Physical Educators

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Physical Educators Perceptions and Attitudes
Toward Interactive Video Game Technology within
the Physical Education Curriculum

• William D. Russell, PhD
• Dept. of Health, Physical Education, and
  Recreation
• Missouri Western State University

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Background

• Childhood obesity has been a national epidemic -
  physical education programs have the potential to
  be an effective intervention point for school-age
  children (USDHHS, 2000).
• Recent government-sponsored (Surgeon General)
  initiatives has targeted ways to improve fitness
  and physical activity levels in children and
  reducing overweight and obesity levels
• 50 schools in 50 states initiative to improve
  the health standards of school-age children.
• Shaping Americas Youth. brings together
  public/private organizations and advocacy groups
  to reduce problem of childhood obesity.
• In the midst of PE curriculum dilemmas, daily PE
  programs have been advocated as a critical
  intervention point to providing students tools
  for reaching academic success including
• physical health improvement, mental health
  enhancement, academic performance improvement,
  reaching at-risk students, and ultimately
  reducing medical costs
• (PE for Life, July 2005)

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Background (Cont)

• Over last two decades, number of overweight and
  obese children in US has tripled (Surgeon
  Generals Call to Action to Prevent Obesity,
  2004).
• Major cause of overweight/obesity is lack of
  physical activity.
• Lack of physical activity is traced to increased
  prevalence of TVs, computers, and video game
  activity by adolescents.
• Childrens weight status has been clearly related
  to regular video game usage in national sample of
  children, with higher weights being related to
  higher rates of video games (Vandewater, Shim,
  Caplovitz, 2004).
• Recently, in examining male adolescents barriers
  for participating in physical activity, boys
  reported a preference to engage in
  technology-related activities such as video games
  and related computer activities. Under time
  constraints, they preferred to engage in
  time-consuming activities that involved computer
  technology (Allison, Dwyer, Golderberg, Fein,
  Yoshida, Boultilier, 2005) .

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Interactive Video Game Technology

• Paradoxically, recent popularity within video
  game industry has been interactive video game
  technology (IVGT).
• With technological advances, there is realization
  that there may be further benefits to interactive
  gaming than simply entertainment including
• Using interactive technology to treat children
  with ADHD
• Training and treatment of injured soldiers in
  rehabilitation
• Educating college students in learning complex
  subject matters within medical fields
• Reaching at-risk and special needs children
  within the physical education context (Lawler,
  2005, personal communication)
• Movement-based IVGT includes applications as
  Dance Dance Revolution, Xavix, Eye-Toy,Sportwall,
  Cybex Trazer, V-Cycling, Powergrid, Makato, and
  CatEye.
• All contain either interfaces between a gaming
  system and exercise equipment or allow the use of
  video games to interact with a sport event from a
  1st person perspective (Yang, Vasil, Graham,
  2005).
• Given that technology is an important part of
  American culture and with increased targeting of
  adolescents with IVGT applications, it is
  surprising that little research has studied
  effects of IVGT on physical and affective
  outcomes, as well as their ability to increase
  motivation in PE students within the PE
  curriculum.

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Xavix
Dance Dance Revolution
CatEye Bikes
Eye-Toy (Playstation)
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Sportwall
V-Cycling
PowerGrid
Cybex Trazer
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Purpose

• Given that video games are implicated as barrier
  for physical activity and PA levels decline
  during adolescence, objective, empirical support
  is needed for integration and effectiveness of
  various movement-based technology into PE
  programs.
• In order to support best practices, support
  must be obtained for physical and psychological
  benefits in order to support a rationale for
  inclusion of these applications into PE programs.
• Since practitioners knowledge, attitude and
  comfort toward new practices may be barriers to
  implementing these methods, it is important to
  determine feasibility of IVGT integration into
  the schools.
• The major purposes of the study were
• To examine the attitude, skills base, knowledge,
  and anticipated usage of interactive video game
  technology within the PE curriculum
• To examine perceived barriers of practitioners in
  the use / integration of IVGT into their programs.

