical education. The mainstream video game consoles are Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and, of course, Nintendo Wii. You don't need to know the particular differences between these, they all have the same basic components.

The three main components are the game disc, the console and the controller. The controller is connected to the console and is not interchangeable between consoles of different types. Video game consoles can use up to four controllers at any one time allowing four players to share in the same game. One trick to bear in mind is the PlayStation 2, needs a special extension called a "muti-tap" to enable four controllers to be connected.

The game disc normally holds one game and there are a large number and variety of games available for each console. Games can be either a single player or up to four player, this is shown on the back of the game case. This determines the number of controllers and therefore players that can use a single console simultaneously. You should always check the video game age rating for the suitability of the game.

Loading a game disc and connecting controllers to a console is simple enough. Powering on the console is also straightforward with two main types of power, a simple cord or a two piece cord that connects a power pack to the the console and the electrical outlet. Normally the most challenging aspect of setting up a video game console is the connection to the screen.

Consoles use mainly scart connections or the three of yellow, red and white phono (RCA video) plugs. If your screen only has scart then the little adapter on the right of the above picture is what you'll need to convert from the three plugs to the recognisable scart connection. Your console video lead could, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, be an optional HDMI cable for high definition games which works very well on large screens.

Lastly, don't rule out a projector rather than a screen. These are great for showcasing your exergames during open days and kids like nothing better than playing games on the big screen. Projectors can also be combined with the PlayStation and Xbox consoles to play and show educational DVDs.

If all the video cables still worry you then relax, the good news is that none of these require the set to be "tuned in", it's all plug and play just look for the AV or "source" button on the TV/screen's remote to find the right input. If all this fails, in a class full of children, at least half will know how it all works!

Research: Exergaming 6 times more popular than exercise alone

In this blog we will be sharing research that is relevant to the adoption of exergaming in physical education at school. Common sense tells us that children are engaged by exergaming, the combination of exercise with video games. This post reports on this assumption under test.

This research was completed in July 2007 and set out to determine the free choice in activity of children aged between 7 and 11 yrs, when given three activity stations:

• Traditional games with no physical activity


• Exergaming stair step and cycle fitness machines on PlayStation 2


• Stair step and cycle fitness machines with no games connection

Upon arrival the children were told they could use anything they wanted to. Water was provided as the only drink and the children’s parents were asked not to interact or influence their child’s choices.

As the chart above shows, in unstructured play, children aged 7-11 years choose exergaming over traditional games and exercise. For those teachers who start each PE lesson examining a handful of excuse notes, it is useful to know that children can be engaged in exercise - by adding video games.

Given free choice the children were 6 times more likely to engage in physical activity if it is combined with games.

The exercise station and the exergaming station have the same cardiovascular equipment and the same calorific burn. The time spent on each station showed lack of motivation to exercise being a key factor in obtaining fitness benefits. It was also observed the rate and consistency of exercise was much lower on the exercise station, although this has not been reflected in the chart above.

The summary we can take from these observations is that children are engaged by exergaming, and in using exergaming we get significant physical effort from the children.

For further reading download the report in pdf format.

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.

Ask us about exergaming in physical education

Exergaming is fun, and it's here and being used for physical activity all over the globe. It's not easy to work out this magic formula of getting games and exercise blended just right, but you don't have to! We'll share what we have learned through research, expert analysis, and of course practical experience from working with kids and schools.

To capture the kids imaginations, use a little exergaming magic and lead the lost boys (and girls) to a physical activity that they find fun. Where they go from there is up to you.

If you want a lowdown on which video games work for which ages, orfind out what products have made it out of the trade shows into the classrooms or want to avoid the pitfalls of exergaming in schools, then just ask us. We'll do our best to answer every question!

Welcome to P.E.T.E.R

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by and reading our blog, the Physical Education Teacher's Exergaming Resource; written by experts to give you practical advice from our experience.

Here you find all the resources you need in order to use technology for the advancement of physical education.To get you started, here's the lowdown from Wikipedia

Physical Education
In most educational systems, physical education (P.E.) class, also called physical training (PT) and Phys Ed, is a course that utilizes learning in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains in a play or movement exploration setting.

Exergaming
Exergaming (a portmanteau of "exercise" and "gaming") is a term used for video games that also provide exercise. Exergames have one element of exercise and one element of gaming. The "gaming" aspect is a short form for video gaming. "Exergames" sub divide into two main implementations, those with a game specifically designed to use an exercise input device and those implementations using a genre of, or a generic game.

Check back for more content soon!