FootGaming with FootPOWR

It Can Be Good for You and Fun - All at the same time!

2009-11-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

According to Michael Rawlinson, director-general of the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers’ Association: “In the past, video games have had a bad press ... but today games are not only a mainstream pastime, they can even play their part in a well-balanced and healthy lifestyle. Today’s games can bring friends and families together, get people active and even connect gamers from the four corners of the world to play together.”
Take a look at this compelling slide show at CNN. Each slide explains a way that video game play can be good for your health. At FootGaming we take each of those benefits one step further by adding balance and physical activity to every game. Got a computer? Get a FootPOWR controller and start getting wellness benefits woven into your video game fun.

Footgaming + School = $$ Millions???

2009-10-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

This economic climate, the enormous budgetary challenges K-12 schools are facing and the worrisome state of PE and youth fitness may actually be the perfect storm for some cool solutions. There are a series of articles on examiner.com that lead to this week's story on "What School Wants to be a Millionaire."

Our hope is that you send in questions, comments and stories that might align with our creation of this ExerLearning Lab. Our goal: to share momentum and maybe even funds with you and your favorite school.
More here:

Health and PE: Kids Can Lead
With Kids, All Work Won't Work

2009-09-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

As we develop our various FootGaming communities, the one that is very exciting is the age 65-85+ group. One of our Footgamers, age 82, was already featured at MSNBC (she is the 6th from the left on the top row). We have heard a lot about the value of movement, exercise that includes gravity like walking and balance practice.

At the University of Florida researchers hope to learn even more about video games, movement and pain relief in a new study. They are offering women between the ages of 50 and 70 who have osteoarthritis of the knee the opportunity to try "exergaming" -- physical activity combined with interactive video games -- to see what effect it will have on their level of pain. We love to hear about this and hope that if any of our readers knows lead investigator Bridgett Rahim-Williams of UF's College of Public Health and Health Professions we would love to have a conversation with her.

Like Rahim-Williams, we have noticed that people will stay with an exergame longer if the game itself is fun and compelling. We use select casual games for a number of reasons:

Millions of people already play this type of game for upwards of 6 hours a week - and for some elderly gamers the daily hour total exceeds 4 hours
Great casual games like Peggle, Bejeweled. Bejeweled Twist, Mahjong and card games are especially motivating
Adding physical activity to computer game time is easy with the FootPOWR controller

Study participants must be African-American or Caucasian, between the ages of 50 and 70, and have a diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis. For more information, call 352-273-6091.

High tech Kids Can Lead Health-Learning

2009-09-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Healthy eating meets the gaming world. The British Columbia Dairy Foundation (BCDF) along with Registered Dietitians have launched a new video game to teach students in grades six to eight about Canada’s Food Guide and how to make healthy meal choices.
Titanium Chef is an interactive, web-based role playing game that teaches students how to classify foods into the four foods groups and determine appropriate serving sizes. What's cool is that it works seamlessly with the FootPOWR - a computer peripheral that adds activity to "mouse" input.
“The idea for Titanium Chef came from research and our own observations that show students today respond positively to interactive learning,” said Kenton Delisle, a lead nutrition educator with BCDF, in a release.
Another free online site that provides a whole quiver of fun and educational "healthy food choices" games is Playnormous. The entire family will enjoy the great game play - and everyone is sure to discover something new. Send your students home with these links to extend the healthy learning into leisure time.
Our digital kids can help create health and fitness resources on their own - and add valuable resources to your curriculum. You don't need to understand how to use the technology first. Let your students lead and mentor you. And yes - all these tools are online and FREE!

• Scratch - an easy to learn programming language for ages 8 and up. Programming is simply one of the best learning experiences for students. It builds logic, higher order thinking skills, and really, it's just plain fun! When the games have a health or fitness theme everyone wins.

• Prezi - tired of boring old one-slide-at-a-time slideshows? Try zooming instead. If some of your students have "done PowerPoint" - let them try Prezi. It might make you dizzy, but the kids should pick it up pretty quickly!

• Zamar - easy online file conversion. Not only does Zamzar convert document and graphic file formats, but also movie formats. It even can save YouTube and other online movies to files for use at a later date.

Let us see what your students create. Send us the link or share your story in the comments section

2009-09-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

I sent in a summary of “not your average gamer” to MSN and they posted it as a selection today. YES! It is our 82 year old champion FootGamer enjoying Bejeweled Twist by PopCap. The pictures rotate but she was 6th from the left top row the last time I checked. Look for the trim woman in the pretty blue print STANDING and smiling while using the FootPOWR.

She's hoping you'll vote for her - and read how she gets lots of balance practice while playing her favorite games.

