Filed under: Technology is Your Friend
I have a Kindle 2nd generation that I just love. It meets my reading needs and it has fun games. I was thrilled when a few months ago when the Westchester Public System started offering Kindle format books for loan. Before that I used the library website to take out e-books to read on my laptop. Everybody I know is trying to save money these days, and what better way than by utilizing your public library. I encourage everybody who has a phone, laptop, or reading device to get started.
- You need a valid library card; get the card out, you will need the number on your library card to log in.
- Your log in password will be either the last 4 digits of the phone number you gave when you signed up at the library, or four zeros
- Go to: http://westchester.lib.overdrive.com
- Log in with your library card # and password
- Go to the “My account” section first. Go to “Lending Periods” and choose the length of your loans. I put “14 days” since I get busy and want the extra time to finish a book. You can always go back and change this. Click “done”.
- Books come in different formats, here are all sorts of e-books, audio books, and kindle books. You want to have all the software you need on your device before you take out any books. The Disney Online Books do not require any special software. (These by the way are very cool. They are interactive and very entertaining.)
- Look on the left side of the page for “Digital Software” Click on “Overdrive Media Console” This will take you to http://www.overdrive.com/software/omc/
- Follow the directions for downloading the correct software for your device
- Go back to the library page http://westchester.lib.overdrive.com
- Go back to “Digital Software” and click on Adobe® Digital Editions which will take you to http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/
11. Follow the directions for downloading the correct software for your device there. You may need to give an email address to them, and register your device.
12. This step is optional. If you have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, you may want to download a Kindle app so you can read kindle format books. To do that go here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_200127470_ksupport_idevice?nodeId=200298460
13. Go back to the library and start browsing for books, video, and music for loan. You can use the “search” feature to find a particular book or author. Otherwise you can find books by just by using the links on the left side of the page that say things like “browse collections” or “audio books”. You can also click on a featured book on the front page, but these are often not available. Just like a library, not everything is available all the time. You will see a link next to the book that says “add to cart” if it is available. If you want the book click on that and follow the directions. You can take out up to 10 items at a time. It is like shopping on the Internet, you check out when you are finished.
14. If an item is not available and you want to be put on a waiting list, click on “place a hold”. They email you when it is ready to take out. You can put a hold on up to 10 books. You then have 72 hours to take the book out, or you get taken off the list.
15. If you are browsing you can also add a book to a wish list by clicking on “add to wish list” .You can put an unlimited number of books on your wish list.
16. What I do not like about the site is the “Continue Browsing” tab that appears when you select a book to take out. It does not take you back to the last page you were on; it will take you back to the home page.
17. There are all sorts of help and support features available if you have problems. Just click on Digital Help on the upper left side of the page.
Childhood obesity is an epidemic problem in the United States, and lack of exercise contributes to this issue. One goal of Physical Education in schools is to promote a life-long physical activity for health and fitness. Physical Education and other school based exercise programs are ways to battle obesity, but any physical activity can put students at risk for injury. In addition, not all children have full access to a PE program in school. Students with injuries or chronic disabilities are often prevented from fully participating in PE due to lack of appropriate adaptations. An educator’s goal may be for students to have a safe and effective Physical Education program, but children are more concerned with enjoying physical activity. If students are to develop enduring exercise habits, educators need to make sure that they use strategies that provide students with enjoyable learning activities. This includes teaching motor skills and the value of exercise for health and fitness. Is there technology that can be used to teach children to enjoy exercise? The Nintendo Wii, a video game platform, gives users an alternative to sedentary video games by providing an opportunity for exergaming. Exergaming is a term used to describe the use of video games in an exercise activity. The Nintendo Wii, has interactive exercise games including the Wii Sport and Wii Fit programs. The Wii has an interactive video game console that uses motion sensor controls to mimic sport activity such as tennis, boxing, bowling, baseball, and even hula hooping. It requires little space, works on most televisions, is customizable, and has various difficulty levels. The Wii can be used to encourage children, particularly those who are obese, sedentary, or disabled, to participate in exercise, if they find using it enjoyable.
In this study the Wii gaming device was investigated as a tool that can be used to promote engagement and enjoyment in physical activity for 4th and 5th grade students. Findings from a questionnaire and focus group showed that the children enjoyed the Wii games.
Review of Literature
Any time children are engaged in physical activity there is a risk for injury, so it is important for designers of any exercise program to have safety in mind. Injuries in Physical Education are on the rise; there has been a 150% increase in injuries during the period from 1997 to 2007. Elementary school-aged children (5-10 years old) had almost double the number of head injuries, compared with other injuries (Nelson, Alhajj, Yard, Comstock, & McKenzie, 2009).