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Research Questions

• In addition to generating descriptive results on
  attitudes, knowledge, perception, and anticipated
  usage of both general and IVGT, the following
  were research questions in the present study
• Is there a relationship between teachers
  attitude between general technology, IVGT, and
  knowledge, experience, comfort, and anticipated
  use of IVGT?
• Is IVGT knowledge, experience, comfort, and
  anticipated use related to whether teachers
  perceive barriers to IVGT integration?
• Do attitudes about general technology and IVGT
  differ as a function of teacher age, gender,
  grade level, experience, and class format?
• Is there a relationship between general
  technology experience and and knowledge,
  experience, comfort, and anticipated use of IVGT
  applications?
• Does IVGT knowledge, experience, comfort, and
  anticipated use differ as a function of teacher
  age, grade level, and experience?

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Procedures

• Subjects were mailed surveys with informed
  consent and told to briefly indicate their
  responses in an anonymous fashion.
• Physical education coordinators were also
  contacted and asked for their permission to
  survey K-12 physical educators through their
  offices.
• Permission was obtained from school
  superintendents prior to administering the survey
  through the mail
• A follow-up reminder was send to both the
  individual K-12 practitioners as well as the
  physical education coordinators
• Subjects
• 36 teachers completed surveys from the following
  Missouri school districts
• Saint Joseph, MO
• North Kansas City, MO

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General Descriptives

• 36 practitioners surveyed (35 regular full-time,
  1 district coordinator males n 17) females n
  19)
• Are you the primary physical education teacher at
  your school? YES 31 (86) NO 5 (14)
• Other responsibilities mentioned
• Basketball (6), Track (4), Football (2), Health
  (2), Soccer, Cross-country, First aid, Tennis,
  Volleyball, Computers.
• Elementary teachers (n17) Middle school
  teachers (n10) Secondary school teachers (n9)

Variable Mean SD
Teacher Age 36.63 11.1
Years of Experience 8.88 8.84
Number of classes taught per day 5.58 2.58
Average class size 23.08 6.62
Frequency of class (days/week) 3.64 1.27
Importance of access to technology in general (1very important 4not at all important) 1.75 .50
Importance of integrating technology into YOUR teaching (1very important 4 not at all important) 1.86 .42
General attitude toward technology (1 love using 6 hate using) 2.11 .63
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Descriptives General Computer Application
Experience and Comfort
Computer Application Experience Level Comfort Level
Computers in general M 1.75 SD .55 M 1.64 SD .59
Word Processing M 1.42 SD .61 M 1.50 SD .61
Spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) M 2.31 SD .75 M 2.33 SD .79
Databases M 3.28 SD .49 M 2.83 SD .97
Graphics M 3.08 SD .87 M 3.31 SD 1.54
Presentation Software PowerPoint) M 2.53 SD 1.08 M 2.50 SD 1.21
Desktop Publishing M 2.83 SD .91 M 2.94 SD .95
Internet Software M 1.77 SD 1.04 M 1.89 SD 1.11
Internet Search Engines M 1.64 SD .90 M 1.67 SD .96
Hypermedia / Multimedia M 3.58 SD .55 M 3.36 SD .80
Integrated Learning Systems M 3.27 SD .81 M 3.27 SD .74
Simulation programs M 3.64 SD .54 M 3.50 SD .56
Drill / Tutorial Programs M 3.33 SD .72 M 3.17 SD .77
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Attitudes Toward Technology Integration in
Physical Education
Indicate how often you integrate some form of
general technology into your PE
curriculum --------- Never 13 (36) Hardly Ever
(once or twice a year) 13 (36) Fairly
Regularly (1-2 Times per month) 9
(25) Regularly (weekly) 1 (3) Always
(almost every day or every day) How much do you
believe that technology has changed or determined
the way physical education program are taught? 12
(33) Greatly 23 (64) Somewhat 1
(3) Not at All 1 (3) No Opinion How do you
believe that technology has changed/determined
the way YOU teach your classes and plan your
curriculum? 7 (19) Greatly 23
(64) Somewhat 5 (14) Not at all 1
(3) No Opinion How would you rate your
understanding of how interactive video game
technology can be used to facilitate teaching and
learning in your classes? 15 (42) Not
confident 15 (42) I am aware of this
technology, but I do not know how to use it 5
(14) I know how to use this technology, but
dont know how to use it to foster teaching 1
(3) I am confident with using this technology
and using it to foster effective teaching
PE Which of the statements would BEST summarize
your attitude toward use of interactive video
game technology into your PE classes? 3
(8) This type of application has no place in the
PE curriculum 7 (19) This type of technology
application has limited function in the PE
curriculum 3 (8) This type of technology
application may improve motivation, but will not
improve physical activity 2 (6) This type of
technology application may improve physical
activity but will not improve PA 16 (44) This
technology application has the potential to be
effective only to the degree that teachers link
activities back to learning objectives 5
(14) This type of technology application must be
integrated into the PE curriculum if student
motivation and PA levels are to be enhanced
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Teachers perceptions of student interest in
video game technology