For more ways to get Fit2Play check out http://www.footgaming.com/Arcade

Video games Make You "Fit2Play"

2009-09-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

For many, the connection between video games and "real" health benefits must be based in solid research. Recently, Marina Papastergiou from the University of Thessaly in Greece published this literature review of recent scientific articles in the journal Computers & Education. She focused on those relating to computer games and their utility in physical education and health education.
You can find her abstract online but a summary can be made as below:
Gaming can be of potential benefit to students in the realms of health and physical education There is reason to increase study of exergaming as a genre because its potential is real. With Footgaming we work hard to connect the physical activity and fitness opportunity gained when using the FootPOWR peripheral with the best games. The bonus - FootPOWR plays hundreds, even thousands, of already-popular games and virtual world activities. The connection of active exergaming with games people of all ages already love, know and play for 6-11+ hours a week is key to long term inclusion of activity with computer video game play. Take it from Ernest Adams, author of Fundamentals of Game Design: the most common fatal mistake that befalls game designers is to put the message before the game.
Citation:

Papastergiou, M. (2009). Exploring the potential of computer and video games for health and physical education: A literature review. Computers & Education, 53(3), 603-622.

Solitaire As an Energy-Booster

2009-09-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

About 20 percent of the 47 million gamers who played computer "card games" Solitaire came back to the game at least once during the first seven months of 2009. Cost is not really a factor, as Nielsen found the same return rate amongst people who used the free version of Solitaire or the Great Escapes Solitaire paid game.
Solitaire was not the only game of interest, though. Users also reported that they sat at their computer for 6-11+ hours weekly, on average, playing Bejeweled, Chessmaster Challenge, Chuzzle, Scrabble Champion Edition, Text Twist, and countless others. Card games were most popular, played by 88 percent of casual gamers, followed by puzzle games at 9.5 percent.
How much energy could we generate if this collective 47 million casual gamers chose to spend even 1/3 of of the average of 31 minutes they spend per game as Footgamers? If ten minutes of game time per each half hour of game play was FootGaming - that's 2-4 hours of added exergaming active fun per gamer per week. How many liters of brain-enhancing oxygen, energizing endorphins and just plain FUN would that generate?
"Casual games are very popular, especially in this economic environment, and they enjoy a broader audience than typical, hardcore PC games," Brad Raczka, marketing analyst for Nielsen's games division, said in a statement. "Not only does casual gaming draw in traditional 'gamers' such as teens and young adults, but also prime advertising targets such as stay-at-home moms, retired people and younger kids." For anyone who's emerged foggy-headed and lethargic after several hours at a computer - give FootGaming a try. There are hundreds of your favorite casual games that are excellent as FootGaming play.

Balance - The Under-rated Fitness Gem

2009-09-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

The FootPOWR computer peripheral that plays almost any computer game is a great balance tool. We have found a number of games with varying degrees of balance challenge. Check out our summary of Chuzzle and Bejeweled played the FootPOWR way.

Here's an 82 year old demonstrating how she practices her balance for 30-60 minutes a day with Bejeweled and Bejeweled Twist - games she already played on her computer the conventional way. Anyone can choose to practice balance with their favorite games.

Whether it's for rehab, keeping your balance finely tuned or for helping students to improve reading, math and cognitive success, take a look at the valuable ExerLearning and FootGaming information on the FootGaming website. Your specific question will be quickly answered if you contact us.

FootGaming with Bookworm Adventure

2009-08-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Not only is Bookworm Adventures fun, but many have found it helps improve language skills. I started playing Bookworm Adventures roughly a year ago now and was mesmerized by the challenging gameplay and engaging personalities of the cast. The title’s core mechanic tasks the players with building words to defeat a string of fiendish monsters.
This foundation is wrapped in lite RPG elements and a narrative, which push you forward and diversify the progression where needed. Together, these simple, distilled elements make for an enthralling title which is not only immensely enjoyable, but significantly aids in language development. We have used it in ExerLearning and FootGaming classrooms in grades 4-8 with great success. Teachers and students alike love Bookworm.
BWA is rather educational or at least a requires a significant degree of brain power. When asked, “Is Bookworm first an enjoyment game or an educational game?” Tysen Henderson, of PopCap replied [in an interview with Daniel Johnson of GameSetWatch] “We always design our games with fun as the overriding goal. We never set out to make an educational game, nor have we ever modified a game in development in order to make it more educational.
Turns out if you make a really solid, fun word game it will be educational simply by virtue of the fact that constructing words or dissecting words requires you to consider the structure of words, and ultimately push the boundaries of your word-building abilities in order to play the game as successfully as possible.”
We’ve found that PopCap games are helping students with improved spelling and vocabulary. The physical activity of FootGaming enhances the benefits of playing Bookworm, Bookworm Adventures, Bonnie’s Bookstore or Word Harmony.
Why are “educational/edutainment games” so often, simply just NOT fun? The reason is very simple: when you set out to make an educational game, or attempt to add educational elements to an existing game, you immediately veer from the fun path. You change the focus of the game, and the audience to which it will appeal. PopCap is all about making their games as fun as they can be for as wide an audience as possible. The fact that 7-year olds and 97-year olds enjoy the Bookworm series equally is a reflection of this.
Families that play together can learn together. BWA appeals to almost everyone over the age of say, 8. Adding FootPOWR to the game allows more brain and fitness benefits to be wrapped in very cool game play. Try it now!