Technology such as the Nintendo Wii is meant to entertain through interactive gaming, but can have unanticipated physical fitness benefits, and change attitudes toward exercise (Klein & Simmers, 2009). More than 83 percent of children in the U.S. have a video game console in their home, and those who have them play an average of 49 minutes a day (Roberts, Foeher, & Rideout, 2005). Integrating familiar technology into education, and using gaming in particular can engage students in (Prensky, 2002; Prensky, 2005). The Wii can capitalize on children’s motivation to play video games and provide a healthy alternative to regular video games, (Daley, 2009). Virtual simulation such as that provided by the Wii can be used to engage learners in new ways (Stewart, Ezell, DeMartino, Rifai, & Gatterson, 2006). The Wii can be used to motivate students in Physical Education and promote exercise enjoyment (Trout, & Christie, 2007). Playing active video games, such as the Wii, on a regular basis may have positive effects on children’s overall physical activity levels (Mhurchu, et.al., 2008). Studies give conflicting results in terms of the quality and intensity of exercise obtained through video game such as the Wii. One study shows that while playing virtual sports using the Wii, users expended more energy than if they had played a sedentary game, but not as much as playing the sport itself (Graves, Stratton, Ridgers, Cable, 2007). Other studies show that the Wii can be effective in promoting moderate intensity exercise that is comparable to walking or jogging (Graf, 2009; Maddison, et.al., 2007). Daley (2009) states that some video exercise games do promote the recommended levels of exercise, but more quality research is needed to determine the effectiveness and clinical relevance of using videogames as exercise tools.
A questionnaire called the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) is an exercise specific measure of enjoyment developed by Kendzierski, & DeCarlo (1991). The PACES questionnaire has been successfully used with children (Crocker, Bouffard, & Gessaroli, 1995) ,and modified to be more useful in children (Motl, et al., 2001). Since then the PACES has been shown to be a reliable and valid tool available to measure activity enjoyment in children (Paxton et. al., 2008; Moore, et. al., 2009).
Methodology and Findings
The purpose of this study is to provide information on how 4th and 5th grade students will perceive using the Nintendo Wii for exercise, particularly if they find it enjoyable. An after school program, the “Wii Club”, was formed and meet biweekly for three weeks. Students were randomly chosen to participate from 4th and 5th graders who did not achieve results that were in the healthy zone on a reliable physical fitness test administered in physical education class called a fitnessgram. The Cooper Institute fitnessgram has been shown to be a reliable measurement of student fitness. (Gehring, 2002; Mahar et.al., 1998).
During the “Wii Club” students had the opportunity to use the Wii to exercise. After having the opportunity to use the Wii, students attended a focus group, and also completed the PACES questionnaire regarding enjoyment of the activities they experienced. Both the questionnaire and focus group showed that the Wii provided an enjoyable exercise experience. Children enjoyed the non threatening approach to exercise. One child stated, “The Wii does not judge you if you make a mistake. You just move on and keep practicing”. The information from this study will be used to plan enjoyable and safe exercise programs for at risk students, the sedentary, the overweight, and disabled students.
References for my research can be found here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgf22spt_440d26jbjdk
Filed under: Technology is Your Friend | Tags: Health, Obesity, School Health Resources, School Nurse
A 2004 health survey of New York third-graders found that 21 percent were obese. Starting this school year, New York state is going to track obesity in schools outside NYC. I think it is great, School Nurse have been taking heights and weights on all our students for years. We use this information to counsel individual parents if their child has growth/weight issues or an eating disorder. Now there is an opportunity to use the information we collect and make a difference in the health of our entire population. I am hoping that we will be able to get funding for wellness programs and Health teachers at the elementary level.
In New Rochelle have database software called eschool plus that at this point is used mostly for managing demographic and attendance information on our students. There seems to be potential for using eschool for managing medical information, but at this point its usefulness is limited as far as the Nurses are concerned. My boss’s secretary, Ginny, is a genius, she figured out a way to use eschool to gather heights and weights for this mandate. The program automatically calculates BMIs, and can export them in Excel. Our department can meet the state requirements with some extra training and effort.
Some of the Nurses in our district got together today to firm up how we are going to gather, save, and submit the BMI information. Ginny whipped up a training program “BMIs in eschool for Dummies” that was great. she showed us how to do searches, and input growth information on individual students. I figured out how to enter growth information on an entire class on one screen, saving time. Ginny and I are going to post directions in a day or two.