• Variable (1very interested 5 not at all
  interested)
• Mean SD
• Hand-Held video games (GameBoy) 1.52 .88
• Video Game Consoles (Playstation) 1.30 .63
• Computer CD-ROM games 1.58 .73
• Internet Games 1.72 .84
• Internet-Based Games 1.72 .82
• Interactive Video Games (Dance Dance
  Revolution) 1.72 .88
• Discipline-Specific Technology currently being
  integrated (Q17)
• Pedometers 33 (92)
• Heart Rate Monitors 9 (25)
• Tri-Fit Assessment 7 (19)
• FITNESSGRAM Software 3 (8)
• None 3 (8)
• BMI calculator (Internet) 2 (5)
• FITLINKS 2 (5)
• Video workouts 1 (3)

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Teachers Perceptions regarding IVGT Applications
Application Knowledge Experience Comfort Usage
1. Dance Dance Revolution M 2.56 SD .91 M 3.75 SD .58 M 3.06 SD .86 M 3.94 SD .92
2. Eye Toy (Playstation) M 3.33 SD .83 M 3.69 SD .62 M 3.31 SD .75 M 4.25 SD .97
3. Xavix M 3.81 SD .47 M 3.97 SD .17 M 3.58 SD .60 M 4.36 SD .83
4. CatEye M 3.36 SD .90 M 3.58 SD .77 M 3.28 SD .81 M 4.02 SD 1.10
5. Sportwall M 3.78 SD .48 M 3.89 SD .32 M 3.56 SD .56 M 4.28 SD .94
6. Cybex Trazer M 3.80 SD .52 M 3.83 SD .51 M 3.56 SD .61 M 4.28 SD 1.03
7. V-Cycling M 3.47 SD .74 M 3.67 SD .59 M 3.47 SD .65 M 4.17 SD 1.03
8. PowerGrid M 3.83 SD .56 M 3.83 SD .51 M 3.61 SD .60 M 4.19 SD 1.04
9. Makato M 4.00 SD .00 M 3.97 SD .17 M 3.69 SD .52 M 4.41 SD .87
Knowledge 1 Lots of knowledge 4 no
knowledge Experience 1 lots of
experience, 4 no experience Comfort 1very
comfortable 4 not at all comfortable Usage 1
daily 5 never
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Results

• Relationship between teachers attitude toward
  general technology, IVGT, and their knowledge,
  experience, comfort, and anticipated usage of
  IVGT applications
• More favorable attitudes toward general
  technology were associated with more positive
  attitudes toward IVGT integration (questions 12
  and 21) (r -.34, plt.05).
• More favorable attitudes toward technology were
  also associated with a greater understanding of
  how IVGT could be used to facilitate teaching.
  (questions 12 and 20) (r -.36, p lt.05)
• Significant relationships found for
• General attitude toward technology (Q12) and DDR
  knowledge (r .35, plt.05)
• Teachers understanding for how IVGT use to
  facilitate teaching (Q 20) and
• CatEye knowledge (r -.34), Cybex Trazer
  knowledge (r -.44), , V-cycling knowledge (r
  -.46), Cybex experience (r -.51), V-cycling
  experience (r-.46), CatEye comfort (r-.40),
  Sportwall comfort (r -.40), Cybex Trazer comfort
  (r-.43), and V-cycling comfort (r-.43) (plt.05)
• Favorable attitudes about IVGT integration into
  PE (Q 21) and
• V-cycling knowledge (r-.40) and V-cycling
  experience (r -.36) (p lt.05)

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Results (Cont)