Age 60+ Gamers Gain Balance with FootPOWR

2009-08-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hunched over a computer, Doris played bejeweled for hours. She had been an avid fan of PopCap's Bejeweled for years, but after noticing that her balance was not what is used to be, she decided to get some balance training each day. Luckily, she got a FootPOWR for her 82nd birthday.

By moving her feet on the FootPOWR she can move the gems in the game. It's been so much fun that she has added Peggle and bejeweled Twist to her game collection. Almost any game played on the computer can be played with FootPOWR.

While not a MahJong player, many women love to play that with FootPOWR. Match 3, puzzle and word video games are now a way to add 10-30 minute sessions of low-moderate activity to any day.

The balance piece is the BIG BONUS! When a person finds themselves tripping and wobbling more than they'd like during regular life activities, spending time each day balancing on one foot and moving feet in patterns is great practice. Doris likes to keep a solid, heavy chair nearby for added support as needed.

Have you got a Footgaming story to share? Send us pictures and your story to FootGaming@gmail.com

FootGaming Can Enhance "Brain Game" Effects

2009-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

A new study from Lifespan that appeared in Alzheimer's & Dementia evaluated the research to date on the impact of cognitive training on the healthy elderly population. Their review of all relevant randomized, controlled trials shows no evidence that structured cognitive interventions or "brain exercise" programs delay or slow progression of cognitive changes in healthy elderly. Such programs are now an $80 million per year industry. There is much research on the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation strategies among elderly who already experience mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease, as well as on the positive impact of physical exercise. The researchers, however, wanted to evaluate current research that would focus on the impact of cognitive interventions in the healthy elderly population.
According to senior author Peter J. Snyder, PhD, vice president of research for Lifespan, and a professor of clinical neurosciences (neurology) at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, the researchers determined that the last meta-analysis performed on studies of healthy elderly and memory training was published in 1992. Since then, the definition of cognitive training has expanded and media attention has sparked an increase in public awareness with more and more Americans trying to curtail the effects of aging. As a result, Americans are now expected to spend $80 million this year on brain exercise products, compared to $2 million in 2005.
Based on a quantitative literature review they concluded that there was no evidence indicating that structured cognitive intervention programs had an impact on the progression of dementia in the healthy elderly population. Snyder says, "The brain aging products sold today can be a financial drain, decrease participation in more proven effective lifestyle interventions, like exercise."
To us, this criticism is unnecessarily harsh. Why the all or none approach?
Many of the “brain game” companies provide carefully studied claims and expectations for their customers, but that isn’t true in every case. Aggressive marketing claims are creating confusion and skepticism, resulting in a distracting controversy between two misleading extremes: (a) “buying product XYZ can rejuvenate your brain Y years” or (b) “those products don’t work; just do one more crossword puzzle.”
There is strong scientific evidence that being physically active every day preserves cognitive function. Because cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes are both known to contribute to mental decline exercising and taking other steps to maintain heart health and a healthy weight will help keep the brain healthy, too. Why not tie people’s love of great games, including many types of casual games, to physical activity and get the best of solutions?
At FootGaming we can add exercise and balance training to almost any computer game, including the “brain games” so many people choose to practice. Today’s technology and computer peripherals like FootPOWR provide the opportunity to connect brain cognition and productivity-enhancing physical activity to casual games, puzzles, word games and even specifically designed “brain games.” Reducing stress and improving mood are proven results of casual games and physically active play. Casual games plus physical activity can re-define what “wellness gaming” can be. Take a look at FootGaming in action at www.footgaming.com. Our “Family” section has a vast area for the age 55+ casual gamer. Play with your feet!

FootGaming World Tour Challenge

2009-07-19T08:54:00.001-07:00

In a dark noisy room full of Rock Band, WoW, Mario Brothers and all things XBox we found the perfect spot to launch our World Tour of FootGaming Tournaments. The place is Cat 6 in Bend OR, the date in August 6-8 and the buzz is growing.The newest video game station to hit Bend's Cat 6 video lounge is the FootGaming version of PopCap's Bejeweled Twist and Zuma. (http://www.popcap.com/) While millions of people play casual games every month - Cat 6 is hosting the first tournament where the gamers "play with their feet!"
If you haven't yet experienced PopCap's newest version of Bejeweled, Bejeweled Twist, you're in for a dazzling experience. Spin and match explosive gems for shockwaves of fun. Rotate jewels to set up electrifying combos, outwit surprising obstacles like Locks and Bombs, and create high-voltage Flame and Lightning gems. Sure it's fun to play while sitting and moving your mouse - but take it to the max with FootPOWR.
Cat 6 gamers will have two weeks to practice their moves before the August 6-7 game days. On August 8, the top 10 Footgamers will go head to head with Bejeweled Twist in an elimination series that will leave just one Footgamer standing. besides the honor of being the winner of the Global Premier FotGaming Tournament there will be prizes galore, including the home version of theFootPOWR. In the Cat 6 tournament gamers will get bonus scores for each 100 steps they complete as they play Bejewled Twist - fleet feet could break ties and launch our winner into the winner's circle. Slated for Fall: ClearChoice Employee FootPOWR Games, Athletic Club of Bend Teen Tourney "Play with your feet" and the newest addition: Double Elimination FootGaming for fitness club members aged 25-50.Contact us for more info: genfit at bendbroadband.com

