Originally posted by Jennifer L on November 23, 2019
Welcome to my forecasting project, DANC(E)XERCISE, a fictional dancing game where teachers can create a virtual classroom, add students, assign workouts, create class challenges, and receive data reports generated by the app on student’s physical activity and app usage. Click here or the pineapple to visit the product website.
Rationale & Reflection
In my ongoing quest to define what mobile learning (mlearning) means to me, the ideas of authenticity, collaboration, and personalization stood out. While I covered collaboration and personalization on the main page of the website, I would like to delve a little further into authenticity. In other MET courses, authenticity (or lack of) was a recurring theme. Can a discussion truly be authentic if it isn’t face to face or isn’t an ongoing dialogue that goes beyond post and singular replies? How do we define authenticity in mlearning? To me, authentic learning needs to demonstrate evidence that the learner is engaged, regardless of physical or virtual contexts. With DANC(E)XERCISE, evidence of authentic learning is represented in data collected from the dance workouts, app usage, reflections written by students, and comments from teachers and parents on student writing. DANC(E)XERCISE transforms literal physical activity into useful, accurate data, becoming the bridge between the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual.’
Daughtery & Berge (2017) describes mlearning to be spontaneous, situated, connected, informal, and personal (p. 112). Apps designed for education should embody these ideas as mobile devices affords educators those very opportunities. Personal devices afford learning across multiple contexts, something that DANC(E)XERCISE takes advantage of. While mlearning is not limited to or defined by the use of a mobile phone, this fictional game uses the portable nature of tablets and phones to create new spaces for learning. By encouraging students to use DANC(E)XERCISE outside of school, any space can now become an informal learning environment, which Daughtery & Berge (2017) believe will “inspire and sustain interest significant engagement” (p. 115). Sustaining interest in something like dance or active games is especially important in light of increasing sedentary behaviour in youth due to longer periods of screen time.
Technology to track health already exists, such as measuring heart-rate through pressing your thumb over your mobile camera, or tracking steps using a FitBit. However, this type of technology is not widely used in most elementary schools (perhaps due to cost). Yet, this kind of information can be so useful for teachers who teach physical education or are trying to track the benefits of daily physical exercise. If we are to treat physical education like any other academic subject, where success is specific and measurable, then there is a need for an easily accessible application that runs on devices more commonly used (e.g., iPads).
It does not go unnoticed that DANC(E)XERCISE is a bit of a pipe dream in terms of acquiring rights from famous artists to use their songs in this game! That aside, I also recognize that similar applications already exist, like Go Noodle, and the inspiration behind this whole venture, Just Dance. Though Go Noodle focuses on wellness and physical activity too, it does not use technology to track actual physical movement. While Just Dance can track movement, it is not a truly portable game despite being available on iOS and Android devices, as it still relies on a secondary screen for gameplay since the smartphone is used as a controller. Given the existing technology, it will be unsurprising to see in our near future a fitness game application made for educators that can be played on mobile devices, with added features like monitoring heart-rate and physical activity, and can generate and store student data for teachers and parents.
I like that this technology targets both physical and emotional well-being. In talking with my class, I’ve learned that students spend much of their time engaging in sedentary activities such as playing video games or watching television. I really like the concept of DANC(E)XERCISE because it provides opportunities for students to stay active. I’ve used Just Dance and Go Noodle in my class, but I’d be interested to try out this app with them. In our time engaging in remote learning, this application has the potential to support students in getting their daily exercise. I struggle to track their progress in physical education, so this app would be a useful way to monitor their activity levels.
This idea was very creative. I believe that it should work with the pandemic we have now since not all of us, especially children, are supposed to go outside. This is a very engaging app/game. I agree with Jennifer L: authentic learning needs to demonstrate evidence that the learner is engaged, regardless of physical or virtual contexts. This kind of app would be great for dance or physical education teachers that need to work with their students in the pandemic. Dancing is engaging and fun. I have my concerns about the data collected by apps. On one hand, I think that providing that kind of data would help the instructor on noticing what would the student need to work on. However, it is still personal data about one’s health so I am somehow concerned about it. Her idea reminds me of the just dance game. I like the fact that it can track my movement, it also adds little images (while the song is playing) of the moves that the player should do. For this game, you need to have the controller strapped to your hand so the console can “read” your moves. Maybe in the near future, there might be some kind of sensor stickers that can be placed on our hands so there will no longer be a need for additional accessories.