• Is IVGT knowledge, experience, comfort, and
  anticipated usage related to teachers
  perceptions of barriers to IVGT integration?
• A one-way MANOVA examined whether IVGT knowledge,
  experience, comfort, and anticipated usage
  differed according to whether teachers indicated
  there were perceived barriers to integrating
  these applications into the curriculum.
• No significant effect was found (Wilks Lambda
  (3,32) .817, p gt.05), indicating that knowledge,
  experience, comfort, and anticipated usage were
  not affected by their perceptions of barriers for
  integration.
• Barriers that would prevent IVGT integration into
  PE curriculum at your school? (Q26)
• YES 15 (42) NO 21 (58)
• Lack of money/funding 9
• Lack of space and equipment 7
• Difficulty engaging entire class 2
• Lack of tech support 2
• Lack of time to be trained 2
• Lack of student interest 1
• Installation 1
• Physical education is low funding priority 1

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Results (Cont)

• Can attitudes about technology and IVGT be
  predicted by teacher age, gender, grade level,
  experience, class frequency format, and time
  block format?
• Two separate multiple regressions were performed
  for (1) general technology attitude and (2) IVGT
  attitude, using age, gender, grade level,
  experience, class frequency, and time block as
  predictors.
• General Technology Attitude
• Significant overall regression equation (F (6,34)
  3.02, p lt.05, R2 .39).
• Regression results indicated that teachers grade
  was most predictive of general technology
  attitude secondary level physical educators had
  more positive attitude toward general technology
  than elementary teachers.
• IVGT Attitude
• No significant regression results for prediction
  of criterion from predictor variables (F (6,34)
  1.02, p gt.05, R2 .18

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Results (Cont)

• Is there a relationship between teachers general
  computer technology experience and IVGT
  application knowledge, experience, comfort and
  anticipated usage?
• Multiple correlations were performed across
  general technology experience and teachers IVGT
  knowledge, experience, comfort and anticipated
  usage to examine relationships across these
  variables.
• Results of these correlation matrices were
  nonsignificant, indicating that, in general,
  teachers general technology experience was
  unrelated to their knowledge, experience level,
  comfort, or anticipated usage of various IVGT
  applications
• Several correlations did reach significance
• Presentation software experience was related to
  DDR knowledge (r .33, plt.05), CatEye knowledge
  (r .33, plt.05) and V-Cycling knowledge (r .43,
  plt.01). Internet software experience was also
  related to V-cycling knowledge (r.34, plt.05)
• Presentation software experience was related to
  CatEye experience (r .34, plt.05) and V-cycling
  experience (r .38, plt.05) Internet software
  experience was related to V-cycling experience,
  (r .34, p,.05) Drill/practice program
  experience was related to V-cycling experience,
  (r .34, plt.05)

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Results (Cont)

• Does IVGT knowledge, experience, comfort, and
  anticipated usage differ as a function of teacher
  gender, grade level, and years of teaching
  experience?
• 4 separate MANOVAs ? Gender (M/F), Grade Level
  (Elementary, Middle, Secondary) and experience (lt
  5yrs, 6-15 yrs, gt15 yrs) as IVs and knowledge,
  experience, comfort, and anticipated usage on 9
  IVGT applications as DVs
• (DDR, EyeToy, Xavix, CatEye, Sportwall, Cybex
  Trazer, V-Cycling, Powergrid, Makato)
• IVGT Knowledge
• 3 way (Gender, Grade, Experience) MANOVA on
  knowledge was significant (Wilks Lambda (8,36)
  5.88, plt.001)
• Significant Univariate ANOVAs for teacher
  experience on
• CatEye Knowledge (F(2,21) 5.66, plt.05) ? lt 5 yrs
  experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15 yrs
  experience.
• Cybex Trazer Knowledge (F(2,21) 8.63, plt.001) ?
  lt 5 yrs experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt
  15 yrs experience.
• V-Cycling knowledge (F(2,21) 6.64, plt..001) ? lt
  5 yrs experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15
  yrs experience
• Significant Univariate ANOVAs for grade level on
• DDR knowledge (F(2,21) 6.60, plt.001) ?
  Elementary gt Middle, Secondary level teachers.
• V-Cycling knowledge (F(2,21) 5.30, plt.05) ?
  Elementary gt Middle, Secondary level teachers

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Results (Cont)