FootGaming to a Healthier Brain and Body

2009-07-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

It just takes a quick visit to the FootGaming website to discover dozens of reasons that FootGaming helps with cognition, balance, energy and a healthy brain. At school, in the workplace and at home you can easily add calorie-using activity to your favorite computer game fun. We have measured calorie use by FootGamers aged 9-87 in the range of 150-350 calories an hour as they played their way through Peggle, Zuma, Chuzzle and Bejeweled Twist. Little did we know what a game-changing opportunity this could be for gamers in need of a healthier body weight.
Carol McCall — a research actuary at Humana — culled through national health care data and the data from Humana’s members, and here is what she found. On average, the annual per-pound cost of being overweight — that is, the added cost per added pound of the overweight and the obese — is $19.39. The cost increases with age. For 25-year-olds, it averages $10.25 for every overweight pound. By age 64, it increases to $26.32. (On average, overweight people are 29 pounds overweight; the obese are 82 pounds overweight.) For someone age 25, the added annual health care cost is $209 for the overweight and $960 for the obese. By age 64, this grows to $610 extra for the overweight and $2,300 for the obese. Specifically Humana estimates these costs at the following for 2009: · $19.39 in added health care costs for every overweight pound; · $1,037.64 for every overweight individual; · $127 billion added to the national health care bill. Why this impacts the national healthcare crisis There are more than 122 million overweight and obese Americans between the ages of 20 and 65. On average, their additional health care costs are $534 per year for an overweight person and $1,614 for an obese person. Those costs add up to a $127 billion crisis. The increase in obesity prevalence – going from 23 percent to 33 percent between 1994 and 2004 – added $34 billion to the annual health care bill. A person who is 25 and obese today, and remains obese until they’re 65, will average $179,000 more in health care costs (in 2009 dollars, assuming health care inflation of 4 percent a year) over those 40 years. There is a way to get out of this national problem The good news is that Humana’s data also indicates that just a small change – a reduction of 276 calories a day for the overweight – makes a big difference. Cutting that little from each day’s intake would start moving millions of Americans from the category of overweight to healthy. By adding a 10-15 minute Footgaming break throughout the day it's easy to use 276 calories having fun and re-energizing. It's also tough to snack or drink a soda while Footgaming. For most people this means that mindless calorie intake is easily reduced as well. Start FootGaming today!

Cool Game Design Contest - Add FootPOWR

2009-06-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

Recently a team of 6th graders from Bend, Oregon entered a state-wide game design contest for grades 6-12. They came in second.
While their game was really cool - they got a LOT of points for their creativer user-interface. They played the game using a FootPOWR peripheral. Horray for the team! And their creative coach Sarah C.
Here is a chance for you to do a similar thing. Once you have a FootPOWR you can re-invent the game play of any game that uses a mouse or select keyboard input. Learn more here.
Please share your stories after you enter this contest at the Learning Games Network.
(This is from Henry Jenkins' blog) From the Learning Games Network (LGN) comes an interesting inspiration for user-generated content. A recently established 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, established by former MIT CMS Director of Special Projects Alex Chisholm, the MIT Education Arcade's Eric Klopfer and Scot Osterweil, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Kurt Squire, LGN was formed to spark innovation in the design and use of video games for learning. In addition to bringing together an integrated network of educators, designers, media producers, and academic researchers who all have a hand in creating and distributing games for learning, they're also bringing forth opportunities for youth to contribute to conversations, research, and development. It's a no brainer for today's students to share their perspectives in a more participatory role as the future of education is shaped.The first of two efforts is a video contest, notable in its invitation to students to help inform educators and designers with their own thoughts on video games as tools for learning. Requiring entrants to create their own two-to-three minute YouTube videos, the contest offers two themes from which students can choose.(1) The first challenge asks them to describe an "aha moment" they've personally encountered: "If you've experienced that spark of realization, that moment of epiphany between an idea from a game and something you learned -- at school, at home, or anywhere else -- tell us about it in your video."(2) The second puts students in the role of teacher or coach, asking them to describe anidea for a learning game they would employ to help others learn: "What kind of game would it be? What would it help players learn? Why would your video game be a better way to learn something? In your video, tell us what challenges players would face and how they would learn from them."Contest rules can be found at http://http://www.aha-moment.org/. Students must be 13 years old and above to enter; there are separate categories for middle school, high school, and post-secondary students. Thanks to sponsorship by AMD, the first place prize for each category is a 16-inch HP Pavilion dv6 series notebook, powered by an AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor. Deadline for submissions is midnight on July 31, 2009.

