Wii in PE

“Middle School Students Enjoy Wii in Physical Education Class”

Summary: A physical education class at New Albany Middle School now offers Wii as part of the activities. Since some students do not enjoy the regular physical activities, this can motivate them more because they feel they can do better. The Wii games include strength training, balance, and aerobics, which is a new side of physical activity.

While reading this article, I kept my interest by thinking back to the times that I have played the Wii, and my experiences with it. I remember how difficult the Wii fit actually is and that it definitely works on your balance and aerobics. The only problem that I have with using it for physical education is that the students are not getting the same exercise as they would running or playing another game. I would not mind if the students were using it every once in a while because balance and aerobics are important.  This is a good idea for those students who are not good at sports or do not enjoy them, to find something else that they might enjoy and can still get physical activity from it. I just think that we need to be careful with how much technology is used in the classroom that it does not take away from student learning or cause them to not think as much. A way that I could bring technology into the class room is by using the Wii to bowl. I would hide the score from the students and have them calculate their score as they play. Another way that technology could be used to benefit learning in the classroom is by having students use a graphing software on the computer and they would have to plot different graphs and change the equations to see how the graphs changed. Through this they would discover on their own what each letter represents and what is affected when it is changed.