Saturday, March 25, 2006

School Based Fitness

What would our fitness-related game development be like if we had an entire school to develop for? Imagine a series of public hallways or corners of a cafeteria where we could implement full-body games and activities for recess and lunch... such as interactive "walls" that played music, or step pads that tracked your steps to music? What about a school full of classrooms where every teacher had some kind of easily implemented physical activity (could be used individually or in large groups) to use whenever attention was waning in the classroom? This could include DDR or other games developed with full body peripherals? How about a revised cafeteria program through which kids use technology to log their food requests among healthy choices, having the ability to "vote" or recommend specific changes. Could we take advantage of parent groups and after school programs to extend healthy behavior after school times? As a parent, I can think of a series of wonderful things we could do in a testbed, "healthy elementary". As a game developer, I embrace an accessible environment to try everything and identify what works. As a researcher, I think such a school would see signficant changes in test scores, absenteeism, and family health.  Hmmmm, what would you do?

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