Strong Voice on the Hill

2009-06-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to meet Julia Loughran, a Vice President at iConecto – Gaming4Health.com, at the fifth Games for Health conference last week in Boston. Her session on advergaming caught my interest. More than that, her understanding of how exergaming can help us inspire more people to "choose to move" during formerly sedentary experiences perked my interest.

Take the time to read a bit on her blog - here's a bit from a recent post:

When it comes right down to it, our health and the reform of our health behaviors rests in our own hands. We have the tools, the information, and now hundreds of health eGames that can help us live healthier and longer lives. Do we need to wait for the U.S. government to prescribe these games (which I understand will take years of slogging through regulatory barriers and miles of bureaucratic paperwork), or can we all just go out and start taking advantage of the great stuff already out there?

I agree wholeheartedly! We can all choose to move, make small choices that bring long term (even fun-to-acquire) change in health, quality of life and abundance of energy.

Please take the time to become a follower of Julia's blog (and this one too!) Our collective voices can create powerful momentum - one story at a time.

Choose to Move, FootPOWRed Health

2009-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Are we making unconscious decisions about our health (and that of our families) via the butt-grabbing inertia of our desk-chair, couch, driver's seat and wherever we choose to interact with "screens?" Kathy E. Read recently wrote a thought-provoking piece in the Modesto Bee (4/26/2009). She's taking a strong stance on our collective US choice to eat far from the "heart-smart" ideal and to sit, drive and couch rather than choosing to move.

While a great deal of what I write about in this and the Exerlearning blog connects physical activity with loads of benefits for health, fitness and learning, Kathy adds strong impetus for employers to consider the "choose to move" option, "The U.S. economic output takes a staggering hit when chronically ill workers take sick days for maladies that might have been prevented by eating healthier and engaging in daily exercise.

Their lack of commitment to wellness reduces the available supply of labor, drives up the cost of goods and services, and slashes billions off the gross domestic product. Consider just a few of the deadly consequences:
By midcentury, the preventable impact of the seven deadliest chronic diseases -- diabetes, pulmonary conditions such as asthma, hypertension, mental disorder, heart disease, cancer and stroke -- will cost our country $6 trillion a year.
More than half of all Americans -- some 153 million men, women and children -- have at least one chronic disease.
All told, chronic diseases cost the U.S. economy $1.3 trillion annually and wreak untold anguish and disruption in people's lives. In California alone, the tab is more than $100 billion a year."

If you already suffer from one of these chronic ailments you can attest to the impact it has on your life. Do you still have plenty of reasons for not exercising daily and not choosing a diet full of good-for-you choices?

As I bring the FootPOWR pad to various workplaces I find an array of cultures. Some like the one at ClearChoice in Bend, OR led by a charismatic spark plug, Cynthia Kane, provide daily inspiration, team building activity, energetic walking programs and success! (Do not miss this video)

Other might have a full fitness facility on site, with dust and fewer than a handful of employees enjoying it regularly.

We hope to build a bridge to more activity at work and at home via FootGaming and our resources. There's no cost to join FootGaming for home, school and workplace. Discover a pure-fun way to "choose to move," and set our national "health" snowball rolling.

Kids love FootGaming

Play Casual Games at Work and Save $$$

Given the Chance Would We Choose Activity?

FootPOWR in the Workplace

Give the Detectives a New Mouse!

2009-04-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

All the projects I have worked on over the past decade have been focused on connection beneficial physical activity to the mostly sedentary experience of playing video games - especially those delivered by the computer. Generation FIT started the exploration, followed by ExerLearning, and finally the FootPOWR peripheral launched FootGaming.

Video games are a major part of youth culture. Kaiser Permanente developed a game that teaches kids about physical activity. It's a great place to begin - right where kids want to be. I have played "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective." It's engaging, full of solid information and has games and graphics that kids find compelling.
Kaiser Permanente supports the pediatric recommendation of no more than one to two hours of “screen time” per day, which is why the game automatically shuts off after 20 minutes and reminds kids to get active. This engaging game, with messages about healthy eating and physical activity developed by Kaiser Permanente’s weight-management experts, is an innovative method that hasn’t been tried before. At FootGaming, we can make the game even more innovative.

All junior food detectives get secret training on how to eat right and exercise. They can investigate fun games like Whack A Snack, Soccer, and Zap the TV. The conventional way to enjoy these games is to use the mouse to click the interactive elements in this game.

FootGamers play a wildly different way. By simply plugging the FootPOWR peripheral into the computer's USB port, the gamer can stand and move their feet to move the cursor on the game screen.