• Does IVGT knowledge, experience, comfort, and
  anticipated usage differ as a function of teacher
  gender, grade level, and years of teaching
  experience?
• 2. IVGT Experience
• 3 way (Gender, Grade, Experience) MANOVA on
  experience was not significant (Wilks Lambda
  (8,36) 4.58, pgt.05).
• IVGT Comfort
• 3 way (Gender, Grade, Experience) MANOVA on
  comfort was significant (Wilks Lambda (9,36)
  3.07, plt.05).
• Significant univariate ANOVAs for teachers
  experience
• Xavix Comfort (F(2,14) 4.81, plt.05 ? lt 5 yrs
  experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15 yrs
  experience.
• Cybex Trazer Comfort (F(2,14) 4.86, plt.05 ? lt 5
  yrs experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15
  yrs experience.
• IVGT Anticipated Usage
• 3 way (Gender, Grade, Experience) MANOVA on
  anticipated usage was significant (Wilks Lambda
  (9,36) 3.64, plt.05).
• Significant univariate ANOVAs for teachers
  experience
• CatEye Usage (F(2,14) 3.75, plt.05 ? lt 5 yrs
  experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15 yrs
  experience.
• V-Cycling Usage (F(2,14) 4.18, plt.05 ? lt 5 yrs
  experience gt teachers with 6-15 yrs or gt 15 yrs
  experience.

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Correlations IVGT Comfort and Anticipated Usage
IVGT Anticipated Usage
DDR EyeToy Xavix CatEye Sportwall Cybex V-Cycling Powergrid Makato
DDR .44 .29 .25 .15 .26 .31 .35 .28 .27
Eyetoy .31 .48 .23 .20 .27 .23 .27 .22 .24
Xavix .22 .28 .19 .27 .26 .29 .35 .22 .28
CatEye .17 .16 .10 .43 .05 .04 .15 .14 .07
Sportwall .12 .11 .11 .16 .13 .17 .28 .10 .22
Cybex .21 .15 .16 .27 .22 .30 .40 .19 .25
V-Cycling .28 .17 .15 .26 .20 .27 .43 .16 .20
Powergrid .16 .22 .23 .15 .10 .04 .11 .26 .21
Makato .19 .21 .19 .16 .18 .11 .20 .17 .29
IVGT Comfort
p lt.05, p lt..001
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Conclusions

• Teachers more favorable general technology
  attitudes were associated with more favorable
  attitudes toward IVGT applications and their
  possible integration into the PE curriculum.
• Perceptions of potential barriers to IVGT
  integration did not factor into teachers
  attitudes toward IVGT applications, BUT THE
  TEACHERS IN THIS SAMPLE HAD VERY LITTLE
  KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, OR COMFORT WITH THESE
  APPLICATIONS.
• Age, gender, grade level, experience, class
  frequency, and time block were not predictors of
  IVGT, probably due to the fact that few
  practitioners were familiar with these
  applications.
• More positive attitudes toward technology in
  general were predicted by grade level, with
  secondary teachers level more predictive of a
  more positive attitude
• There were no relationships between general
  computer technology experience and IVGT
  experience, knowledge, comfort, or anticipated
  usage.
• If any teacher segment is familiar with various
  IVGT applications, it appears that
• Younger, less experienced teachers are more
  likely to have been exposed and thus have more
  IVGT knowledge
• Younger, less experienced teachers are more
  likely to have more comfort to use certain IVGT
  applications
• Younger, less experienced teachers are more
  likely to anticipate they would use the various
  IVGT applications in their programs

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Recommendations

• For practitioners to effectively integrate new
  technologies and use them in teaching for
  learning, they must be knowledgeable,
  experienced, and comfortable in using this
  technology.
• These survey results indicate a need to expose
  educators to IVGT more than they currently are.
• Teachers must be given opportunities for
  professional development in technology
  integration if they are expected to work toward
  integration of technology in accordance with
  NASPEs 9th PETE standard where
• Physical education teachers use information
  technology to enhance learning and to enhance
  personal and professional productivity. (NASPE,
  2001, p. 8).
• There appears to be a disparity between
  recommended benefits of IVGT in PE curriculums
  (Yang, Vasil, Graham, 2005) and teachers
  current knowledge, experience, and comfort levels
  These barriers must be addressed before
  wide-scale IVGT application lead to best
  practices for motivation and PA enhancement in
  PE curriculums
• Larger scale surveys addressing practitioners
  current knowledge and attitudes toward IVGT is
  warranted to further examine if these factors are
  barriers to widespread implementation.

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References

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2. Lawler, P. (2005, October). Personal
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3. National Association for Sport and Physical
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