Exergaming at Narangba Valley State High School

In 2008 & 2009, as part of the Games in Learning exergaming trial, Narangba Valley State High School has used exergaming equipment. The main focus for the exergaming use was within the school's Special Education Program. Year 11 and 12 students used the exergaming gear as in integral part of a unit of study around volunteering. The unit was capped off with a visit to a local aged care facility.

Exergaming was also used in other areas of the school including as part of the school's Rugby League training program and as part of a Physics investigation.

Through the exergaming trial, the school was given access to:

• 2xNintendo Wii consoles each with 4 wiimotes and wiimote extensions,
• several Wii games including Wii Fit and dancemat games.

Use in the Special Education Program as part of the volunteering unit

From the teachers' perspective...

In addition to this, I continually foster the notions that learning is a lifelong process, that everyone has differing strengths and weaknesses and that we all have particular skills to offer.

With all this in mind, it was not difficult to find reasons to use games technology in the classroom. I first made this connection last year whilst we were researching a Community Services unit by looking at the work of volunteers in various organizations. Our attention was drawn to the use of Nintendo Wii technology in Aged Care facilities and how this technology was improving the willingness of some elderly residents to engage in movement activities. Later investigations also provided medical links to the technology.

My initial enquiries at Aged care facilities were met with overwhelming acceptance. Most of the staff in these facilities were unfamiliar with games technology in general and were very keen to have help in using the technology with residents. This is, of course, something that our school students are very familiar with, so it presented an opportunity for our students to relate to people outside of their own community (school) in a positive way. Our journey along the way was not without hiccups one of the facilities had funding cuts (staff losses) in the Diversional Therapy unit (where the Wii was to be used); another was interested in us visiting but procedural problems created difficulties.

Staff members at Anam Cara Aged Care at Bray Park were most consistent with their interest so arrangements have been made to visit this centre.

I did not want the parents of the students involved to incur any costs for this excursion, so I organised for the schools minibus to be used and a member of the teaching staff to act as driver for the day. Our principal generously offered to pay for fuel and associated costs for the bus.

In preparation for the visit, my students and I had numerous discussions regarding various aspects and expectations of the visit. These include:

• The frailty of residents the suitability of some games over others eg. tenpin bowling, not boxing;
• balance activity over slalom skiing on WiiFit.
• Medical or physical conditions.
• Generational differences language, expectations.
• Neurological conditions short-term memory.
• Staff training procedures - we have been working on instructional/procedural texts explaining how to set up the Wii.

Task Description
The main aim of the activity was to use the Nintendo Wii as a tool to encourage student volunteer participation in the community. Students were set a task to identify and plan appropriate exercise options for senior citizens using the Nintendo Wii console and games such as WiiSport, WiiPlay and WiiFit. The learning experiences that arose from the task were: intergenerational communication (conversing with the elderly), written communication, selection of activities appropriate to the health and physical ability of senior citizens in an Aged Care facility, procedural and instructional responsibilities, collecting and collating data from surveys.

Central focus of the learning: Social and community education and functional English and functional Mathematics

Curriculum Links: English and Mathematics based on a functional English unit titled "Volunteering".

Skills teacher developed:

• appreciation and integration of games technology in the classroom;
• learning how to use a digital camera and video camera;
• ability to use new ICT skills gained in the classroom and transfer them to the wider community.

Why this task was worth doing
Students gained a tremendous amount of self-esteem as they became the trainers and educators for the staff and residents of the Aged Care facility.

Teachers' Reflections
Would do this again with another group of students and would extend the learning experiences for them eg. I made the initial contact with the Aged Care facilities - this is something students could do themselves and could form part of their assessment for English (both written and verbal). Valuable learning tool for students with special needs as their strengths in this area were far greater than those of the adults. The challenging part of this was being the novice in the classroom and asking a lot of questions of the students to try to match their knowledge. Fabulous support from staff and parents who all took a keen interest in the project. Would like this project to continue so that we could build stronger connections between the two types of facility. Could also form part of building stronger relationships with local primary (feeder) schools.

Resources
To find out more about the project or to implement a similar project in your school, feel free to download the following resources:

• comprehension workshet about volunteering (word doc - 45 kb - new window)
• permission letter - for students to be involved in the project (word doc - 26kb - new window)
• permission letter - to attend aged care facility (word doc - 28kb - new window)
• volunteering websites activity sheet (word doc - 43 kb - new window)
• volunteering cloze activity sheet (word doc - 42kb - new window)
• volunteering terms matching activity sheet (word doc - 52kb - new window)
• student survey (word doc - 36kb - new window)

Technical Feedback
Installation Issues

• There were problems with installation of Dance mats initially, although once I had seen how they were connected to the system, I was able to install correctly;
• should purchase battery rechargers as constant use necessitates continual replacement of batteries;
• OH&S issues around amount of cables although no accidents occurred.

Managed Operating Environment Compatibility
No problem with this although I would have liked to have been able to use the interactive web opportunities available with the technology.

Issues or feedback from students

• Would like a larger variety of games;
• setting up of classroom (although this was usually accomplished within five minutes);
• negotiating about and deciding on games that all the group wanted to play sometimes took some time.

Issues or feedback from teachers

• Teachers had problems with using data projectors that were different from the one we ordinarily used;
• range of games not always suitable for subject area;
• larger groups of students meant that teacher had to organise other activities;
• worry about loss of equipment.

Have you used other types of exergaming equipment? If so, how did they compare?

• Dance mats, Netathlon (bike and computer game).
• Students found the level of coordination required for the dance mats was too difficult;
• Netathlon game more difficult than Nintendo Wii for students with physical impairments.

Contact
For more information, contact Alison Stapleton astap12@eq.edu.au.

Using the Nintendo Wii for Physics

Year 10 and 11 students worked for a whole day on a Scientific Challenge. Their task was to conduct motion analysis of Wii games to see how well the games simulated real life. These Science students were engaged and  motivated and worked together to:

• use the Wii,
• research actual speeds of pitched balls etc, and
• bring all of their information together to present their findings.

Screenshots of the powerpoint presentation produced by one group of students is shown below.

The Science teachers are planning to use the Wii in a more integrated way next year.