Suddenly physical activity happens simultaneously with the game play. Because the FootPOWR pad automatically logs every step the players generate, gamers can see how many steps, miles and calorie loss they log during the game play. It make good sense to play this innovative game collection with physical activity.
We invite your comments and questions. If you are a teacher or a family already enjoying The Amazing Food Detective, we'd love to see photos of you playing the FootPOWR way! E-mail us what you'd like to share.

Benefits of FootGaming in the Classroom and Computer Lab (and at home)

2009-04-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our bodies are very much a part of all our learning and learning is not an isolated "brain" function. Every nerve and cell is a network contributing to our intelligence and our learning capability. Exercise triggers the release of BDNF a brain-derived neurotropic factor that enables one neuron to communicate with another. Students who sit for longer than twenty minutes experience a decrease in the flow of BDNF. FootGaming is one way students can trigger sharper learning skills. ExerLearning can save you time and FootGaming delivers ExerLearning without adding additional lesson plans or time burdens.
Crossing the midline integrates brain hemispheres to enable the brain to organize itself. When students perform cross lateral activities via use of FootPOWR peripherals, blood flow is increased in all parts of the brain making it more alert and energized for stronger, more cohesive learning. Fun- always a motivator, we can easily add student-incentive and fun to your learning environment.
Examples of how FootGaming via a FootPOWR peripheral connected to a classroom PC can increase both physical activity, fitness and academic success are as follows:
Bilateral movement; Opposition; Spatial Awareness; Movement in different levels; Proprioception; Jumping and Landing; Dynamic balance; Patterning; Spatial concepts These concepts aid the brain in placing words on a page, reading words from left to right, and writing patterns in sequence.
Coordination of the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic senses; Eye tracking for visual-motor control; Development of core muscles to strengthen neural pathways; Sequencing of complex motor skills; Patterning; Problem solving; Directionality. These concepts aid the brain in following the flow of words, sequencing patterns in math and reading, solving problems, and sorting information.
Vestibular Development: Development of inner ear to coordinate of the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic senses; Spatial Awareness; Body control; Dynamic balance; Locomotor skill development; These concepts aid the brain in putting numbers or letters in sequence, discriminating different sounds, placing letters and words in a page, and writing letters in proper proportion.
Tracking of a moving object; Eye-hand and eye-foot coordination; Development of visual fields; Cross lateralization; Patterning; Targets; Joint compression; Dynamic balance; Sequencing of patterns; These concepts aid the brain in processing thought, organizing thoughts in sequence, discriminating likenesses and differences, discriminating sounds, and advancing to higher level thinking.
Higher level of dynamic balance; Complex motor control; Practice and reinforcement of academic content while balancing and moving actively-whole body. Theses concepts aid the brain in anchoring information and improved memory retrieval, preparing the brain to take a test, and combining many skills for higher level thinking.

Sk8ter Families and Active Leisure Fun

2009-04-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Battling a national childhood obesity crisis, educators and curriculum creators have been working hard to structure physical education around activities kids can take home with them and do after school in lieu of spending hours texting and surfing Web sites virtual world and social networking sites.

That philosophy inspired both ExerLearning and FootGaming, Generation FIT and a decade worth of work by fitness leader and educator, Judy Shasek. With young people (and their parents) sitting and enjoying online and computer-based leisure fun for upwards of 9 hours a week, physical activity needs to meet the "digital native' generation where they spend their time. By simply adding a FootPOWR peripheral to a PC adding 30-90 minutes of activity daily is child's play - quite literally!
"Kids are more likely to stay active if they're introduced to a sport or activity they like," said Eric Klassen, who cofounded Skate Pass, the Colorado-based firm that helped start a skateboarding curriculum program used in many schools around the country. Right on Eric!For about $3000 equipment for 20 students can be purchased, often with matching community grants. That's a far cry from the usual reaction to skateboarding teens in a town. It is critical that as we invest in school-based activity programs we consider what kids - and their families- self-select as leisure fun. By adding physical activity to that time we make a huge step forward in the "energy in/energy out" equation that threatens our collective national wellness.

"We're seeing much more [of families skateboarding together] at municipal skate parks," said Miki Vuckovich, executive director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, based in Vista, Calif. The foundation supports the creation of public skate parks in low-income communities across the nation.
"People in their 30s or 40s, many of them grew up skateboarding, and many of them are bringing their kids. We've had to adjust our strategy," he said. "Rather than presenting skateboarding as a youth-oriented activity, we're showing that it's a family activity."
He said a generation of skaters who came to the sport during an explosion of its popularity in the 1980s still consider skateboarding a lifestyle, not a hobby. "Young people today are being introduced to it as readily as soccer or baseball," Vuckovich said. "It's become part of the mainstream. Today, we have parents, business owners, city council members who are skateboarders. As a result, more skateboard parks are being built."
He cited statistics saying that 65 public skate parks existed in the United States in 1996. Today, there are around 2,500.

What does your family love to do for active fun - and what healthy choices in your eating might that inspire? Even if you simply replace a sugary soda with a nice glass of water after your active fun you can save more than 200 calories as a bonus to the active play. (Great RWJ article you'll enjoy) Choice and balance - please share your story with us.

Put Down the Pencil - Pick up the joystick

2009-04-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

The financial crisis' hammerlock on our country has forced Americans to swallow a bitter reality: Our future as the world's innovation leader depends on the nation's ability to take bold steps to change how we prepare the workforce of tomorrow.
In recent years, while countries like China, the U.K. and India have raced ahead in embracing the digital age, the U.S. has fallen behind in promoting the mastery of interactive tools that promote literacy; science and technology, and creativity.
We can take the lead again - by putting video games (yes, video games) in far more classrooms. Research has shown that interactive game play is among the most powerful drivers for learning the skills children need for 21st century success. At FootGaming.com we harness great game play to brain-enhancing physical activity to make the most effective use of both important interventions.
Virtual game worlds such as Webkinz and Club Penguin and console games like Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero occupy millions of young children's time every day.
Indeed, three-quarters of American children play computer and video games outside of school. This is a learning opportunity they intuitively understand - and appreciate.
We have a choice: Fight the tide by grousing about how pervasive video games are, or build upon the many beneficial ways they're rewiring the way kids think and engage the world.
Well-designed games can reinforce the learning of important knowledge and skills and help make kids' minds sharper and more nimble.
They can also connect with kids who are otherwise among the hardest to reach. According to Michael Levine and Ann My Thai of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, "A dirty little secret we ignore at our peril is that kids who are most likely to become high school dropouts are frequently avid and accomplished game players, bored to tears by the current educational approach. " (For their full article click here)
We know. Digital games and mobile technologies are challenging to manage in schools; they can be a distraction when a teacher is trying to command attention. But the answer is not to ban them outright. The answer is to integrate them wisely.
We should start by introducing digital innovation in every school. Teachers are resistant to using digital technologies because they cannot teach what they do not know. Why not integrate new digital games from research-tested educational media programs such as Sesame Workshop's "The Electric Company" to improve children's essential literacy and math skills and to attack the weak performance of English-language learners across subjects. According to Levine and Thai, "Games and simulations perfected by our military institutions and medical schools could be adapted to teach higher-level content in science and technology as well as world languages - all areas where the U.S. has fallen behind. If we can bring games into a new learning equation, we will begin rebuilding schools as engines for economic renewal. It is time to play for keeps. "
We at ExerLearning and FootGaming could not agree more.
Levine and Thai are respectively the executive director and assistant director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

Physical Activity Might help Students Pay Attention

2009-04-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

Although we have seen students return to their school assignments after a session with ExerLearning or Footgaming interventions ready to focus and pay attention, this article adapted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign really proves the point.
Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology and community health and the director of the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory at Illinois, and Darla Castelli, professors of kinesiology and community health, have found that physical activity may increase students' cognitive control -- or ability to pay attention -- and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests. “The goal of the study was to see if a single acute bout of moderate exercise was beneficial for cognitive function in a period of time afterward,” Hillman said. [i] For each of three testing criteria, researchers noted a positive outcome linking physical activity, attention and academic achievement. Study participants were 9-year-olds (eight girls, 12 boys) who performed a series of stimulus-discrimination tests known as flanker tasks, to assess their inhibitory control.“What we found is that following the acute bout of walking, children performed better on the flanker task,” Hillman said. “They had a higher rate of accuracy, especially when the task was more difficult. Along with that behavioral effect, we also found that there were changes in their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) – in these neuroelectric signals that are a covert measure of attentional resource allocation.”In an effort to see how performance on such tests relates to actual classroom learning, researchers next administered an academic achievement test. The test measured performance in three areas: reading, spelling and math. The researchers noted better test results following exercise. The following should bring smiles to the ace of hard-working teachers concerned about reading achievement and scores.“When we assessed it, the effect was largest in reading comprehension,” Hillman said. In fact, he said, “If you go by the guidelines set forth by the Wide Range Achievement Test, the increase in reading comprehension following exercise equated to approximately a full grade level.Given the preliminary study’s positive outcomes on the flanker task, ERP data and academic testing, study co-author Darla Castelli believes these early findings could be used to inform useful curricular changes. We suggest ExerLearning, particularly the easy-to-implement FootPOWR computer peripheral for school personnel interested in integrating physical activity into the curriculum.[i] Hillman, C., Castelli, D., Physical Activity May Strengthen Children's Ability To Pay Attention. ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) accessed http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331183800.htm April 2009.

Video Victims?

2009-03-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

This poster is from a UK advertising coalition Change4Life - with an online resource with a goal of inspiring healthy choices. Members of the coalition are large candy, snack and "fizzy beverage" companies - and they are pointing the finger at video games as a large part of the youth overweight issue.

We have been working hard for seven years to establish the concept of "choice." Daily choices make us fit or fat, lean or lazy, active or sedentary - not video game, not a piece of cake or one soda. More than two years of working with a youth non-profit geared to empowering the youth voice on healthy choices via video media taught me that kids are endlessly creative and open to adding activity and smart choices in their lives. We simply need to open as many doors as possible.

The multi-billion dollar computer game industry is not the enemy. Casual games and virtual worlds can be our allies in the process of adding activity to sedentary lives at school, at home and in the workplace.

How? We launched the FootPOWR peripheral as one CHOICE for active computer game play. We made it simple, we made is affordable and we made it work with thousands of existing games that people play for upwards of 9 hours a week.

From age 6 to our oldest FootGamer, age 87 tomorrow - it's fun. You can become a FootGamer in under 2 minutes of game play practice - the image of a young person playing video games on a computer does not need to look sad, tired and unfit. Using the very same games people already play - with no change except the plug in peripheral device - video game play can add activity, balance practice and active life choice!

The FootPOWR even has an automatic logging device that measures how many miles you go and how many calories you use. With FootGaming, points and status in the game is not the only reward! Take a look - you'll be glad you did.

Games Gain Momentum in Schools

2009-03-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

A recent article in the NYDailyNews.com is right on target in respect to the need for schools to take a closer look at the value of digital game technology to 21st century learning. The article entitled, "Students, put down those pencils and pick up joysticks," by Michael Levine and Ann My Thai is well worth a careful read - then share it with your friends - either teachers or parents.

While countries like China, the U.K. and India have raced ahead in embracing the digital age, the U.S. has fallen behind in promoting the mastery of interactive tools that promote literacy; science and technology, and creativity. We can take the lead again - by putting video games in far more classrooms. We can take the same care in selecting these games as we do with any other learning resource - but we also need to be aware that the expertise to make those decisions could come from surprising resources both in and out of "school." Digitally-aware teachers, students, the military and even science and business game-experts could have incredible reach and positive impact in our K-12 environment.

The article states that three-quarters of American children play computer and video games outside of school. This is a learning opportunity they intuitively understand - and appreciate.
We at FootGaming and ExerLearning are working hard to build upon the many beneficial ways games are rewiring the way kids think and engage the world. We are doing it in a way that can be integrated into today's busy schedule - while adding the physical activity students need and schools have trouble providing.

Games connect with kids who are otherwise among the hardest to reach. After five years field testing Generation FIT we know that students who are most likely to become high school dropouts are frequently avid and accomplished game players. he use of game-based learning opportunities increase their attendance, engagement and leadership at school.
We know. Digital games and mobile technologies are challenging to manage in schools; they can be a distraction when a teacher is trying to command attention. But the answer is not to ban them outright. The answer is to integrate them wisely. We provide the tools to help you do that: Footgaming, Exerlearning and Generation FIT.

We can help you with digital innovation. NO matter where your personal level of game and digital expertise might be today, there are students and easy to implement programs to support you. Contact us today.

50 Million Families Can't Be Wrong

2009-03-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

Research done by PopCap games states that over 50 million families play casual games with younger family members. We are not surprised. Casual games like Bejeweled, Peggle, Bookworm Adventure and Chuzzle are compelling to all ages. With the need for fewer sedentary habits and more active time for all family members - we love to watch FootGaming enter the casual gaming realm. Take some time to watch Footgaming in action http://www.footgaming.com/ - video is on the home page

FootGamers Enter "World of Goo"

2009-02-25T06:32:00.000-08:00

One of the first FootGamers (age 9) to play World of Goo demonstrated why his prowess at the "Ivy Towers" level was so beyond the rest of us. Just like the ants on the left side of the picture, he proceeded to brace against the door frame with his feet and hands and scuttle up to the top. Mom was not pleased!

World of Goo is a puzzle game with a strong emphasis on physics. The game is built around the idea of creating large structures using balls of goo. The game is divided into five chapters, each containing several levels. Each level has its own graphic and musical theme, giving it unique atmosphere. There is also a bonus meta-game called World of Goo Corporation, where the objective is to build the highest tower using goo balls which the player collected through the course of the game. Players from all over the world can compete, as the height of the tower and number of goo balls used are being constantly uploaded to the 2D Boy server.
Yopur goal is to get your goo balls into the pipe. To succeed, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes or cliffs.

This is very compelling fun when played with a conventional mouse - but it is an enthralling SPORT when played with your feet.

The coolest part of the FootGaming was the realization that we needed to custom-map the FootPOWR pad. With left and right mouse buttons in the usual left and right top square it was tough to drop and drag as required by World of Goo. The collection of three 9 year olds and an 11 year old quickly discovered the best configuration. You'll have to check out the Footgaming.com area called ClubDigiFootG to learn more.